Art

Two hands shook, two mouths smiled, but they belonged to two different classes, rich and poor. The two then went to sit in separate places far apart. Everyone took their places in the delegates' seats one by one. Today was the national poetry festival, and many well-known poets had been invited to attend a conference on Vietnamese poetry in the new century: foundations and directions.
At noon the poet delegates were invited to a banquet at a luxurious restaurant. As the feast was nearly over, everyone gathered in twos and threes, chatting cheerfully.
The MC was about to look for a hidden corner to nap for a few minutes before returning to the conference when a young poet came up and struck up a conversation. After a few exchanges, the MC said:

• Honestly, I wouldn't dare marry a poet. Of a hundred, ninety-eight are poor. Of the several hundred professional poet delegates, only a handful seem comfortably off.
  The young poet asked:
• But earlier I heard you praising poets to the skies. I thought you loved poetry very much?
• What do you think an MC at a poetry event would be doing if she didn't praise the poets? Praise is one thing, marrying is another; one doesn't joke about food and clothing with guests of poetry (Xuân Diệu). But why are you all so poor? Doesn't poetry sell?
  The young poet pondered a moment and said:
• To write poetry you must have another trade for a living; poetry is a passion, but a side one.
• Then what do those few rich poets live on?
• You raise the question of rich and poor and make me think. I know all those poets well, and know the genre and content of their poetry. Among poor poets the proportion of love poems is very high. Those few rich poets often write poetry with an ethical, educational character for the world.
• And what poetry do you write?
• I write poetry of many different contents, there's love and there's education too.
• So what's the ratio of the two, and what about your money?
• I have enough to eat, not rich and not poor.
• Then if you switched to writing poetry that teaches ethics you'd probably do better.
• If I stopped writing love poems for my girlfriends they would kill me at once.
• I'm the opposite: if you wrote me a love poem I'd kill you at once. 👱‍♀️

Art arises from emotion, and then relies on technique to create the work. Poetry needs the technique of words and meaning. Painting needs the technique of brush and colour. Music needs the technique of sound. Many complex arts need complex techniques for the author to create the work. Cinema is an extremely complex art that needs many technical fields to support it.

Once an artwork is created, it needs people who know how to appreciate it. Some people like it, some do not. If some people like it, the work will live and affect people's minds. The effect on people's minds counts as wrongdoing or merit for the author.

If the author only conveys his own private emotion, spreading useless emotion to others, then the author gains no merit, and often even incurs wrongdoing, at least the wrong of wasting his own and others' time. If the author can transmit positive emotions to those who enjoy the work, for example love of humankind, love of country, love of forests, love of the natural environment, the noble responsibility of teachers, filial devotion to parents..., the author's merit is considerable.

Having gained merit through works that teach ethics, it does not follow that the author will live by selling those works; good fortune can come in many other ways. Unwittingly buying a bargain plot of land and selling it on at a high price, the wife's shop doing better, someone showing an effective way to do business...

If someone makes art without the aim of producing works with moral education, the author will gradually reach a dead end. For now he may still have past merit enough to eat and be clothed, but towards the end of his life it will be tragic.
But to be able to create works with moral education, the author must cultivate themselves a great deal. Ethics cannot be spoken emptily. Ethics is a sacred living thing. Only someone who lives an ethical life can teach ethics to others.