Series 7: That Night, His Bodily Fluids Sprayed All Over Me

2006/2/15 9:10:20

VII

[16:08:59] XXX to 【XX】: If you don't write pop stuff, can you make a living?

[16:09:34] 【XX】 to XXX: That's a strange question.

[16:10:25] XXX to 【XX】: In the past, state-run ensembles supported these professional, highbrow musicians.

[16:11:27] 【XX】 to XXX: "Musician" is a very tedious concept. For me, there are only artists.

[16:12:25] XXX to 【XX】: A friend of mine still writes symphonies, but the market is hard to find.

[16:12:54] 【XX】 to XXX: Did Beethoven think about the market?

[16:12:59] XXX to 【XX】: Artists need someone to pay them.

[16:13:37] 【XX】 to XXX: Who paid Schubert?

[16:13:48] XXX to 【XX】: Beethoven naturally had the market of his era; otherwise he would have starved long ago.

[16:14:03] 【XX】 to XXX: True art has nothing to do with any of that.

[16:14:17] XXX to 【XX】: As for who pays, it's different in every era.

[16:14:18] 【XX】 to XXX: Schubert died of starvation and illness at 32, yet he was the greatest. The vast majority who lived longer than him were nothing but garbage!

[16:15:07] XXX to 【XX】: That's why I ask who supports them—otherwise everyone just starves and dies of illness, and that'd be a mess.

[16:15:23] 【XX】 to XXX: Mozart also starved and died of illness at 36, and there was Bizet, Chopin, and so on. In a sense, if artists don't starve or die of illness, there will never be truly great art. So nowadays there is no art—it's all garbage!

[16:16:32] XXX to 【XX】: Mozart also had to offer his art to the powerful—not because he didn't love art.

[16:16:49] 【XX】 to XXX: His greatest works were all written for himself.

[16:16:59] XXX to 【XX】: Court art is still art.

[16:17:10] 【XX】 to XXX: A true artist's best works are always written for themselves. What court art?

[16:17:41] XXX to 【XX】: Who it's written for doesn't matter. What matters is that one must first be alive.

[16:17:46] 【XX】 to XXX: Was Mozart simply a court artist? Nonsense!

[16:18:23] XXX to 【XX】: Was Mozart a street busker? Nonsense!

[16:18:24] 【XX】 to XXX: Death is the true sublimation of art.

[16:18:51] XXX to 【XX】: Grand words will ruin art.

[16:19:03] 【XX】 to XXX: An artist who writes only to stay alive can only produce garbage! True art faces life and death!

[16:19:41] XXX to 【XX】: I don't like pop songs either, but I also don't think art can be so noble as to not need a livelihood.

[16:20:05] 【XX】 to XXX: You only consume so-called art, or use art to carry out a series of consumptions. True art has nothing to do with you!

[16:20:27] XXX to 【XX】: Alright, we didn't come here to argue about art.

[16:20:30] 【XX】 to XXX: True art is death and blood!

[16:21:11] XXX to 【XX】: Haha, then you must be composing in a pile of bones.

[16:21:16] 【XX】 to XXX: If you don't understand, go listen to Beethoven's final quartets. They contain the greatest artistic spirit.

[16:21:49] XXX to 【XX】: Sorry, I have no interest in art of death and blood.

[16:21:55] 【XX】 to XXX: You don't even understand death. The phoenix's nirvana.

[16:16:15] XXX to 【XX】: By the way, I am exactly the kind of artist you're describing.

[16:16:24] 【XX】 to XXX: Death is the phoenix's nirvana.

[16:16:33] XXX to 【XX】: You got the character wrong.

[16:16:41] 【XX】 to XXX: As long as the pinyin is right, it's fine. I type in pinyin.

[16:16:54] XXX to 【XX】: No, it's a wrong character.

[16:23:14] 【XX】 to XXX: Characters are for communication—as long as the meaning is clear, it's fine. The true word is the unspoken word. What wrong character? Unspoken yet speaking in all things!

[16:23:47] XXX to 【XX】: I've written 5 large-scale symphonies. I'm still alive, and I haven't been touched by blood!

[16:24:16] 【XX】 to XXX: What good symphonies has China ever produced? They're all tedious works.

[16:25:03] XXX to 【XX】: Of course I don't reject pop songs either. That millions of people enjoy them is also something to be happy about.

[16:25:04] 【XX】 to XXX: Chinese people start off writing symphonies right away, but the foundation of the symphony is the string quartet. Think of Haydn's experience and position in both areas and it's not hard to understand their relationship. Has China produced a single good, truly valuable string quartet? Without that foundation, all symphonies are garbage!

[16:26:03] XXX to 【XX】: Alright, arrogance is a common ailment of young "artists." I won't be hard on you.

[16:26:14] 【XX】 to XXX: Symphonies written by Chinese people are all duckweed.

[16:26:32] XXX to 【XX】: Goodbye! Remember—stay alive, no matter what.

[16:26:39] 【XX】 to XXX: I'm not being arrogant. I'm just speaking facts. One must die greatly before one can live greatly. Understand?

[16:27:43] XXX to 【XX】: Figure it out for yourself first.

[16:27:48] 【XX】 to XXX: The problem with Chinese music is precisely that it can't die, so it can't live. If the thieving heart won't die, how can there possibly be great art?

[16:28:47] XXX to 【XX】: A person who condemns everything will never have true achievement.

[16:29:13] 【XX】 to XXX: When have I ever condemned everything? But I only respect people like Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler, Shostakovich! Does China have such people? I asked Li Delun this very question when I was a child!

[16:29:31] XXX to 【XX】: You really need to start learning from 1-2-3. Goodbye!

[16:29:48] 【XX】 to XXX: Haha, no need for goodbyes either!

(To be continued)