106×96cm Framed 2023

Without dreams, it can be a butterfly

If you have no dreams, you should live like a butterfly.

I wrote a line from the seven-character arrangement "Kyoan" by the Southern Song Dynasty Taoist Bai Yuchan (1134?-1229?), which continues "If there is tea, the snail will not fight." Based on the Zhuangzi, this line says that if one is in such a good state that they do not have pointless dreams, they can become like butterflies.

I tried to express a more profound quality in the calligraphy (bronze inscriptions) of the Western Zhou bronze wares of China, which I regularly study, but due to problems with the overall composition, the light and thin lines stood out. I fear that this has revealed my own frivolousness, which is the opposite of the verse.