The Aesthetics of Qiyun and Genius

The Aesthetics of Qiyun and Genius
Author: Xiaoyan Hu
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2021-08-10
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1793641579

In The Aesthetics of Qiyun and Genius: Spirit Consonance in Chinese Landscape Painting and Some Kantian Echoes, Xiaoyan Hu provides an interpretation of the notion of qiyun, or spirit consonance, in Chinese painting, and considers why creating a painting—especially a landscape painting—replete with qiyun is regarded as an art of genius, where genius is an innate mental talent. Through a comparison of the role of this innate mental disposition in the aesthetics of qiyun and Kant’s account of artistic genius, the book addresses an important feature of the Chinese aesthetic tradition, one that evades the aesthetic universality assumed by a Kantian lens. Drawing on the views of influential sixth to fourteenth-century theorists and art historians and connoisseurs, the first part explains and discusses qiyun and its conceptual development from a notion mainly applied to figure painting to one that also plays an enduring role in the aesthetics of landscape painting. In the light of Kant’s account of genius, the second part examines a range of issues regarding the role of the mind in creating a painting replete with qiyun and the impossibility of teaching qiyun. Through this comparison with Kant, Hu demystifies the uniqueness of qiyun aesthetics and also illuminates some limitations in Kant’s aesthetics. The publication of this work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (project no: 3213042202A1).

Empty and Full

Empty and Full
Author: François Cheng
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Total Pages: 204
Release: 1994
Genre: Art
ISBN:

Chinese painting might be called "philosophy in action", for it is one of the highest expressions of Chinese spirituality. Both a medium for contemplation leading to self-transcendence and a microcosm embodying universal principles and primal forces, it is a means for making manifest the Chinese worldview. At the heart of this worldview is the notion of emptiness, the dynamic principle of transformation. Only through emptiness can things attain their full measure and human beings approach the universe at the level of totality. Focusing on the principle of emptiness, Francois Cheng uses semiotic analysis and textual explication to reveal the key themes and structures of Chinese aesthetics in the practice of pictorial art. Among the many Chinese writers, poets, and artists whose writings are quoted, he gives special emphasis to a great Ch'ing dynasty theoretician and painter, Shih-t'ao. Twenty-seven reproductions of the words of Shih-t'ao and other masters illustrate the interpretive commentary.

Harmony Garden

Harmony Garden
Author: J. D. Schmidt
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 781
Release: 2013-12-16
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 113686217X

This is the first complete study of China's most popular eighteenth-century poet in any Western language. The work consists of a detailed biography, a study of Yuan's revolutionary reinterpretation of Chinese literary theory, and an analysis of his many contributions to the more original genres of Qing-dynasty (1644-1911) poetry such as narrative, historical, didactic, eccentric, and nature verse. The study is concluded by a generous and representative sampling of Yuan's poetry in translation, the first to do justice to the wide variety and richness of his oeuvre. Although many shorter poems are selected, this is the first translation to include his outstanding longer poetry. Harmony Garden will completely revise current attitudes in the west concerning classical Chines literature during the eighteenth century, a period that was long viewed as one of decline, but now appears to equal the golden ages of antiquity.

The Painter's Practice

The Painter's Practice
Author: James Cahill
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 218
Release: 1994
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780231081818

His work fills in the hitherto unexplored social and economic contexts in which painters worked, revealing the details of how painters in China actually made their living from the sixteenth century onward.

Museum Skepticism

Museum Skepticism
Author: David Carrier
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2006-05-31
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780822336945

DIVProminent art historian looks at the birth of the art museum and contemplates its future as a public institution./div