The Worlds Of Classical Chinese Aesthetics

This book presents the foundations of classical Chinese aesthetic discourse - roughly from the Bronze Age to the early Middle Ages - with the following animating questions: What is art? Why do we produce it? How do we judge it? The arts that garnered the most theoretical attention during this time period were music, poetry, calligraphy, and painting, and this book considers the reasons why these four were privileged. Whereas modern artists most likely consider themselves musicians or poets or calligraphers or painters or sculptors or architects, the pre-modern authors who produced the literature that established Chinese aesthetics prided themselves on being wenren, “cultured people,” conversant with all forms of art and learning. Other comparisons with Western theories and works of art are presented at due junctures. Key Features Addresses Chinese aesthetic discourse on its own terms Provides comparisons of key concepts and theories with examples from Western sources Includes more coverage of primary sources than any other English-language book on the subject Each chapter opens with a helpful summary, highlighting the chapter’s key themes

This book presents the foundations of classical Chinese aesthetic discourse - roughly from the Bronze Age to the early Middle Ages - and considers the reasons why music, poetry, calligraphy and painting were the arts that garnered the most theoretical attention during this period.

This book introduces traditional and modern aesthetics and arts, comparing the similarities and differences between traditional and modern Chinese aesthetics. It also explores the aesthetic implications of traditional Chinese paintings, and discusses the development of aesthetics throughout history, as well as the changes and improvements in Chinese aesthetics in the context of globalization.

Art is always a product of cultural evolution, and The History and Spirit of Chinese Art looks at this universal process as it unfolded in ancient China. With "mountain-water" landscape paintings, works of classical Chinese calligraphy, and blue and white porcelain widely displayed in museums and fetching high prices in auction houses worldwide, Chinese art is no longer foreign to the Western world. However, to many, the making of such cultural artefacts remains an enigmatic process. Indeed, Chinese art, the product of such an old civilization, was shaped by an ongoing process of evolution along the ebbs and flows of China's history as a nation. In The History and Spirit of Chinese Art, aesthetics expert Zhang Fa deciphers the philosophies and thoughts that have defined Chinese art since the very beginning of the Chinese civilization, moving through the dynastic landmarks of artistic development with discussions of numerous art forms including paintings, architecture, dance and music, calligraphy, and literature.

The Problem of a Chinese Aesthetic calls for and applies a new model of comparative literature - one that, instead of taking for granted the commensurability of traditions and texts, gives incompatibility and contradiction their due. Exposing contemporary literary theory to the risks of ancient Chinese literature (and vice versa), this book considers a linked series of case studies. To what degree does the translation between languages and texts that we call comparative literature depend on allegory or translation within a single text or language? The author offers an important, new perspective on the reading of the Shih-ching or Book of Odes and the question of allegory and metaphor in the Chinese poetic tradition.

This title provides a systematic examination of the philosophy of Chinese art, exploring the peculiarity of artistic forms and distinctive conceptions and artistic principles of Chinese art which are grounded in the life awareness of the ancient Chinese and interconnect with the Chinese philosophy of life. Synthesizing Chinese theories of art with Western philosophical systems, the book is organized into five parts: (1) the subject, the actor who creates, appreciates, and criticizes artistic works; (2) ontological aspects, that is, the artwork per se and the dynamic process of creation; (3) aesthetic traits, the organic whole constituted by rhythm, meter, the principle of harmony, and space-time awareness; (4) artistic representation, which is manifested in the rhythm of vital energy, momentum of genre, vigour of style, and taste and inclination; and (5) the evolution of Chinese art. Based on this structural thread, the author looks into the interwoven relationship between the philosophy of Chinese art and ancient Chinese thought in terms of the spirit of life, nature–human relations, and ontological awareness of human-centredness. The book will appeal to scholars, students, and general readers interested in aesthetics, art theory, art philosophy, Chinese art, and ancient Chinese culture.

Now available in paperback, this book provides an historical overview of Chinese art from antiquity to modern times, and examines the evolution of the sociological, psychological, philosophical, and spiritual underpinnings of Chinese culture in relation to art. Li Zehou draws on examples ofsculpture, painting, calligraphy, and poetry, among other sources, to build a cogent and engaging argument about the nature of Chinese artistic values. Since it was first published in Chinese in 1981, The Path of Beauty has been read widely and translated into several languages, becoming a classic in the study of Chinese aesthetics.

This singular work presents the most comprehensive and nuanced studies available in any Western language of Chinese aesthetic thought and practice during the Six Dynasties (A.D. 220–589). Despite a succession of dynastic and social upheavals, the literati preoccupied themselves with both the sensuous and the transcendent and strove for cultural dominance. By the end of the sixth century, their reflections would evolve into a sophisticated system of aesthetic discourse characterized by its own rhetoric and concepts. A prologue details the historical context in which Six Dynasties aesthetics arose and sketches out its major stages of development. The ten essays that follow bring fresh perspectives to bear on important writings on literature, music, painting, calligraphy, and gardening. Grounded in close readings of primary texts, they reveal the complex, dynamic interplay between life and art, the sensuous and the metaphysical, and the artistic and the philosophicaleligious that lies at the heart of the aesthetic thought and practice of the time. As a whole, the collection demonstrates that Six Dynasties achieved a sophistication in aesthetic thought comparable in many ways to that of the West: The discussion of disinterestedness in art, aesthetic judgment, and how mental images mediate between the supersensible and the sensible are reminiscent of Kant. The findings of various Chinese critics provide much food for thought in the broad fields of comparative literature and aesthetics. Chinese Aesthetics will fill a gap in Western sinological studies of the period. It will appeal to scholars and students in premodern Chinese literary studies, comparative aesthetics, and cultural studies and be a welcome reference to anyone interested in ancient Chinese culture. Contributors: Susan Bush; Zong-qi Cai; Kang-i Sun Chang; Ronald Egan; Robert E. Harrist, Jr.; Rania Huntington; Wai-yee Li; Shuen-fu Lin; Victor Mair; François Martin.