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In the context of aesthetic force, “forgetting” suggests not only “forgetfulness” and “oblivion,” but more importantly, the creativity brought by “forgetting.” For example, as Yan Hui said in “The Most Venerable Teacher”: from “I have forgotten the ethical codes and music” to the “sitting and forgetting” of “leaving my physical form and depriving myself of my mind to identify myself with Tao.” On the one hand, “forgetting” can be understood as an exercise to be abandoned in this process. On the other hand, one can, through the multiple viewpoints, discern the hidden “restlessness” and “uncertainty” dangling between heteronomy and autonomy, as well as the dynamic forces displayed through the process of game. Likewise, from the account of the Yellow Emperor who lets the pearl lie hidden in the abyss, Knowledge and Sight fail to find the Emperor’s pearl, while Nothing (or Forgetting) is successful in retrieving it. If one really forgets, how can he/she retrieve it? Thus, the “forgetting,” as symbolized by Nothing, suggests not entirely an “oblivion,” but a game of forces dangling between concealing and oblivion—to forget in order to not-forget. In this process, “forgetting” also reveals its own vitality, as well as the multiple possibilities. This echoes the emphasis on the creation of self under the aesthetic force. Under the tragic consciousness, the movement of aesthetic force is teeming with uncertain forces in the dynamic relationship and situation, and those in the interweaving dialect of hybrid forces. In this phase, it is teemed with uncertain forces that go to various directions. As one has the creative capacity of forgetting, he/she can temporarily pause his/her pursuit of knowledge under the standard rubric, and adopt a concealed and accumulated gesture. Thus, each temporary dimension can be admitted and affirmed. In this sense, it suggests the capacity of “the joy of the self” under the aesthetic force. Only in the relationship field full of fluid forces can one unfold the reflexive opportunity and aesthetic possibility. At this point, Chuang Tsu’s concepts of “being content with the time and willing to go with flow” and of “understanding what you can do nothing about and to be content with it as with fate” no longer indicate the helplessness, sacrifice or obedience in the fatalistic sense. Instead, both concepts suggest that once can freely shift his/her points of view and understand that each dimension is only a temporary appearing, not something with absolute permanence. Therefore, it opens the possible dimension of “laughing and forgetting.”
Keywords: Chuang Tsu, Christoph Menke, force, aesthetics, tragic consciousness, shift of perspective, Cook Ding cutting up an ox
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