Commercialization in the Ming and Qing dynasties caused profound changes to China's conventional hierarchies in multiple respects. This article examines literati and popular writings about drinking ...between the twelfth and eighteenth centuries as competing views of good taste for alcoholic beverages emerged among scholars. Many prominent writers, officials, and connoisseurs developed a taste for alcoholic drinks, such as the distilled spirits that were often associated with the non-elite classes. Some literati even operated breweries and distilleries. By focusing on the works of connoisseurs like Yuan Mei, I argue that ordinary people's taste for food and drinks helped constitute Ming-Qing literati elites' identities and sensibilities. Contrary to historians Craig Clunas and Wu Renshu, who argue that the dichotomy of literati elegance and non-elite vulgarity preserved social hierarchies, this article presents a more contested history of taste formation in late imperial society and questions the position of literati taste in broader sociocultural transformations.
El presente articulo examina los discursos sobre América transmitidos en China por misioneros jesuitas entre los siglos XVI y XVIII. Este busca demostrar el modo en que misioneros y sus colaboradores ...chinos crearon sus informaciones sobre el continente con el fin de apoyar su agenda política y misional. El texto comienza con una descripción de las estrategias de la misión en China y su relación con la producción geográfica sino-jesuita, para luego analizar la conexión de las informaciones sino-jesuitas sobre América con los planes de la misión. Se concluye que las representaciones sobre la geografía, gentes e historia de América reflejan tres intereses interrelacionados: atraer la atención de los literatos chinos; resaltar el alto desarrollo de la civilización europea; y comunicar mensajes religiosos.
The Shenxian daohua ju of the Yuan dynasty closely relates to Daoism. However, the essence and boundary of these two concepts have not been clearly defined and delineated in the existing research, ...which leads to confusion in analyzing their relationship. This article provides methodologies for defining Shenxian daohua ju and Daoism. Based on the extant Yuan zaju texts and confined to the themes of seclusion, deliverance, and ascending to immortality, we enumerate the particular dramatic texts of Shenxian daohua ju. Then, we limit the objects of the concept of Daoism to specific Daoist sects in history and highlight that the criteria for determining whether a Shenxian Dao (Celestial Being Sect) belongs to Daoism are provided by the officially recognized Daozang (Daoist canon). According to the above understanding of these two concepts, we explore their relationship from the following perspectives. First, in terms of composition subjects, these include the frustrated Confucian literati, the vassal Kings, and the imperial literati; the Shenxian daohua ju written by frustrated literati in the Yuan dynasty is not the embodiment of Daoist doctrines as some of the researchers conclude. Second, in light of the “aesthetic distinction”, we can also take Shenxian daohua ju as pure literary works and interpret these dramas from their literary structures and rhythmical forms. Third, from the perspective of the literary tradition, although with the adoption of Daoist themes, the Shenxian daohua ju of the Yuan dynasty still belongs to the Confucian poetic tradition. Its negation of secular life and advocacy of the ideal world follow the Confucian poetic teachings of “criticizing those above”. Objectively speaking, due to the influence of Daoism, the Shenxian daohua ju with the Daoist themes breaks through the taboo topics prescribed in Confucian literary principles to a certain extent and enriches Chinese literature.
Abstract
This paper investigates the poetry of Qu Xuanying, a literatus who remained in the city of Beiping (now Beijing) following its occupation by the Japanese in 1937. Through historical ...allusions in his poetry, Qu communicated with friends about the ethical dilemmas that he faced under occupation, and reflected upon the choices that literati in earlier eras had made when facing dynastic transitions and foreign conquest. Qu’s ‘esoteric writing’ during the occupation contained a complex set of historical allusions which referenced various points in the Chinese past. Since Qu served in the collaborationist north China regime, he has often been perceived as a ‘traitor’ or a ‘collaborator’. Through this in-depth analysis of his literary works, however, this paper seeks to reveal the special exegetical strategies adopted by literati such as Qu under occupation.
The Cultivation of Blandness Heubel, Fabian
Synthesis philosophica,
01/2021, Letnik:
36, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
U ovome članku, istražujem motiv »blagosti« (píngdàn 平淡) povezujući ga s raspravom o tvrdoći i mekoći te udaljenosti i blizini, kako je razmatrano u djelu Duh kineske umjetnosti modernog kineskog ...filozofa Xúa Fùguāna 徐復觀. Nadam se da ću na taj način proučiti značenje blagosti u kineskom slikarstvu učenjaka. U slikarstvu se učenjaka prakticira estetski granični doživljaj vezan za promjenjiva stanja energije daha i disanja. Uzdržava se od načina kreativnosti koji jednostrano teži intenzitetu, šoku i provokaciji. Ovdje se pod pojmom »blagosti« podrazumijeva filozofijski i estetski koncept koji se odnosi na kultiviranje sposobnosti slobodnog ostavljanja neiskorištenih mogućnosti. Ovo zvuči apsurdno ako se pretpostavi da estetika blagosti pripada konformističkom mišljenju imanencije. Nasuprot tome, predlažem shvaćanje blagosti kao područja u kojem imanencija i transcendencija, konačno i beskonačno paradoksno komuniciraju jedno s drugim.
