Tang ping

a master at work...- no, wait! - no gods, no masters, anti-work

from bugs

Here are translations of some of the posts by Luo Huazhong (the Kind traveler) about their idea of Tang ping (lying flat).

These posts came from their now deleted Baidu account, screenshots and transcriptions of which you can find in various places by using a search engine. I started with machine translation and then went through and fixed the machine’s mistakes. There are certainly some things I got wrong, and I will continue to edit this post with further corrections, but even in its messy form this is a really beautiful bit of thought!

Lie flat is justice

I haven't had a job for more than two years, and I haven't felt like anything is wrong with using all my time for play. The pressure mainly comes from people around you comparing you to others or the traditional values of elders. They are everywhere. Every time you see hot news topics, they are about celebrities in love, getting pregnant and other “fertility” innuendo. The National People's Congress does not need to be like “invisible creatures” pressuring you to change your mind.

~

I can just sleep in my own wooden barrel and bask in the sun like Diogenes, or I can live in a cave and think about “Logos” like Heraclitus. Since there has never been a movement of thought that exalts human subjectivity in this land, then I can make it for myself. Lying flat is my movement of the wise. Only lying flat is the measure of all things.

Lying flat, in bed

Because I’m not going to be performing any labor, I am able to only eat two meals a day, noodles + eggs in the morning, rice + vegetables and eggs in the evening. On weekends, I can go to a restaurant for chicken chops and rice if I feel like it. For me, solving the problem of food is to solve everything. My monthly expenditure is controlled within two hundred Yuan, and I can work for one to two months a year.

~

I hate life lived for the sake of steel and concrete and “traditional family values”. People shouldn't be so tired. People should pursue a simple life, so I always do things very slowly, because I don't need to do things for anyone. I sometimes hide somewhere to watch and laugh at those busy people…

~

Why should people find excitement for an obviously meaningless existence?

~

Lying flat is the only objective truth in the universe. Rest, sleep, or death, the moment when a life full of desire and excitement becomes still and disappears is the embodiment of true justice. I choose to lie flat, and I am no longer afraid.

My position is not positioned by anyone. The ashes enter the sea and the soul floats to the universe. I'm just passing by. When the time comes, it will be another trip.

Cats have subjectivity, but people don't. When will the alienated world die out?

Cat lie flat

That's right, health is also important. Just after climbing the mountain, you can go swimming in the lake when the weather is a little hotter. I have been soaking in it almost all summer. It is essential to keep exercising.

~

I have an actor's certificate, and when I'm in a good mood, I still go to Hengdian to lie down. In short, I just lie down in a different way: life is to lie down.…

Lying flat

There are 11 Comments

Why do not provide link reference to source? Provide please.

These are translations of posts made by Luo Huazhong on Baidu, which have since been deleted. I worked from screenshots of those posts.

Nice try, MSS

The site linked is an attempt at criticism of Tang Ping. Surely you can do your own research though?

I've done some more editing to the piece, could that be copied over to here?

The comparison with cats and other non-humans is apt, as them laying low and flat is the ultimate expression of both refusal, relaxation and self-possession. In some contexts this can feel even like a drug trip.

Oooookay, I'm happy to lie flat for the 8 hrs called sleep, but like the old adage goes, if you don't use it you lose it, and too much lying flat will end up being done in a coffin, the nihilist's ultimate pursuit.

a nihilist expression of rejection of society's demands by laying flat doesn't mean you gotta do it 24/7. In fact doing a lot of daily physical exercise for yourself or perhaps even as a social activity is self-beneficial (as long as it doesn't become some pattern of conformity and herding), but this is not what work is...

TL;DR: so basically revolutionary anarchist planking.

"That's right, health is also important. Just after climbing the mountain, you can go swimming in the lake when the weather is a little hotter. I have been soaking in it almost all summer. It is essential to keep exercising."

I am the unique Fauvenoir (not the cheap imitation fabricated by silly frustrated leftists who use their right to hate me) and thoroughly approve this, as I have been venturing in nearly-identical living avenues for the last two warm seasons.

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