By Nature Near, by Habit Far Apart

answered by Analects of Confucius, Yang Huo

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🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

Stray Dog (1949)

dir. Akira Kurosawa · Japan

How different are the pursuer and the pursued? When two who passed through the same wounds and the same hunger split — one a keeper, one a breaker — what made the split: inborn nature, or the matter of which path each chose?

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

Seeing one broken on a different path, do I too easily draw a line: 'I am a different kind of person'?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

性相近習相遠

性相近也習相遠也

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

By nature people are close to one another; by habit they grow far apart.

💡 TL;DR

Confucius said our natures are not far apart; what divides us is not the inborn seed but habits worn in day by day.

📝The Classic Answers

Confucius said our natures are not far apart; what divides us is not the inborn seed but habits worn in day by day. Once I know the pursuer and the pursued passed through the same wounds, the line 'I am different from him' is not so easily drawn. The fork where he fell is one I too could have passed. Before pushing another's ruin off as the business of a different kind of person, I choose to look honestly at what it was that divided us.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

If you drew a line today — 'I am not like that person' — ask whether nature or habit made the line.

📖 Classic Source: Analects of Confucius, Yang Huo. Ancient text in the public domain; rendered and interpreted independently by ONGO.
The film is honored as an equal questioner; its plot is rendered only as a universal dilemma. The classic source is an ancient text (Public Domain), and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.