Compendium of Materia Medica
Site of 12-hour burning performance
In Kubuzi Desert, Ordos, Inner Mongolia
chinese herbs, flour, fire, clay
sculpture size: 230cm*80cm*80cm
10'30'
2023
Dust to dust, earth to earth
all things circle around
though dead, though alive
though alive, though dead
In the Compendium of Materia Medica, there are 1,897 traditional Chinese herbal medicines. Lihong collected the medicine residues, made them into 3,000 medicine bricks, and then built a medicine monument that was burned in the desert. At the same time, she remembered and praised the life of plants by reciting the names of Chinese medicines. Chinese medicines burning, carbonizing, turning into ash, returning to nature and entering the next reincarnation is a funeral for Chinese medicines and the law of natural development. As the result of plant selection, Chinese medicine acts on humans and prolongs life. In this sense, death is just another form of life continuing, and the cycle continues forever.
I was born into a family of Chinese medicine practitioners who have run their own family pharmacy for generations.
Since I was a child, has been helping my mother and father in the family pharmacy. Since I was 4 years old, my father has been taking me out into nature to pick herbs, to learn about the different forms of plants in the Compendium of Materia Medica, and to climb into the medicine cabinet to eat all kinds of medicinal herbs, such as longan (dried cinnamon balls) and so on. Until now I feels warm when I smells herbal medicine, as if it is a lot of plants clamouring and is full of life. Western medicine focuses more on fighting the diseased area.
In contrast, traditional Chinese herbal medicine focuses more on the balance of all aspects of the entire body, with each organ performing its function. Herbs are designed to correct the imbalance of heat and cold in the body in disease states, and each herb has its own hot and cold properties.
"Compendium of Materia Medica" has fifty-two volumes.Among them, 1897 kinds of plants that can be used as herbs are recorded, the growth habit, shape, collection, rules of each plant.
Chinese herbs' life
nature grows freely
picked as medicine
dried
sliced
fried, steamed, boiled, ground
formulated into a prescription
become dregs
back to nature
Morden medicine pays more attention to fighting the diseased parts. In comparison, traditional Chinese herb pays more attention to the balance of all aspects of the whole body, the various internal organs exert their functions. Chinese herb is to correct the imbalance of cold and heat in the human body in a disease state, Each type of Chinese herb has its properties of cold and heat.
Chinese herb corresponds to the treatment of different parts of the human body
A total of 1,200 bricks made from flour and herbal dregs
This is a form of their life, just like the body after our death; it is the carrier of the spirit. All things have experienced a lot in the human world. Fire is holy; everything becomes a new beginning.
Chinese herbs carbonization chanting the name
Carbonized Chinese herbs can treat all kinds of bleeding, such as hemoptysis, hematemesis, and blood in the stool. It is especially suitable for people with severe liver disease and bleeding tendencies.
In the film 1897, kinds of traditional Chinese herbs are used. Reading their names is like remembering the life of plants, respecting, praising, and remembering the life of all things.
