Erlang God
Plunders the Mountain Area
Erlang God Plunders the Mountain Area is a digital photograph combined with 3D models, which is inspired by the ancient Chinese painting of the same name.
The ancient Chinese painting describes folklore where the Erlang God (God of War in ancient Chinese mythology) searches for and crushes demons in the mountains. These monsters are in the forms of animals and humans, or sometimes nebulous clouds, which all fled in panic under the chase of Erlang.
The painting describes our psychology of begging for peace from a higher power, from ancient times to now, people look for god in every religion, be it Buddhism or Taoism, to play the role of granting us peace and freeing us from the fear of demons.
“Some are ghosts in appearance and some are ghosts in essence.”
Reality
The ancient painting of Erlang God Plunders the Mountain Area describes our psychology of begging for peace from a higher power, from ancient times to now, people look for god in every religion.
Wu Chengen, the author of the famous ancient novel Journey to the West, appropriate Erlang God Plunders the Mountain Area, and used it to describe the corrupt officials and evil political characters. Wu drew a parallel between the demons and the government offices and expressed a desire for peace and hatred for corruption.
At the same time, the format of Erlang God Plunders the Mountain Area was formed in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Does this mean that the author selects the picture of monsters being surrounded, suppressed, and captured by the gods, which actually implies the historical event that the Han people in the Song and Yuan Dynasties were devastated by war?
Illusory
Something worth noticing is that in Erlang God Plunders the Mountain Area, Erlang soldiers, who represent the righteous force, look just as terrifying as the demons, both groups have blue faces and fangs. And at the same time, some of the demons with animal faces look ironically quite kind and actually elicit sympathy from the audience.
I find this contrast interesting because it shows how reality so often is not what it appears to be - what appears to be ghosts could be the righteous soldiers, while the demons appear to be oppressed humans.
The story is still on.
The same is with the virtual reality, distinguishing good from evil is simply not easy, as it is with Erlang God Plunders the Mountain Area. And in fact, the things or persons that started as good and righteous, as the situation evolve may become evil, possessive, and undesirably powerful.
The internet was design to provide us service and should be considered as good in the beginning, but as we become more dependent on the internet as more than ever, we become possess by it. We cannot leave the internet for one day, and we panic with losing connection. Through the algorithm, the internet has learned our thought and behavioral patterns. It started as a soldier and is not looking more like a demon. Without evil purpose, yet it has controlled us by recognizing and appealing to our desires.