The poem "Body, Shadow, and Spirit" brings up a time-honored question of what one is living for in life. The poem also shows that internally these three parts are arguing with which one should be remembered for, should it be ones actual body (flesh), ones shadow (what you will be remembered for), or ones Spirit (what lives inside of you). This poem is written on T'oa Ch'ien's opinion and beliefs about what is important in life. In return I believe that the only thing that one should live for is spirit, the actual presence that lives inside of ones self underneath ones body (flesh) and ones shadow (fame). The spirit helps one do what is morally right (acting as a "guilty conscious").
             If in life one lives "in the flesh", one is just building up ones self here on Earth and will not take that with one when one dies. Flesh is actually ironic because when one dies, everything that one made ones body to be when it was alive is now a rotting piece of mass. This "flesh" will also constitute what one does with ones body. If one does do drugs, smoke, or put alcohol into ones body, this is undermining all that one would be if one lived for the "body". Another thing that makes it unwise to live for ones "body" is that when one dies the only thing that one takes with them is their spirit, no one cares about what one looks like for eternity, but here on Earth for this minuscule time that we are here we seem to think that this really matters. This is why one should live for the "spirit" and not the body.
             Not only should one not live for ones "body" but also one should not live for ones "shadow". This shadow according to T'oa Ch'ien is a substance that is only concerned with what they are. They are concerned with what other people think of them as to what they do. In example these kinds of people will try to be as famous as they can ju...