A two-headed bird represents the ideological divisions and conflicts that threaten Korea
Professors choose the idiom that best describes the state of the country in 2019, the year of the "gongmyeongjijo", a two-headed bird in which each believes it can survive without the other. For one professor, “Each side wants to beat the other and survive on its own, but if one side disappears, neither will survive.”
Seoul (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Korea suffers from an extreme ideological division that has given rise to a conflict that could destroy society, a group of professors warn.
This year the latter chose "gongmyeongjijo" (共 命 之 鳥, picture 2) as the four-character Chinese idiom that best describes society.
The idiom, which is found in Buddhist scriptures, refers to a two-headed bird in which each believes it can survive without the other, and yet they share a common destiny.
According to tradition, one of the two heads woke up in the morning and the other in the evening. Since one of them always ate good fruit, the other, out of jealously, ate a poisonous fruit and both died.
Gongmyeongjijo was selected by 347 professors, or 33 per cent of the 1,046 who took part in a nationwide survey conducted by a professors’ weekly earlier this month.
Since 2001, the journal has selected a phrase that best describes the state of the country at the end of each year.
The expression was suggested by Choi Jae-mok, professor of Philosophy at Yeungnam University. "The current situation in the country seems like the bird. Each side wants to beat the other and survive on its own, but if one side disappears, neither will survive," he wrote in the journal.
Other professors say that political division is the biggest problem for Korean society. "It is sad to see the public is also divided. Instead of trying to resolve differences, political leaders are using the public's emotions to make the situation worse," one professor wrote.
The second-most-picked idiom, which was selected by 29 percent of the professors, was "eomokhonju" (魚目混珠). It means it is difficult to distinguish fish eyes from pearls, indicating the difficulty to differentiate between what is real and fake.
The third-most-selected idiom was “bangeunchakjeol” (盤根錯節), a tree with roots that become entangled as they spread. For Professor Lee Yu-sun of the University of Seoul, who suggested the phrase, it refers to government policies.
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