Dans cet article, j’explore le motif de la « fadeur » (píngdàn 平淡) en le reliant à la discussion sur la dureté et la douceur, la distance et la proximité, telle qu’elle est abordée dans le livre L’esprit de l’art chinois du philosophe chinois moderne Xú Fùguān 徐復觀. De cette façon, j’espère de me pencher sur la signification de la fadeur dans la peinture des lettrés chinois. Dans la peinture lettrée, on pratique une expérience limite esthétique, qui est liée aux états changeants de souffle-énergie et de respiration. Elle s’abstient d’un mode de créativité qui vise unilatéralement l’intensité, le choc et la provocation. Ici, la « fadeur » est comprise comme un concept philosophique et esthétique qui fait référence à la culture de la capacité de laisser des possibilités inutilisées par liberté. Cela peut sembler absurde si l’on suppose que l’esthétique de la fadeur fait partie de la conformisme d’une pensée de l’immanence. En revanche, je propose une compréhension de la fadeur comme une sphère dans laquelle l’immanence et la transcendance, le fini et l’infini communiquent paradoxalement entre eux.
Dieser Beitrag ist dem Motiv der „Fadheit“ (píngdàn 平淡) gewidmet. Ich erörtere es, indem ich es mit der Diskussion von Härte und Weichheit, Ferne und Nähe in Verbindung bringe, die im Buch Der Geist der chinesischen Kunst des modernen chinesischen Philosophen Xú Fùguān 徐復觀 entfaltet wird. Auf diese Weise möchte ich der Bedeutung von Fadheit in der chinesischen Literatenmalerei nachgehen. In dieser wird damit eine ästhetische Grenzerfahrung eingeübt, die mit wechselnden Zuständen von Atem-Energie und Atmung zu tun hat. Sie verzichtet auf eine Art der Kreativität, die einseitig nach Intensität, Schock und Provokation strebt. Im Folgenden wird „Fadheit“ als ein philosophischer und ästhetischer Begriff verstanden, der sich auf die Kultivierung der Fähigkeit bezieht, Möglichkeiten aus Freiheit ungenutzt zu lassen. Das mag absurd klingen, solange unterstellt wird, dass die Ästhetik der Fadheit zum Konformismus eines Denkens der Immanenz gehört. Im Gegensatz dazu schlage ich ein Verständnis von Fadheit als einem Bereich vor, in dem Immanenz und Transzendenz, das Endliche und das Unendliche auf paradoxe Weise miteinander kommunizieren.
In this paper, I explore the motif of “blandness” (píngdàn 平淡) by relating it to the discussion of hardness and softness, farness and nearness, as discussed in the book The Spirit of Chinese Art by the modern Chinese philosopher Xú Fùguān 徐復觀. In this way, I hope to look into the significance of blandness in Chinese literati painting. In literati painting, an aesthetic limit-experience is practiced, which has to do with changing states of breath-energy and breathing. It refrains from a mode of creativity that one-sidedly strives for intensity, shock, and provocation. Here “blandness” is understood as a philosophical and aesthetic concept that refers to the cultivation of the ability to leave possibilities unused out of freedom. This sounds absurd if it is assumed that the aesthetics of blandness belongs to the follow-the-current thinking of immanence. In contrast, I propose an understanding of blandness as a realm in which immanence and transcendence, the finite and the infinite paradoxically communicate with each other.
