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The Heaping Measure

Kobong

Kobong is a concept which has no one-word equivalent in other languages. This is probably because the concept itself does not exist in other cultures. It means heaping the measuring cup till it overflows, and even then some.

When we measure fabric with a yardstick or weigh meat with a scale, we are as exact, as possible. After all, that is what a measure, is for. So when we measure grain, we are supposed to give no more and no less. That is how the Japanese do it, anyway.

Koreans, strangely enough, inaccurately use this device developed for accurate measure. And they misuse it deliberately. That is how we get the heaping measure. To provide some idea of how high it is heaped, a dishonest measure in Korea is one where the grain is heaped to overflowing only twice, not three or four times.

If it is not absolutely spilling over, that is being pretty stingy. At meals the mound of rice above the bowl is almost as high as the bowl is deep. It is even higher, if such a thing were possible, on birthdays. And when we offer a bowl of water, it has to be sloshing over the brim for the one offering it to feel right.

That conical form of the heaping measure may remind one of Egypt's towering pyramids. But the beauty of the heaping measure is not only in the symmetry of its external form, something we see only with our eyes. There is meaning there, too. That conical form shows that we have given so much extra that we have reached the limit where it is physically impossible to give any more. The heaped cup is the visual expression of a heart with no bounds.

Every vessel has its own limiting capacity. In this way a vessel is like a scale, or a yardstick, made to limit with its own limitations. But the heaped cup shows how the warm heart of a Korean obliterates restraining physical confines and does away with limitations. The heaping cup shows a heart that is bigger than the vessel being used.

A world of scales and yardsticks is not a world dictated by feeling for others. It is a world ruled by rationality. And so the scale is the basis of all commerce, and in this world of buying and selling we demand the exact measurement. The heaping measure is the Korean's attempt to change such a world into one of really human interaction, based on feeling for others. With this, even in the midst of the most competitive marketplace, the heaping measure will bring back the same to its giver.

That brimming measure heaped so high is the height a person can attain. It is that grand stature which comes from feeling for others.