The Role of Art and Music (4)

The main attraction of the show '乘风破浪3' to me is the coming together of 30 professionals, from diverse fields such as music, dancing, sports and acting; different genres such as classical, rock, jazz, blues, pop, R&B from China, America, Canada, Hong Kong and Taiwan to coordinate in making very creative performance arts. The collaboration  is like the ancient Chinese sailing ship featured in the opening spot of the show which represented the wisdom of ancient people who combined the use of wood (the ship), fabric (the sail), water (the ocean) and air (sea breeze) to create effective mean of mass transportation. It is not too different from how modern people combined a phone, a camera and a computer to give us the smart phone. It shows that wisdom involves the ability to assimilate, and to assimilate involves breaking down barriers or else a smart phone would look like tying together a phone, a camera and a pc with a rope in a very awkward and unusable way.

In the show '时光音乐会 2', the singer Penny 戴佩妮 said that the hardest thing to do in singing is to have the acumen to do it by the right amount (刚刚好) and she also said that she doesn't like to be a music producer because a producer has to analyze music attentively and once you do that, you can no longer enjoy music. She also said that she has the tendency of doing things out of passion instead of profits and fame.

These 3 matters may seem like 3 different issues but they share the same root. In order to do things by the right amount '刚刚好', one must have the ability to see the big picture clearly. For example, in designing cars, designers must have the ability to sense the right proportion and envision the whole car (the big picture) in their mind so that the curves and lines of the front bumper and fenders must share the same theme with those at the back; the roof lines must ensure occupants have sufficient head room and yet blend with the front and back in a coherent way; the overall design must give the car a weight distribution of 60:40 to ensure good handling; the bumper and the diffuser at the back must create a low drag to save fuel, improve speed and maintain ground effect whilst staying consistent with the design theme of the car. 

If the designers can't envision all these in their minds and work on them concurrently, the design will look awkward and will take a very long time to complete. If let's say they just focus on the front design first, the design maynot be compatible with the roofline or weight distribution; or if they focus on the side first, then the design may conflict with the coefficient of drag of the car later. They will need to go back and forth many times before they can arrive at a design that can satisfy all the criteria of the design. 

This is no different from how a CEO must see the big picture in order to allocate the right resources and right people to the right places to produce sufficient profits whilst complying with workers unions, general regulations and international standards; or how an engineer must understand the compatibility of the components in their production line in order to ensure smooth and systematic operation.

Writers, mathematicians, sportsmen, dancers and just about any trade and profession need this acumen in order to produce the right results, and this acumen was what Penny 戴 meant when she said why musician must use their 'heart' (心) instead of analysis to write and appreciate beautiful music. 

It is known that Taoist priest or Buddhist Monk often answer very complex questions with very short metaphorical lines that are almost like abstract art in order for people to understand through '领悟'. The meaning of these short lines are often the core or equillibrium point of those complex questions asked. The reason they can see the core of these complex questions is because they can see the big picture; and in order to see the big picture, one need to see with the heart. The brain see things in fragmented forms when it uses logic and analysis which breaks down and segmenting facts (分别执着) but the heart uses assimilation to see things in their totality like the process of designing cars mentioned above.

Assimilation can be described as ' 融合' and one must first break down barriers through '包容' in order to assimilate or join all the dots to form the big picture. That is why Confucius teaches the '包容' values of '仁耻礼恭敬爱孝忠' to enhance his students' core acumen to assimilate so that they can excell in the '六艺' skill training. 

The morals of yielding such as '仁耻礼恭敬爱孝忠' and '上善若水' should not be regarded as values that can weaken our ability because all types of skills such as writing, music, engineering, arts and sports are meant for breaking barriers, solving problems and joining the dots, and yielding facilitates them. These values also enabled people to live together collectively in harmony in order to allow these skills to flourish.

These are the spirits that enabled the ancient Chinese to make important invention such as the system of governance, ship building, paper, printing, compass, just to name a few. Rules and regulations can control our bodies but not our hearts, only morals can persuade our hearts to behave in a certain way willingly. Once people can behave in an acceptable way then we may not need too many rules and people in the society can enjoy more freedom.