Self-Discipline, Ding Nan, "The Section of Experimental Art at the 13th National Art Exhibition"

“Unity of Human and Heaven,” is one of the fundamental conceptions of traditional Chinese philosophy. Heaven worshiped by human beings, determines human being’s destinies and bestowed rightness, morality, and wisdom on human beings.

This concept contains two meanings: one is the harmony between heaven and people, as the universe and nature is a big world, echoed with a small world of human beings. The other refers to the interactions between heaven and human world. In ancient rituals, people used trees or bamboo poles as tools to communicate with the heaven. Although unpractical, it satisfied people’s needs for such communication.

“There are already bamboos within one’s mind.” While people in the ancient times emphasize the sublime spirits of bamboo, modern people emphasize the quality of self-discipline. The artist has found two tallest bamboos in full size in the countryside of Jiangxi, and made into a ladder for people to climb up step by step, as if to experience the measurement of law. The culms of the bamboos as steps of the ladder from low to high are controlled strictly, which symbolizes the path to the harmonious state of heaven and human beings. Because human beings and nature are interlinked fundamentally, all human activities would achieve the harmony if follow natural rules. The Chinese philosopher Laozi writes, “Man conforms to Earth, Earth conforms to Heaven, Heaven conforms to Dao, and Dao conforms to its own way.” However, a desire to climb up seems always drives people to break the rules. The bamboos in this work visualize this dilemma, as they fulfill the desire to reach the heaven at the cost of breaking natural rules of harmony and disciplines.