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Shen Yaozi, August 1998

After waiting for a long time without the arrival of the bus, I looked up at the blue sky and white clouds. The ever-changing clouds always evoke endless reveries. I always thought that clouds drift, from here to there, like duckweed. Children often ask, "Why don't clouds fall down?" Indeed, clouds are filled with tiny water droplets and ice particles, so why don't they fall? It's somewhat embarrassing to admit, but even after studying physics for several years in university, textbooks never explained this. If I were to delve deeper, I still wouldn't understand why.

One day, I happened to catch a Japanese TV program talking about clouds, and that's when I realized that within a short distance, clouds appear to drift due to the wind, but over a larger area, it's the factors that generate clouds that move, not the clouds themselves. What are the factors that generate clouds? Saturated water vapor, dust particles in the air, and timely cooling. When the water vapor in the air reaches saturation and encounters appropriate cooling, the excess water vapor condenses into tiny droplets on the dust particles, and clusters of these tiny droplets form clouds. Dust particles are the catalysts for cloud formation.

In the atmosphere close to the Earth's surface, the higher the altitude, the lower the temperature. Above the sea of air saturated with water vapor and dust, if at an appropriate height and timing, the air temperature drops to conditions suitable for cloud formation, clouds are born from the air. Why don't clouds fall down? Now we have the answer: if clouds lower, rise, or drift to the side, the conditions that sustain them will disappear, and thus the clouds evaporate back into the air.

Why did I always think that clouds drift? It must be that relying solely on sensory experience led me to such a simplistic conclusion. If even the drifting of clouds could mislead me for over a decade, how many things in human affairs do I think I know, but actually hold mistaken views? Waves ripple from here to there, not because the water drifts, but because energy is transmitted. Ancient people believed the Earth was flat, and for over 300 years since Newton, the absolute view of time and space was deeply rooted, until Einstein broke it and replaced it with the relative view. Yet some still cling stubbornly to the old view. Intuitive prejudices often lead people to be confused by the surface of things, yet they remain unconsciously accustomed to it.

The most brilliant philosophers or scientists always hope to condense the seemingly complex laws behind many things into a single formula or principle, to facilitate understanding, memory, control, or application. Therefore, Newton's greatness lies in the fact that through his three basic laws, he could describe, deduce, and even predict the motion of many macroscopic objects. Energy and matter, seemingly entirely different, were even condensed by Einstein into an equivalent formula (E = M‧C²). The reason why China's Book of Changes stands at the head of the Thirteen Classics is that through the arrangement and combination of the two lines of Yin and Yang into 8 trigrams and even 64 hexagrams, each hexagram can expound the philosophy of all things in the universe, and even the principles of a gentleman's conduct in life.

Similarly, the most brilliant artists can capture and outline extraordinary postures, lines, or tones from ordinary faces or landscapes. The most brilliant politicians, from some simple poll numbers, trends, and the likes and dislikes of the masses, can speak words that cater to the public's taste, bewitching the hearts of the masses and enticing voters to cast their ballots into his box. The most brilliant doctors can roughly diagnose the name and severity of an illness just from the patient's expression, posture, and smell. Therefore, whether in traditional Chinese medicine or Western medicine, they always start by observing, palpating, and questioning to initially grasp the patient's condition.

People are often accustomed to the appearance of things and rarely grasp the underlying meanings behind the surface. Therefore, when ordinary people see the appearance of things, they tend to emotionally express intuitive feelings. Perhaps this is because the sensory organs are located on the surface of the body, while the brain is hidden within the skull? Thus, the signals observed by the sensory organs often only flood the surface of these organs and rarely penetrate into the brain. The greatest difference between sages or geniuses and ordinary people lies precisely in this.

However, modern Western scientists and philosophers are often trained to excel in analyzing the essence of things, yet rarely express the aesthetic sense that humans should possess emotionally. Nobel Prize winner in Literature, Romain Rolland (1866-1944), once said: "European scientists, in order to train their ability to analyze nature, often inadvertently wither their sense of beauty." ⁽¹⁾ Darwin also lamented that his study of biology had completely withered his ability to appreciate poetry. Similarly, Western doctors are often trained to be adept at analyzing the principles of diseases, ruthlessly and materialistically cutting and stitching patients' limbs, while neglecting the compassion, care, and dignity inherent in humanity. Modern artists often give the impression of being abstruse, detached from reality, or even eccentric, reclusive, and non-conformist. Art itself has transformed from being humanized and life-oriented to "what is real is not beautiful, and what is beautiful is not real."

In the early West, science and art were originally one, such as in the Greek era, where art and technology were not much different, both named "techne." Even up to the fourteenth century, there was not much difference between artists and house painters. At the same time, there was not much difference in status between surgeons who specialized in anatomy or surgery and barbers ⁽²⁾

. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) himself was a painter, sculptor, architect, and scientist. He painted the Mona Lisa and also designed chariots and fortresses. When faced with his own anatomical drawings, he believed that he studied the human body for the sake of painting, and painted to understand the structure of the human body. Are not both art and science striving to explore the laws and mysteries of nature? Therefore, science to art is like reason to emotion, originally two harmonious sides of the same coin, but due to certain historical factors, they gradually diverged and even developed into opposing poles.

In the Arctic, the older generation of Eskimos worshipped the aurora in the sky as if it were a deity. In the eyes of scientists, the aurora is merely the phenomenon of ions from the solar wind being attracted by the Earth's magnetism, floating to the polar regions, and interacting with the atmosphere to emit light. In the eyes of ordinary people, the aurora is beautiful, dazzlingly beautiful, and awe-inspiringly beautiful.

The appearance is emotional, while its potential is rational. Einstein said: "The most beautiful thing is the mysterious in the universe." Floating clouds are beautiful because they are elusive to us. Upon careful tasting, behind the appearance of all things in the universe, there are deeper truths waiting to be discovered. Obvious phenomena are often formed by the combined effect of many inconspicuous small factors. However, the phenomenon is the surface, and the cause is the inside. Seeing only the surface or the inside is an incomplete understanding. Therefore, not only should we observe with our senses, but also use our thinking, carefully experience, and sincerely appreciate. We must consider both the surface and the inside to view and experience the world more completely, rather than being merely fascinated by the appearance of all things.

bubble_chart Notes

1. "The Secret Life of Plants" by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird; Chinese translation "The Secret Life of Plants" translated by Xue Xuan / Taiwan Commercial Press, first edition May 1998, reference Pg99
2. "Principles of Form" by Lü Qingfu / Lion Books, first edition March 1984, reference "Form and Technology" Pg115～117