Short Paper
Inyoung Park
Opinions vary on the relationship between humans and the world and the attitudes that
humans should have in life. Tao's <Substance, Shadow, and Spirit> present these different
perspectives. The biggest feature of this poem is that it defines human characteristics by dividing
them into three categories: Substance, Shadow, and Spirit, and describes the attitudes that humans
should have for life from the standpoint of each characteristics. Substance and Shadow have an
argument, and Spirit mediates it and makes a solution. The main topic that the three characteristics
argue is related to human mortality. The poem is largely divided into three parts: Substance to
Shadow, Shadow to Substance, and Spirit's intervention.
Substance refers to 'body', or the material characteristic of humans. He separates the nature
from humans. Unlike nature, which has immortal or constant cycles, humans are the most sentient
beings in the world. However there is also no cycle of going and coming back. Instead, it "is present
in the world today, then leaves abruptly, to return no more." The phrase "he has no way to change"
reveals the acceptance and futility of human existence and mortality. This reveals the thoughts of
Substance, thinking human life and death are vain and ephemeral.
The meaning of wine, which appears out of the blue in the last phrase that Substance asks
for Shadow, is not well revealed from the outside. However, according to the context with the
previous phrase, it is a symbol of joy, a mechanism that makes him forget the pain, and affirms his
present life. Unlike life of heaven, earth, nature being permanent, human life is short, so the idea
of enjoying life as much as possible while alive is revealed by telling Substance not to reject wine.
On the other hand, Shadow symbolizes the desire to leave a name after death in the future.
Shadow is inseparable from Substance as shown in line four, and it is impossible to separate them.
While Substance values physical pleasure, Shadow questions, "Is this really the right thing to do?"
He has no choice but to follow what Substance does, but at the same time, he constantly questions
the actions' value and argues that there is something more important than physical pleasure. Rather
than the pleasure that Substance claims is the most important thing, Shadow argues that it is more
important to leave the name to the future generation even after death by doing good deeds.
Drinking wine can make worries disappear, but it's a sleazy way compared to making great
achievements. Therefore, Shadow advises Substance to do good deeds for their posthumous
reputation.
When two egos collide and cause conflict within one being (a human), Spirit mediates the two
in a tone that seems to soothe them. In the beginning, Spirit mentions the complementarity of the
three egos. They have different forms and different ideas, but they eventually integrate into one
being and are indivisible and dependent on each other.
He then re-emphasizes the equal finiteness of human life, referring to those who have been
great in their lives but have already died. Since everyone dies regardless of age or wisdom, it can
be considered that Spirit's opinion is implied to be cautious of being overly obsessed with life. Then
he directly refutes Substance's argument who values physical pleasure, such as drinking wine,
and
is concerned about it shortening the lifespan of human. He also refutes Shadow's claim who
emphasizes to leave his name in later generations, and talks about the ephemerality of human life
once again by asking who will praise him (after he has already died and disappeared).
Ultimately, he recommends that everything be accepted naturally because there is nothing to
be happy about life, and there is nothing to be sad about death. The poem ends by recommending
that people enjoy life naturally while conforming to death, and that being obsessed with life and
thinking too much about life and death is rather damaging.
In the preface to the poem, Tao criticizes those who "clinging tenaciously to life" as "great
delusion." He then reveals the background of his writing the poem and encourages to think about
it together. It is presumed that the background of writing this poem was to express Tao's own
concerns about the view of life poetically.
In conclusion, Tao divided human life into three subjects and expressed different life attitudes
and physiognomy of each subject in contrast, and placed the most importance on Spirit's attitude
among those three. The opinion described from the perspective of Spirit seems to be what Tao was
ultimately trying to say. Although they have such different views of life, they are complementary to
each other because they eventually combine to form one being. It is a poem that reveals Tao's own
concerns and inner conflicts about what kind of attitude should people have about life.