LI Zhi Hong
To wear red underclothes in the cyclic year of one’s birth year is the first important folk custom in China. Traditionally speaking, it is easy to “offend the far superior in power” in that year, and to wear red underclothes could avoid misfortune. Actually, according to the version of the Yin and Yang and the Five Elements that not all the people are fit to do so. Sometimes, there is only one step difference between superstition and belief. To have a belief or not to have a belief would have great impacts on the fate of an individual and even a nation.
From the time of the first Industrial Revolution, scientism started to prevail. In the 20’s of the last century, metaphysics became declining because of the prevalence of scientism in China. But today, as science and technology have greatly developed, why should people be interested in metaphysics again? Some people are born rich, and some are born poor. Can science explain it? All living beings have natures, and that means “All things on the earth have spirits”. The natures decide the fate, then, who decides his nature?
To see the fate from the point of a country or a nation, the effects of belief and value concept are obvious; to see the fate from the point of the whole mankind, the effects of human natures are obvious. Something that will decide the fate of the people is human nature. Human beings are the strongest living things in the world, and so, human nature not only decides the fate of human beings but also the fate of other living beings. In the times of barbarism, it seemed that human nature had more “brutish nature”, but the whole life environment was harmonious. Now, people are talking greatly about release of human nature and civilization, and the human nature has been released, but the whole life environment is getting worse. Along with the time and the “progress” of the society, we don’t know if the human nature is getting civilized or degenerated.
What is art? Is art something that gives people the sense of beauty and delight? Many people like those classical and graceful things that means people all have vanities and they enjoy being immersed in pleasure just like taking opium. Is taking opium art? Is something that leads people to seek for truth art? It seems to be in the category of philosophy, but how many people like philosophy? To express one’s philosophy viewpoint by way of shaping is the feature of contemporary art. Is something that expresses one’s inner thought art? Why do you ask others to understand your understanding of outside world? Before making art, one should answer the question what the art is. Art is something that could release people from sorrow and give people happiness. What is the form of art? What is the content of it?
The realists are likely to succeed when they seek success, but the idealists are likely to fail when they seek truth. But I still want to salute the idealists as they are so lovely.
Even if I would succeed one day I would not consider myself as a strong man. Before the fate, I only feel weak. I would rejoice for my good luck. Fate would help those who make unceasing efforts to improve themselves, no matter he granted me timely rain or flesh-cut knives before. I am not a fatalist either, and I believe: Man plans a matter, and the Heaven would make it a success.
The progress of the society is marked by the happiness of the people, then, what is the mark of the happiness of the people? This is a matter of value concept. Then, who decides the value concept? Is it the people? If yes, what is the need of the government and the educational organizations? After all, the value concept is the understanding of happiness of the people. In the times of unrestrained material desires, the value concept is undoubtedly measured by money. According to this viewpoint, the happiest people should be the richest people. But a common saying goes as: “Money is not omnipotent, but without it nothing can be done.” Perhaps, all are not questions of either left or right, but vacillating from left to right is not the correct answer either.
How many art works we have seen by now are not the victims of political speaking rights and interest speaking rights? After all, these speaking rights are the speaking rights for interests. For example, the criticism and introspection to the politics are likely the criticism to a certain political power before or now. It is controlled by either these or those speaking rights, and it would conform to one mainstream or be admitted by anther mainstream. Is there a kind of art that criticizes a kind of ideological formation and thinks of a new ideological formation? Perhaps yes, but it would take the risk of not being admitted by all the speaking rights. It runs counter to the mainstream value concept, so, who would like to do things like that? Who can do it like that?
The social morality and orders of the western countries are protected in two ways, one is religion and another is law. We used to substitute the religious belief by political belief, and the result was good. But if there were neither religious belief nor political belief, and the laws were controlled by social relations in a society, the results would be terrible.
Max considered religion as spiritual opium. Today, people take opium directly, why?
To a person who seeks for the truth, nobody would believe you when no one could understand your viewpoint of truth. People would follow you when you have made some success, and they would abandon you when you fail at last. That is the realist side of human nature.
Philosophy is created by outstanding people, but there is no philosophy that could understand thoroughly about all the truth. It is just like a fortune-teller who could be very accurate, but he would still be inaccurate on some points. That means no fortune-teller could understand fully all the secret of the Heaven. Is this original feature of the things we don’t know the truth? Is this original feature of the things we don’t know the fate?
Success, those who have not experienced many setbacks don’t believe in fate, and they believe that their fate is mastered in their own hands. Those who have experienced setbacks are likely to believe in fate, and those unlucky people also believe in fate. It can be said that the viewpoint of samsara of Buddhism is dialectical: People believe in fate when they suffer misery and they atone for their misdeeds so that they would be happy for their next life. They do evils when they have happiness, and they would fall into miserable fate again.
I send my daughter to school everyday, and she is in the same school as I was when I was a child. She reads the book more or less the same as I read when I was a child, only that the surrounding environment has changed. My leader’s father used to be the leader of my father, what a fate samsara is this? Some people consider my paintings as cartoons, and that is not important, but the important thing is to see the fate and samsara by today’s time concept. The people in the paintings have big eyes that have no light points. They are like me, very confused.
My daughter also likes painting. Although in her teacher’s eyes she doesn’t paint well, I consider her purity and sincerity as precious. Once, she painted a green sun, and her little friend said: “There is no green sun at all.” But she said: “Then, the summer will not be too hot like that.” Such way of thinking made our adults feel ashamed. Do we paint to get admissions of others? It should reflect a kind of vale concept.
Some people said that my paintings were rather depressing. Actually, everyone is depressed in his heart, only that the extents of depression are different. Some people can release their depression and some people cannot, and still some people are so depressed that they even don’t know what the depression is. It is human to let people die in dark, but I prefer to be alive clear-headed in pain. Different personality decides different fate under realist conditions.
If they ask me what plant I would like to be, I would say that I want to be cactus. Cactus lives in desert that will not die even if there is no rain. Its leaves with thorns can absorb water from the air and prick others. Even though you don’t want to hurt others, it is possible that you would hurt others by accident.
Now, there are some artistic undertakers who have no sense of responsibility, no one knows from what viewpoint, they praise tyrant and tyranny. What do they want? There are also some people who always talk about their lives as school leavers. Is it that they are inborn noble?
What should people cherish most? It is dignity. When you are alive without dignity, you should fight for it even if you would die for it. When you die without dignity, you could neither be alive nor die.
Now, it is generally considered that installation, behavior, and movie are vanguard art, and painting is out-of-date. I have thought of it time and again, and actually, it is only a matter of formation. Ideology develops continuously, and if the idea is new and creative, you can take the form that is the most suitable. When you don’t think the flat form can express yourself, you can take other forms.
