Chapter 51 Reading Notes Artist's Way of Living

Segmented Construction: Artist's Way of Living When the masons were young, the grand blueprint for building the Great Wall had already been conceived in the minds of scholars.It was a strange building, with an incoherent, solid, thousand-mile-long wall below, and an incredible tower of Babel above.Such a building may be impossible to complete, and at best it is only a spiritual symbol; however, the passion of the plasterers' actions is restricted by the high command, so the enthusiasm for construction is fully mobilized.When he put down the first brick, as if by magic, he became one with the whole Great Wall.Since then, the monotonous labor in the dark has been directly related to the ideal stretching to the Great Wall or the Babel Tower.After all, this kind of desperate labor is physically and psychologically unbearable for a long time; if you insist on continuing, then people will either go crazy or give up completely, and there is absolutely no hope in sight.For this reason, the High Command came up with a perfect building method - segmented building.The thinking logic of the High Command is a strange circle. The plasterers controlled by this strange circle must have a very wise attitude in order to understand the intention of the segmented building and the true function of the Great Wall.A wise attitude is to stop logical reasoning and accept the unreasonable reality; specifically, this attitude is to regard the highest ideal of the empire as a cloud that has been quietly swimming under the sun for thousands of years, and then what to do? what to do.In this way, the plasterer has gained a certain degree of freedom, and he uses this freedom in the daily life of segmented buildings. Each brick has more or less some meaning, some vague vision; The laying of bricks has become a smaller segment in the segmented project. As long as it is not logically drilled to the bottom, each segment is connected to the empire in the clouds or the Babel tower depicted in the book.The real purpose of building the Great Wall was to resist the enemy and defend the emperor. The ingenious masons soon discovered that all practical and utilitarian ideas had nothing to do with building walls.First of all, the emperor is not a specific person; secondly, the enemy bandits have never appeared before, so I don't know where they will come from. Even if they come, the city wall with gaps everywhere cannot resist the enemy.From this point of view, ideal passion has become the only motivation for work.

It is an established fact that the humble plasterer could not receive the imperial edict of the emperor in reality, and even if he received it, it would be too late.Because of this given premise, Mason maintains an ambivalent relationship with the Empire—being both infinitely pious and not taking it seriously.From the perspective of the plasterer's situation, this is the only feasible attitude in life, otherwise he can only perish in asking for trouble.The piety of the plasterer is manifested in obeying the arrangements of the high command.He believes that the glory of God's world is descending on the plans drawn by the hands of his superiors; the contradiction between methods and goals is intentional by the top leaders; executors must be good at controlling enthusiasm within a narrow range and working hard , instead of asking the leadership's intentions, because intentions and decisions are sacred things that have existed from time immemorial.Apart from this kind of piety, any real belief in the empire and the emperor is suspicious and cannot be truly realized.All information about the Emperor from the dynasty is long out of date; the true state of the Empire is shrouded in clouds; They can use their own village as a ridiculous analogy, but they have never seen the world outside the village, so how can they judge what the capital looks like?So in the eyes of outsiders, people don't take the empire seriously. The empire only exists in their hearts as an abstract spiritual pillar.The reason why the empire has become such a thing is also because people's imagination itself has a "weakness" - the limit of imagination is nothingness.This weakness is the basis upon which the spirit rests.

High Command had long considered the unbearable sense of emptiness and hopelessness brought about by endless hard work, and this was the masterful strategy of building in sections.This strategy is not to achieve a grand goal, but to keep the work going; in fact, the goal is in the work, and everything else is self-deception.People's self-deception is the embodiment of high command strategy.From this, it is associated with the nature of labor. The contradictory nature of labor itself determines that it can only be realized through self-deception.Logically speaking, a wall cannot resist an invading enemy, and Babel cannot be built on such a wall.However, under the control of the high command, the enthusiasm for labor is soaring, and the above facts are ignored by the plasterers in their labor.They divide their lives into stages, looking forward to completing regular tasks, looking forward to vacations, and looking forward to receiving honors; and time slips away section by section in this division.From the point of view of a plasterer, each period of labor is full of bitterness, and there are also happy moments in it; but it seems meaningless to think about it together, leaving only a blank in his mind.The goal is too ambitious, and there is no possibility of achieving it.It was the High Command that connected the humble labors of the plasterers to a great purpose, and rescued them from utter despair through their labor.During the continuation of their labor, the plasterers experienced the joy and pain of life, hope and satisfaction, and also experienced the real existence of goals.Labor, divided into countless pieces of labor, those living bricks with body temperature and sweat, experienced hands full of longing, this is everything.Perhaps this is the hidden purpose of High Command?There is no need to be overly inferior in front of the false goal, just work hard in that direction.The Great Wall can only be in the heart of each of us plasterers; it seems a sad thing, but where else can it be?This is another thing to be proud of.Look at this plasterer, he is dressed in rags, his face is emaciated, and he is always suffering from a crisis of faith in his heart, but no one has a firmer faith than him.We see him gloomy in the morning, sleep-deprived, hesitant in every action.But that's just the low part of his day; once the work starts, he's a good worker.His body is flexible, his hands are extremely dexterous, and his extraordinary brain is all-encompassing. It not only organizes the current work, but also abstracts the infinitely far-reaching future.Thus, the brick he put down with a precise movement became part of the tower of Babel; his hands, his eyes, his whole body felt: the tower was in sight, while it was still possible to see it, hurry up Go ahead, there is nothing more beautiful than this.So the plasterer buried his head in building, his quick movements revealed a beautiful melody, and the mountains were also moved by it, and became silent.Doubts about the empire and the Great Wall are constantly being resolved in this confident operation...

The existence of the empire cannot be verified in reality, just as the function of the Great Wall cannot be verified.But we can't say that the empire is worthless and the Great Wall is useless.We can't find an empire, and we can't use the huge Great Wall as a weapon against the enemy. This is not our fault, but it is just an inherent difficulty in our hearts, a way of our existence.In this way, we are born with endless pain and longing.In yearning for empires and the Great Wall, our humble bodies pressed together, each sending the message to the other: "Yes, yes, it exists." It turns out that we need this feeling of closeness, which constantly protects us from crises of faith.Then there is the work in isolation.The plasterer divided his life section by section in accordance with the instructions of the high command until the end.Each paragraph has a clear and specific goal, and the small goal is closely connected with the big goal in the imagination, so that the plasterer can concentrate on fighting for it and live a fulfilling life.Maybe there was a deep doubt about the ultimate goal. At that time, maybe the plasterer became fragile, fell into despair and extreme dissatisfaction with himself, anything could have happened, but what we see today is the majestic Wanli The fact that the Great Wall stands before our eyes.This is the Great Wall, which is incomplete and fragile in part, but perfect and indestructible in the overall view; it is a concentrated expression of the "advantages" and "disadvantages" of the human spirit.How reasonable is the building in sections!How thoughtful the High Command was!

May 27, 1997, Yingcai Garden