This is a 2003 South Korean film about a Buddhist
monastery which floats on a lake in a pristine forest. The story is
about the life of a Buddhist monk as he passes through the seasons of
his life, from childhood to old age.
Watching the film reminds me of the very core of Confucius' social philosophy:
(quoted from Standford encyclopedia of philosophy)
Confucius' teachings and his conversations and exchanges with his
disciples are recorded in the Lunyu or Analects, a
collection that probably achieved something like its present form
around the second century BCE. While Confucius believes that people
live their lives within parameters firmly established by
Heaven—which, often, for him means both a purposeful Supreme
Being as well as ‘nature’ and its fixed cycles and
patterns—he argues that men are responsible for their actions
and especially for their treatment of others. We can do little or
nothing to alter our fated span of existence but we determine what we
accomplish and what we are remembered for.
Confucius' social philosophy largely revolves around the concept of
ren, “compassion” or “loving others.”
Cultivating or practicing such concern for others involved deprecating
oneself. This meant being sure to avoid artful speech or an
ingratiating manner that would create a false impression and lead to
self-aggrandizement. (Lunyu 1.3) Those who have cultivated
ren are, on the contrary, “simple in manner and slow of
speech.” (Lunyu 13.27). For Confucius, such concern for
others is demonstrated through the practice of forms of the Golden
Rule: “What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to
others;” “Since you yourself desire standing then help
others achieve it, since you yourself desire success then help others
attain it.” (Lunyu 12.2, 6.30). He regards devotion to
parents and older siblings as the most basic form of promoting the
interests of others before one's own and teaches that such altruism
can be accomplished only by those who have learned
self-discipline.
Learning self-restraint involves studying and mastering li,
the ritual forms and rules of propriety through which one expresses
respect for superiors and enacts his role in society in such a way
that he himself is worthy of respect and admiration. A concern for
propriety should inform everything that one says and does:
“非礼勿视，非礼勿听，非礼勿言”: 不该看的不看，不该听的不听，不该做的不做
Look at nothing in defiance of ritual, listen to nothing in
defiance of ritual, speak of nothing in defiance or ritual, never stir
hand or foot in defiance of ritual. (Lunyu 12.1)
Subjecting oneself to ritual does not, however, mean suppressing one's
desires but instead learning how to reconcile one's own desires with
the needs of one's family and community. Confucius and many of his
followers teach that it is by experiencing desires that we learn the
value of social strictures that make an ordered society possible (See
Lunyu 2.4.). Nor does Confucius' emphasis on ritual mean that
he was a punctilious ceremonialist who thought that the rites of
worship and of social exchange had to be practiced correctly at all
costs. Confucius taught, on the contrary, that if one did not possess
a keen sense of the well-being and interests of others his ceremonial
manners signified nothing. (Lunyu 3.3). Equally important was
Confucius' insistence that the rites not be regarded as mere forms,
but that they be practiced with complete devotion and
sincerity. “He [i.e., Confucius] sacrificed to the dead as if
they were present. He sacrificed to the spirits as if the spirits were
present. The Master said, ‘I consider my not being present at
the sacrifice as though there were no sacrifice.’”
(Lunyu 3.12)
While ritual forms often have to do with the more narrow relations of
family and clan, ren, however, is to be practiced broadly and
informs one's interactions with all people. Confucius warns those in
power that they should not oppress or take for granted even the
lowliest of their subjects. “You may rob the Three Armies of
their commander, but you cannot deprive the humblest peasant of his
opinion.” (Lunyu 9.26) Confucius regards loving others
as a calling and a mission for which one should be ready to die
(Lunyu 15.9).
