#chinesevase

Legacies and chicken legs (鸡腿!) have more in common than you think. For starters, the juicier they are, the quicker they decay. This is because of a trend called regression toward the mean, or the averaging out of traits over generations. It’s why Einstein’s children weren’t, well, Einstein, and why Hitler’s secret kids weren’t evil assholes. Regression toward the mean. You might even say it happens to institutions and empires. Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty ruled for 61 years and left behind a relatively consolidated China firmly under Manchu rule: rebellions crushed, money in the bank, and plenty of potatoes and corn in the pantry. And when he was gone, he was gone. Chinese Fenghuang might look like the Western Phoenix, but their mythologies are very different. There is no rebirth in fire for the Fenghuang. They are Gods, partners to dragons, who are harbingers of peace and harmony. And the legacy of a mythology is like the idea of a chicken leg: it’s the refined, perfected reflection of the thing. What’s better than the essence of a chicken leg, the re-remembered smell of juicy, roasted meat?

"Fenghuang Rising" (凤凰崛起) 120*120cm https://island6.org/fenghuangrising

It’s a #blue#butterfly day, and the #sky is such because particles in Earth’s atmosphere scatter sunlight in all directions. In 1871, Lord Rayleigh published a paper explaining this phenomenon in great detail. The optical phenomenon known as Rayleigh Scattering, refers to the dispersing of #electromagnetic radiation, such as #light, by particles of a smaller wavelength. Out of all the colors, blue light travels as the smallest waves and results in that wild blue presented on the skies each day. Join the dance of the one-day butterflies, the mythological nymphs, enchanting triplets twirling in the blue heavens. The word for butterfly in formal Greek is “psyche”, as it’s believed to be the soul of the dead. It’s also the name of a mortal woman who was released from death by #Zeus and granted immortality. Psyche’s mythological image in ancient art is portrayed with grand butterfly wings. Freed from death, the body of the soul flutters joyously into the forever blue.