Non-stop copying of the Diamond Sutra (The Vajracchedika – prajna - paramita Sutra) is Zhang Yehong's response to the reality. It is an action composed of waste of energy, experiencing and pathos. The waste of energy exists in behavior, performance and other action arts as a status in contemporary art which is most closely related to the human body. 

I nourish myself through waste of energy. – Joseph Beuys.

One of the most important characteristics of contemporariness is to form certain spiritual concept besides artistic expression through repetitive or strenuous physical labor in the current context. The artist approaches the inner level of the soul by such means which is not unlike the state of mind reached through spiritual practice, drugging or hypnosis. Here it is achieved by concrete acts of the wasting of physical energy. At the same time this approach brings about a more fundamental surrogating effect, as much as certain association to social references hinted by the gestures of the actions. The energy is released and transformed live on-site. The experience belongs not only to the artist, but also to the audience. It is at the same time a location for time and actions which may be constructed with the space of art.

The experience appears in the progress of the work, too. And it is constantly refreshed. The artist not only offers calligraphy as an object, he also creates a kind of moment of writing or action. The experience may also be interpreted as a connection between man and space, the process of moving from A to B through the action of walking.

Pathos is a common sentiment of all intellectuals after the arrival of all the modernity. It is an attitude of continuously trying the obviously impossible, or that of harakiri or throwing oneself into the sea. These are the epitomes of an individual's struggle against the modern society. Human achievements such as bridges or skyscrapers have become the objects facilitating suicides or attracting terrorist attacks. On the one hand, they are symbolic of the ambition of mankind in remolding time and space, on the other hand they provide the easiest ways for human self-destruction.

Like many other intellectuals in our time, Zhang Yehong is doomed to shed his tears in the process of modernization, and to come nearer to divinities through the waste of energy, and to free the soul from materials in his experiences. What he turns to for assistance is the medium for culture and writing, as well as achieving the cultivation of the mind and the anitya of the self being and all matters in the universe, as indicated in the Diamond Sutra.