What is Life?
'Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?' is a painting by French artist Paul Gauguin. Honestly, in my humble opinion, the craftsmanship in the painting itself is not that impressive, but what really shook the world, is how it touches something fundamental to people of that particular generation.
'What are we' is a question that can only be answered by science, but in the end, religion gave us the answer. As for the other two questions, I believe goes back to our humanity and the fundamentals of philosophy. In other words, how you see the word. We 'come from the Gods, after enjoying everything we have to enjoy on earth, we then go back to the Gods'-- That is something I try to show with my work
—Sanzi
老子云—
道可道，非常道
“What is Tao”
“That’s precisely the way of Tao”
Lao Zi once said, “If Tao is something that can be contextualized, then context itself, cannot be the entirety of Tao”.
Taoism concerns itself with the way amongst nature. It’s similar to buddhism in the emphasis on the harmonious coexistence state of everything in this world, but differs in major ways as it has no hard restrictions on the practitioner’s behavior.
Some call it a dead religion, and it’s true in many ways. While most religions flirt between the line of free will and dogmatism, Taoism considers life a constantly changing process, where the only way to stay unchanged is to be continuously adapting. It’s part social darwinism, and part game theory, but it also emphasizes ethics. It considers all of these to be true, and constantly seeking our perception through the reality we know to be true, is the way of Tao.
What is even art? Back in the day, art was a lifestyle most admired, but few practiced. In China, four is a number both blessed by the gods, and also represents death. So many generations of artists have four different schools of thought, among these, style grows exponentially, and that is what we call:
太极生两仪，两仪生四像
如伏羲所创，八卦既是文字，而文字，是符号和语言，语言，是沟通的方式。沟通，是情感，对现实的理解，自身的焦虑，甚至对未来的期待的映射，此为人道。。。
天道，地道，人道
The way of Gods, the way of the earth, and the way of people, combined together, that is the way of life. Seasons change, we grow old, perhaps some of us live younger and younger, but what doesn’t change, is the constantly changing nature of our perspectives.
Yes, maybe tomorrow we will all perish in a terrible disaster, Covid, potential nuclear apocalypse, climate change, haven’t we seen enough black swan events to realize that there’s something bigger than us at work? Even though we know most likely we won’t just all die tomorrow. But if you have ever played any game, chess, cards, or even board games, you understand that even though at any given moment, we are all making decisions based on what we see, and what we know, our actions are also packed with our idea of the future.