The Heart of the Web

On Pansi Ridge, the spider spirit watches the human world.

She watches a brawny man ensnared by the threads of “defiance.” He escapes the gambling den and makes his way to the imperial palace, leaves Consort Shu for the mountains, meets a Jade Rabbit who chops off his hand and torments him, then waits to reunite with his wife and daughter and find warmth again.

She watches a clever man tangled in the threads of “fear of poverty.” He rises from ruin to become a wealthy merchant, only to fall, as his wife swallows gold. After enduring torment, he finds a new love.

She watches a stubborn man led by his desire to change. He storms the imperial palace, breaks through the heavenly web, accepts his fate, then builds a web of his own and finds a gentle, happy life.

There are also the cocooned man, the eldest sister, the third sister... Everyone walks their own path, each tangled in their own threads, and finding joy along the way.

The brawny man smashes the web through action; the stubborn man understands it through introspection.

The cocooned man desires nothing, like a mirror. Shi Po has his own obsessions and convictions, and forges a pair of eyes that can see through the web of threads.

There are webs everywhere in the human world. The web is both fate and the road ahead.

Some are strangled by its threads. Some learn to follow the web. Some spend a lifetime weaving it, then let go at last.

How do you live with the web?

Come along and see through the spider spirit’s eyes.

For example, you are the spider, and the characters are moths. You weave a web, and they fly into it. You watch them struggle as the threads wind tighter and tighter, finding satisfaction and growth in it.