Title: Quotes of Wisdom
The well-known proverb, “Losing cattle and fixing the barn,” is probably meaningful enough as a proverb, but the origin of the proverb is said to have come from <The Warring States>, a collection of stories of intellectuals from the Warring States period in ancient China. It is said that during the Warring States period of ancient China, when King 襄 was ruling the dynasty of 楚, a nobleman named 莊辛 criticized his 失政 and left for the dynasty of 趙. Later, after realizing that his belief was correct, King Zhuang called him back and asked for wisdom. It's not too late to lose and fix the barn.)
The wisdom that we need to repair the stall even after losing the sheep certainly reminds us once again that we think it is foolish to repair a stall after losing a cow. Is it really useless to lose cattle and fix the barn? Otherwise, realizing that the cows have been lost makes us think about whether it is our duty to repair the stables more confidently.
Even after losing the cows, the need for a stable is no longer needed, but to laugh at people who try to fix it is to think only of today's utility. But wouldn't it be wiser to calmly, examine why the cow left the barn and try to make sure it never happens again? That's why the saying 溫而知新 可以爲師矣 (learning the old and procrastinating and knowing the new can be a teacher) may have come from.
It seems that we are living our lives immersed in the notion that 'the old is slow, we have to get out of it, and the new is fast and we need to learn'. Last week, I watched <War Nang Sound> produced by a movie company called ‘Lombo’. As many of you may have seen, this is the story of an old man living in Bonghwa Mountain, Gyeongsang-do, who has been with cattle for 40 years. No, it would be better to call it the story of a cow.
Thanks to this cow for 40 years, she gave birth to 9 children and educated them all, and now only an 80-year-old couple is struggling to farm with this cow. However, this old man never feeds the cows artificial feed and never applies pesticides to the fields. “Cows raised on feed get fat, but they do not produce well.” Some people raise alarm bells for our children today.
Also, the old man and the cow are quite similar. An old man who is limping because of exhaustion of strength or an old cow whose bones are hard to walk. Perhaps because they are similar, they misunderstand what others are saying, but the two have a mutual understanding. When my grandmother or neighbors tell me to sell the old cow before it dies, I say, "Don't sell it, don't sell it! Grandpa, who was angry, finally dragged this cow out to the small market. However, the audience is instantly puzzled by the grandfather's attitude of demanding a price that cannot be negotiated, but knowing that it is the grandfather's wisdom not to sell cattle, we can't help but nod our heads at the wisdom of the old man once again.
The most moving scene is the scene where when the cow was too strong to pull a piece of wood and fell down, the grandfather splits the load and raises the cow, and the two go together lame. It was truly an impressive scene where the old cow and the grandfather considered each other as equals. The Los Angeles Times column title for <Warnang Sori> seems to be the same as the title of ‘To a South Korean farmer, this cow was sacred’ (To a South Korean farmer, this cow was sacred).
While watching this documentary, I thought of Kwon Jeong-saeng. This grandfather and Kwon Jeong-saeng are both almost uneducated, but I think they are people who have learned the providence of God more than anyone else. Kwon Jeong-saeng, a leader of the Andong rural church in Gyeongsang-do, who lived alone in a closet and made up stories for children, was a person who showed a life in harmony with nature and living slowly. The representative work <Dog Poop> is a very in-depth work that represents the highest level of Korean fairy tale literature today.
A dog mourns as snow poop meets dirt on a country roadside. It's because they're being ignored because they're dirty. Meanwhile, the soil sheds tears as if it was her fault that the vegetables I grew were dried up and died because of the drought. Then, the soil and dog poop are buried together in the owner's shovel and thrown to meet the dandelion seeds. Dandelion says to these two. It is a story about when they hear that it can make dandelions bloom by turning into manure, the dog poop is happily crushed into small pieces and goes into the soil to bloom as a single dandelion and do its job.
It is a story that only those who have mastered the providence of God can come up with. From time immemorial, it has been said that the person who is most enlightened is the person who has known from birth. Next is the scholars (those who have learned and know), the scholars (those who learn through hardships), and the 困而不者 (those who do not learn even through hardships) are in that order. A person with narrow eyes and short eyes who ridicules losing a cow and fixing a stall will be an illiterate person. Those who live in the world must be wise people who have learned the providence of God in nature.
Although there is a term “group of intellectuals”, there is no such word as “group of intelligent people”. Even though the term ‘intellectual church’ exists, the term ‘community of wise people (or community of wisdom)’ is still unfamiliar. Those who “dedicate their bodies to the preservation and completion of creation” repeat that they must live wisely and do not know what to do, but our devotion and exhaustion are still the wisdom of the old man or Kwon Jeong-saeng of <Wonangsori>. You will regret that you are far below that. ‘Warnangsori’ is also the ‘bell sound’ of a rural church sung by Kwon Jeong-saeng.
At night, he goes to the church in the village.
I'm going to ring the bell while listening to the bell
People are thankful that we got through it safely today, but
The things you hear while ringing the bell
they don't know they're apart
Very small and insignificant things like grass
But things with precious lives
You don't know you're crying when you hear the bell ring.
Shin Kyung-rim, in <The Sound of the Bell - To Mr. Kwon Jeong-saeng>
Prayer :
God, creator and provider of all things in the universe,
Forgive human greed and indolence, and give us wisdom to live according to your will.
Please allow us to stop our hearts so that the sound of warring can be heard as the bells of the church.