Hanna+Kim

media type="youtube" key="0SVGqk4XgEo&hl=ko&fs=1" height="344" width="425" Clips I used in My Movie: http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=PKnloiM-0Ns http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=9j-u0WYUnWM

Scholars of the world try to define nature in specific terms that are many times hard to understand for most people. By using these unnecessary challenging worlds, the scholars try to put themselves over others. When the quote says “my words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice,” it’s referring to how Taoism is not consistent of extravagant words and provides equal exposure to everyone regardless of gender, age, status. To move on, when it says “straightforward words seem paradoxical,” it shows how trying to define things limit the meaning of Tao and nature. In the end, these quotes show the fundamental principle of how Tao cannot be defined and how Taoism is open to everyone.
 * 1

Pooh reflects how exactly Taoist view typical scholars. To Taoist, scholars try too hard and do their best to boast of their knowledge. Whether than trying to experience nature, they try to limit nature within definitions. They blame the idea of ignorance in many circumstances. Even though they have a lot of information, they’re missing the inner nature which is much more important. Taoist just like pooh believes that knowledge cannot be studied for the sake of studying and obtaining knowledge. More over, scholars focus too much in the past and present, whether than focusing on the present. In conclusion, Taoist believes that Confucian scholars are desiccated and many times impratical.
 * 2

Filial Piety’s Appliance on China and Korea
Confucianism heavily emphasizes the idea of five relationships. One of these relationships is the relationship between a parent and their child. A duty that explains this relationship is called “Filial Piety.” This primary duty states that a child should always stay obedient to his parent and as the parent grow older, the child should take care of them. Confucianism, even though it has originated from China, has spread its boundary worldwide including Korea. Thus, Filial Piety has not only affected China, but it has come to affect Korea’s culture as well. Like China, Korea also has many folk tales that emphasizes the importance of filial piety. One representative example is the story of Sym Chung. This story starts off with a tragic death of Sym Chung’s mother and the blind father’s duty to take care of infant Sym Chung. When Sym Chung grows to be a beautiful woman, she tries her best to repay his father by following Filial Piety. Then, Sym Chung hears a rumor that if you pay around 80,000,000won, you can make a blind man open his eyes. She thinks of his father and decides to sell her body to get the money. Finally, she throws her body to the sea for the sake of his father. The heaven sees this and saves her from the sea and makes her the queen of the country. After she is crowned, she decides to open a party for the blind to see her father. The father is shocked when he recognizes Sym Chung’s voice and opens his eyes to his surprise. With Sym Chung being the queen of the country and the father opening his eyes, they live happily ever after in the kingdom. The story of Sym Chung and Chinese folk tales both have similarities and differences. The primary similarity between them is that the child sacrifices for the sake of his parent. Either it is a young child letting mosquitoes to feed on him so that it doesn’t go to his parents or it is a beautiful woman selling herself to open her father’s eyes, they both sacrifice themselves to follow filial piety. However, there are definitely clear distinctions between the two. First, the Korean interpretation of filial piety doesn’t agree with some of Chinese ideas such as, “we can always get another son, but it is impossible to get another mother.” Koreans weigh the importance of parents equal those of their children. Also, compared to the Chinese folk tales where all the main character who shows filial piety is a son, the most representative Korean folk tale’s main character is a daughter. As we can see from the folk tales of Korea, Filial Piety has always been part of Korean culture. But this is rapidly changing as we come to a new century. As Korean family diminishes in size, the selfish and independent side of the children is becoming more prominent. It has gone to a point where a parent puts on a case against their child for not providing them with any financial support. In total, it has been revealed that there were around 18 similar cases just in 2004. It’s another puzzle left for the future generations of Koreans as well as Chinese to learn how to adapt Filial Piety back into our society.

-_-