BoSt Galleries Exhibit 2
Music of Man, Earth
or Heaven!
“Once Tsech'i of Nankuo sat leaning on a low table. Gazing
up to heaven, he sighed and looked as though he was lost to the world.
Yench'eng Tseyu, who was standing by him, asked, ‘What are you thinking about
that your body should become thus like dead wood, your mind like burnt-out
cinders? Surely the man now leaning on the table is not he who was here just
now.’
‘My friend,’ replied Tsech'i, ‘your question is apposite. Today I have lost my
Self.... Do you understand? ... Perhaps you only know the music of man, and not
that of Earth. Or even if you have heard the music of Earth, perhaps you have
not heard the music of Heaven.’
‘Pray explain,’" said Tseyu.
‘The breath of the universe,’ continued Tsech'i, ‘is called wind. At times, it
is inactive. But when active, all crevices resound to its blast. Have you never
listened to its deafening roar? Caves
and dells of hill and forest, hollows in huge trees of many a span in girth --
some are like nostrils, and some like mouths, and others like ears,
beam-sockets, goblets, mortars, or like pools and puddles. And the wind goes
rushing through them, like swirling torrents or singing arrows, bellowing, sousing,
trilling, wailing, roaring, purling, whistling in front and echoing behind, now
soft with the cool blow, now shrill with the whirlwind, until the tempest is
past and silence reigns supreme.
Have you never witnessed how the trees and objects shake and
quake, and twist and twirl?’
‘Well, then,’ inquired Tseyu, ‘since the music of Earth consists of hollows and
apertures, and the music of man of pipes and flutes, of what consists the music
of Heaven?’
"The effect of the wind upon these various apertures,’ replied
Tsech'i, ‘"is not uniform, but the sounds are produced according to their
individual capacities. Who is it that agitates their breasts?’ “
Chuang Tzu
