[Reading] Seeing and Unseen ~ Dream Pillow Tapir & Matsumoto Dayo "Hundred Chaos" after reading

Do you like myths? Do you like gossip?

I like all of them.

Carl G. Jung, a psychoanalytic psychologist, once divided the unconscious into two types: one is the most commonly heard "personal unconscious", that is, the desires and emotions suppressed by social norms, and also our dreams. s material. The other is the "collective unconscious" shared by all human beings, that is, the "archetype" as a symbol. One of the manifestations of archetypes is myth. In other words, a myth is a dream that all people weave together. They reflect all human inner conflict and growth in natural events.

So, for me, reading myths and myths is not just for a sense of horror or mystery, but it is also a mirror that reflects within ourselves.

Before reading this book, I, who loves weird stories, was originally a loyal reader of the "Onmyoji" series by Dream Pillow Tapir.

Anyone who has read "Onmyoji" knows that the opening scene of each episode of "Onmyoji" is set when Seimei and Boya sit under the eaves porch drinking and chatting. Their conversation, like the snow falling silently in the middle of the night, fell silently at the end of time. Soft and peaceful. As if this moment would never end.

At the end of every story, we must return to this eaves corridor again. This endless cycle, like a hypnotic guide, leads the reader into this serene and trance-like situation, dreaming with people from ancient times to the present.

In this book "Hundred Chaos", Dream Pillow Tapir once again used his gentle tone that is good at leading readers into dreams, and introduced us to an ancient legend from China, that is, the story of "Hundred Chaos".

The most famous allusion about "Hunzhuan" is "Zhuangzi. The description of "The King". In a nutshell, the content describes the king of the South Sea, Su (嶏), and the king of the North Sea, Hu, together to visit the king Hunzhuan who lives in the middle of the land. Chaos is good to them.

So, in order to thank it, the two negotiated: "Everyone has seven holes for listening to eating and breathing, but Chaos doesn't. Let's try to dig it out." So they dig a hole a day. (Interestingly, Hunzhuan did not resist.) After seven days, Hunchan died.

When I read this fable of Zhuangzi before, I always felt a little strange.

A thing without eyes, nose, mouth, nostrils, doesn't it have nothing? It can neither express nor command, how can it be the king of a place? It neither eats nor chats, so how can it entertain the swift and the sudden? Of course, Zhuangzi wanted to use allegory to emphasize that man-made contrivance and framework would destroy the natural vitality.

However, Zhuangzi's Chaos is too human-like !

In this picture book, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Dream-Pillow Tapir clearly noticed it keenly.

If Chaos is as its name suggests, an elusive thing, then it shouldn't be so human-like.

So what should it look like? Originally, according to the "Shan Hai Jing", it said: It has four wings and six feet.
(Wait! Isn't that the faceless and bouncing little guy in the movie "Shang Qi"?)

"Spiritual Scripture. The Western Wilderness Classic says: It looks like a long-haired dog with clawless bear feet.

However, neither is correct, because "chaotic" is completely the negative word for "fixed". It rejects all concrete definitions. It may not even have its own name, as the Dream Pillow Tapir said: "Hunzhuan, Hunzhuan, this is not a name, it doesn't even have a name."

Well, how can something that is nothing be drawn into a picture book?

In this regard, I really admire Matsumoto's imagination, and he is indeed a well-known illustrator in Japan. I guess he may have referenced Du Fu's "The clouds in the sky are like white clothes, and the whiskers are changing like a dog", and he captured the free and lively characteristics of Chaos.

He painted Chaos like a light and fluffy white cloud, or a freshly whipped milk froth. Those soft brushstrokes, just the appearance of holding the tail and spinning in place, are so cute that they make people smile with love and pity. This also happens to be connected to "The Mysterious Scripture. The last sentence of the Classic of Western Desolation is also the sentence repeated in this book: " Always look at the sky and laugh. "

How do you know that something is smiling if it has no five senses? What makes it smile?

This reminds me of Oliver Sacks' book "The Seeing Blind", where patients with permanent damage to the visual area of the brain (or both eyes) are miraculously able to see the world without both eyes. This kind of "seeing" is not just about feeling light and shadow, hearing sound. It is the body that uses the whole body to "see" the world in order to replace the lost part, and even develops a magical inner intuition, which can depict the scene in the mind that is consistent with reality, and can even be alone in the dark night. Replace the gutters and water pipes on the roof! (terrified neighbors who witnessed)

If Chaos died with eyes added, these people saw without eyes.

Do you have to see with both eyes? Does "laugh" have to be expressed by the mouth or facial features? When a child paints an apple blue on the drawing paper, does it have to be corrected to red? We are always subject to what we think is right, that what we see is what we see, and we label our experience with one fixed label after another, believing that label is identical to what it refers to. This move has forgotten that beyond these existing concepts, there is a larger and vast blue sky, that is, a world full of vitality and endless creation.

The thriving vitality of all things cannot be just what we think it is. Although from a scientific point of view, it will be called variable factor; from a philosophical point of view, it will be called uncertainty.

However, isn't it possible that there is a possibility because it has not yet been determined?

Just like the white clouds always soaring in the vast sky, there is no chaos of the seven orifices, and they always look up to the sky and smile. Imagine the possibilities beyond the existing imagination, just like when we look at the boundless blue sky, our hearts will also smile together!

This article is simultaneously published in: Visible and Invisible: Dream Pillow Tapir & Matsumoto Dayang's "Hundred Chaos" after reading | |