"Confucius said, 'Only when the year grows cold do we see that the pine and the cypress are the last to fade.' The pine and cypress stay green through all four seasons; before the cold they are pine and cypress, and after the cold they are still pine and cypress. Now, your treatment of me has gained nothing from before and lost nothing since."
To you, what makes someone feel like a person who is 'always the same'?
The Man Who Kept Sending Books to an Exiled Scholar
Kim Jeong-hui, known by his pen name Chusa, was a late Joseon scholar and calligrapher famed for his original 'Chusa style' of writing, and one of the leading intellectuals of his day, corresponding with Qing Chinese scholars. In 1840, however, he was caught up in a political affair and exiled to Jeju Island, where he spent more than eight lonely years.
Most people abandoned him once he lost power, but his disciple Yi Sang-jeok, a court interpreter, repeatedly sent him rare books obtained in China. Deeply moved, Kim painted 'Sehando' (Winter Scene) of pine and cypress trees in the winter of 1844 and wrote this inscription on it for Yi. The painting later passed to the Japanese scholar Fujitsuka Chikashi, but in 1944 the calligrapher Son Jae-hyeong visited his Tokyo home every day for more than two months until he agreed to return it.