Human sketch

Author: Zhang Yuanshan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: American Emerson once said with considerable disdain that a turtle's entire thought is a turtle. While witty, the remark is overly harsh and arrogant. Imagine if a turtle's entire thought were an elephant—would it still be a turtle? Similarly, if human thought were entirely non-human, would humans still be human? Therefore, the entire thought of this book is about humans, from concrete fingers and toes to abstract races and nations. The symmetrical version—or what might be called the reverse of this book—is another of my, Human Zoo. Although that book is entirely about animals, it is still about humans. I do not wish my thoughts to be non-human, nor do I wish them to be anti-human. However, sometimes non-animal thoughts are non-human thoughts, and sometimes anti-animal behavior is anti-human behavior. Because humans and animals are both the great creations of God—or nature— they should coexist harmoniously. Zhang Yuanshan's Sketches of Humanity can be said to be a self-portrait of humanity. What is a person, after all? Some say humans are machines; others say humans are beings thrown into the world; still others say humans are a "filthy shell." In this book, the author begins with the hand, "drawing" from hand to foot, covering everything contained in this "filthy shell," such as eyes, noses, mouths, ears, skin, bodies, and hair, one by one. Moreover, the author divides humans into emotional humans, ethical humans, gendered humans, typed humans, urban humans, quarreling humans, national humans, and so on, describing each in detail.