Feng Youlan said that the central issue that Chinese philosophy deals with is accession and birth. I don't like Chinese philosophy very much, and it may have something to do with the fact that I was confiscated when I took the Chinese philosophy test. Looking back now, I am afraid that entering the WTO and being born are not a philosophical problem, nor a life problem. It is very interesting to put it into art - using it as a key can unlock many dark locks in the work. .
For example, when Westerners talk about God, it is not necessarily limited to religion, but is an unavoidable knot in culture, and thus works of art have acquired a certain ultimate tension. From a Western perspective, a work is always somewhere between the two poles of being God-friendly and anti-God (including agnosticism, Gnosticism, etc.). From a Chinese perspective, a work is always in the world of being born and entering the world (including the so-called Great Reclusion or Zen Buddhism). This does not refer to the spirit that the work intends to convey to the outside world, but refers to the two opposing forces within the work that are in constant competition forever.
2.
Martial arts is a big topic. (I've read a lot, but not enough.) Perhaps martial arts culture began as an instinctive worship of force. Extraordinary force can be used both to maintain order and to overthrow it. In the end, it was not the law of a specific authority that was overturned, but the logic of the entire real world. It is said that many foreigners regard "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" as a magical movie, which is actually not a bad idea.
"The great hero serves the country and the people." This is of course WTO accession. But after the deification of martial arts, when knights distorted the physical laws of gravity, they naturally began to break free from the so-called "reality" ethics. In other words, "born" is not an option for a knight, but an obligation that must be imposed on him. Although joining the WTO is also his obligation. Such is the morality of the martial arts-magical realism world.
3.
Many martial arts works use detective stories, such as Gu Long. Jin Yong is also like this sometimes. To find out the murderer, he will shake secrets. But "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is a film with absolutely no suspense. We can easily know who stole the Qingming sword, who is the blue-eyed fox, and Yu Xiulian loves Li Mubai. It's not the suspense, but something else that draws us in and drives the plot.
Unlike the Yitian Sword, the Qingming Sword has no additional attributes other than being sharp: it has no tortuous history, nor does it contain martial arts secrets. It's purely like a symbol. Li Mubai joined the WTO with a sword, but Yu Jiaolong wanted to be born with a sword. As a pure ultimate power - its invincibility, of course, has reached a surreal level - the Qingming Sword is a combination of the two pure desires of the knight. From this we can also see that the most important confrontation in this play is not Yu Jiaolong and Yu Xiulian, but Yu Jiaolong and Li Mubai.
Yu Jiaolong and Yu Xiulian seem to easily lead to topics related to women, and then rise to the opposition between the pursuit of freedom and traditional ethics, and even become a contrast between Western culture and Eastern culture. But, first of all, is Yu Jiaolong really just a woman? I think her more important identity in the narrative function is male - to paraphrase Žižek, when she dresses up as a young hero, she is really herself.
China has always had a tradition of grievance poetry, but the grievances in it are all disguised as unhappy literati. The same is true for Yu Jiaolong to a large extent. Yu Jiaolong asked for a sword, but Li Mubai abandoned it; Yu Jiaolong only believed in swords, but Li Mubai believed more in people; Yu Jiaolong struggled with himself, while Li Mubai cared about the masses... Yu Jiaolong was basically an anti-Li Mubai.
And Yu Xiulian is a purer woman, always a subordinate of Li Mubai. At the end of the film, Yu Jiaolong and Yu Jiaolong fought in the hall, just because Yu Jiaolong said that Li Mubai was not good, it was as simple as that. There is no sharp opposition between her being born and joining the WTO, only the opposition between "Li Mubai" and "losing Li Mubai". When Li Mubai was talking about her meditation, she strangely said, "Have you attained the Tao?" The reason for this strange sentence is that the so-called "Dao" is completely unfamiliar to her. She has never pursued it, nor has she understood it. ——Although she also received the education of Li Mubai.
4. In the
middle of the film, Luo Xiaohu came to see Yu Jiaolong, and the scene suddenly pulled back to the faraway Xinjiang. A hot and desolate exotic land, a bad boy from the sky (a handsome Xinjiang guy with a Taiwanese accent!): This is really the most vulgar sexual fantasy (worse perhaps is that it is a sexual fantasy that is obscenely projected on women by men: In the old-fashioned fashion of horse thieves conquering and rescuing a boring official lady). Does this count as a failed attempt by Yu Jiaolong to "be born"? No.
An interesting phenomenon: those who yearn for this kind of "birth" - for example, many people who are keen to go to Tibet and other things to play - tend to be the most worldly and the most sophisticated. (Just like those who read Chicken Soup for the Soul and advise against being utilitarian, they are often the most utilitarian.) This kind of salvation is false, insincere, and untenable. Evidence: When Yu Jiaolong resisted marriage in his heart, he only thought of going to the arena, but never thought of going back to Xinjiang. The ideal of going to the rivers and lakes is sincere.
What is even more strange is that at the end of the film, Yu Jiaolong would rather jump off a cliff than go back to Xinjiang with Xiaohu. It is said that many foreigners cannot understand this ending, but this is probably not a gap in cultural understanding. Before Yu Jiaolong jumped, he asked Xiaohu to make a wish, and the jumping off the cliff itself also came from an allusion of "sincerity is spirit" in the sweet lines in the middle of the film. Li Mubai chose the ego and love at the last moment, while Yu Jiaolong, as the anti-Li Mubai, chose the self and sacrifice at the last moment. The two inversions are symmetrical in structure. The problem is that Yu Jiaolong's jump lacks practical significance. So the audience can't understand.
This is all the unfinished end of the sweet and greasy "sincere heart is the spirit". In any case, the love between Jiaolong and Xiaohu is far less convincing than the love between Xiulian and Mubai. Because sexual fantasies are not love after all.
5. The
blue-eyed fox is not so much a woman as it is some abstract evil that seeks revenge on men. What she offered Yu Jiaolong was also a false freedom, so Yu Jiaolong never agreed to go to the arena with her. Perhaps for Yu Jiaolong, the rivers and lakes are not important, the important thing is that his sword can be freely swung: his own value can be displayed. The escape that the blue-eyed fox invited her to participate in has nothing to do with her own value, so of course she won't go!
On the other hand, Li Mubai also rejected a false "birth", the so-called "getting Tao". Dao is nothingness after all, while Yu Xiulian is real. "Being born" is always untenable. Only by joining the WTO (taking care of the escort bureau with Yu Xiulian) can you truly be free. Li Mubai's death was only to prove this truth.
Corresponding to Li Mubai's success in joining the WTO at the last moment, Yu Jiaolong's birth at the last moment was actually a success. The real birth is death--just like death to see God--and this is probably the truth of this troubling cynic. Yu Jiaolong's death was only to reveal this truth.
6.
Birth is not established after all, but it is also indispensable. Just as life is bound to be full of the urge to die, walking is restrained by the gravity of the earth. If there is no death and gravity, life and walking are unimaginable. The knight can't fly, the knight is just as light as a swallow. Martial arts and the secret of birth, and finally return to lightness.
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