A general lack of higher-order regularity in temporal organization is one important feature that differentiates qin music of the Chinese literati from most other genres of traditional Chinese music, ...but this has seldom been discussed in scholarly circles. To fill this gap, the present paper provides a systematic discussion of the freedom in metrical structure characteristic of qin music. Because rhythmic elements in qin music are not notated in the tablature score, and fine nuances arising from a variety of fingering techniques can affect the perception of phrasing and hierarchies of pulsation, studying the metrical structure of qin pieces is an act of interpretation and depends on a thorough grasp of traditional performance conventions and common melodic patterns in the music. Both authors being experienced qin players, this study is based on our interpretation of music of important qin players of the present and previous generations. Categories of temporal organization without higher-order regularity identified by the authors include "changing meter," "metrically ambiguous," and "free rhythm," as well as the particular category of "pulsation with interpolated half-beats," forming a continuum where each category merges into the next. Our case study of a representative example of the last category demonstrates an accelerating basic pulsation interrupted irregularly by interpolated half-beats. Such a feature has not been well described in traditional non-Western music, and defies the usual binary division of musical time organization in world music studies into categories with or without a basic regular pulse. This interpretation is confirmed by measurement of inter-onset intervals and linear regression analysis. With the irregular interruption, the listener is sometimes not sure whether certain notes are “on a beat” or are syncopated. Together with irregular interruptions to periodicity at higher levels, the metrical structure can be very ambiguous. The performer might have wanted to create an effect of syncopation or hemiola, but was not concerned with maintaining an overall regular pulsation or any higher-order regularity. The freedom in metrical structure in qin music demonstrates the importance of contextual factors in shaping musical characteristics. The distinctive aesthetic and philosophical perspectives of qin players are particularly important in developing this freedom, which we regard as a Daoist conception. The temporal organization in qin music, and in particular, the category "pulsation with interpolated half-beats," should provide useful insights into future work on temporal organization in world music, and indeed toward future work on the typology of temporal organization in music in general.
The Franciscan Order was one of the most important missionary orders in China during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. While rooted in the local communities, they also engaged in various forms of ...interactions with Chinese literati. This article will begin by briefly discussing the issue of the Franciscans changing from religious habit into Chinese dress as well as their evolving attitude towards Confucianism and Chinese rituals, aiming to illustrate the process of shaping their “Western Confucian” image and their adaptation to Chinese culture. Subsequently, the focus of this paper will be shifted to exploring the modes of interactions between the Spanish Franciscans and the Chinese literati. The author argues that the interactions between the two sides were primarily power-based. These power-based interactions entailed establishing connections with officials and leveraging their influence to safeguard missionary activities. It can be further categorized into three types. The first type involved socializing with officials, while the second type included interaction with Jesuit officials in court, and the third type was direct involvement in official positions. In their engagement with literati, the Franciscans demonstrated a thorough understanding of and adaptation to Chinese societal and cultural norms, thereby facilitating the development of their mission.
This paper attempts to examine the spread of medical prescription knowledge during the Song dynasty and the role played by the literati officials through a reconstruction of the transmission of ...Painongneibusan, a prescription to treat abscesses. An examination of the origins of Painongneibusan shows that after being confirmed in the Qianjinyaofang, it was passed down through Waitaimiyao, Taipingshenghuifang, Shengjizonglu, and Taipinghuiminhejijufang. In particular, in the records from Taipinghuiminhejijufang, which was revised and enlarged during the Shaoxing period (1131-1162) unlike transmissions that were almost identical to those from previous periods, we can find a clear increase in the knowledge regarding medicinal effects, medicinal ingredients, administration methods, precautions and so on. However, if we examine the same prescription record included in Hongshijiyanfang published by Hong Jun in 1170, we can see that the contents are almost exactly the same as those in Taipinghuiminhejijufang and that Hongshijiyanfang had even more content. Through this study, we can deduce that the prescription recorded in these two books were from the same original text. In addition, we can conclude that the original text is likely to be sourced from the knowledge of folk medicine. According to the records, Hu Quan received this prescription from an “outsider,” and Hu Quan gave this to Hong Kuo, who wrote an introduction and published it as a stone carving in Huizhou. After this, knowledge about this prescription became known far and wide. While Chen Yan criticized the abuse of this prescription, Hong Jun still included it in Hongshijiyanfang, and Hong Mai included it in Yijianzhi, leading to it becoming even more widespread. Due to this spread of the prescription, the transmission of the description that is connected from “Outsider – Ho Quan – Three Hong Brothers” continued to appear in many medical anthologies by literati officials. Whenever this prescription was mentioned, they referred to Three Hong Brothers, and it went as far as to cause the practice to sometimes be called Hongshineibusan.” Chen Ziming continued the criticism of Chen Yan in Waikejingyao; while the prescription made famous by Hong Kuo had the same contents as prescription in Taipinghuiminhejijufang, the fact that criticism was only directed at Hong Kuo is a proof of his influence in the spread of related knowledge. In conclusion, this happened during an active time of accumulation, exchange, and competition in the knowledge of prescription, as can be observed in various sources from the Song Period. There were various communications and exchanges between officials, locals, and literati officials, and tensions could also sometimes be found. We can say that the role of the literati officials was to collect, record, publish, and spread the knowledge of medicine taken from various sources. In addition, in relation to the spread of the knowledge of medicine, the influence of the literati officials exceeded Taipinghuiminhejijufang, which was the official text at that time.
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