The Embodiment of Zhuangzi‘s Ecological Wisdom in Chinese Literati Painting (wenrenhua 文人畫) and Its Aesthetics

Abstract

Abstract**The paper deals with the relation of Daoist (mainly Zhuangzi's) ecological ideas on inter-penetration and "communication-without-communication" of things to Chinese landscape and bamboo painting, more specifically, to the ideas about the harmonization of the painter with the things (scene) painted in the process of producing the artwork. Its purpose is to explore a more nuanced, philosophical and non-Eurocentric interpretation of this peculiar kind of harmony of things or their "unity in particularity", as inspired by Zhuangzi's ideas and seemingly embodied in Chinese literati painting. For this purpose, the paper introduces few conceptual models, formulated by Western sinologists, as the particular philosophical schemes for the understanding of Zhuangzi's epistemology and cosmology, and then discusses their applicability with regard to the relationships between the painter and the world, as presented in early and classical Chinese painting aesthetics and theory.Keywords: Harmony, Dao, thing (wu 物), ecology, transformation Utelešenje Zhuangzijeve ekološke modrosti v kitajskem slikarstvu literatov (wenrenhua 文人畫) in njegova estetika IzvlečekPrispevek se ukvarja z daoističnimi (večinoma Zhuangzijevimi) ekološkimi idejami o interpenetraciji stvari in »komunikaciji-brez-komunikacije« ter z njihovo povezavo s kitajskim krajinskim slikarstvom, še posebej z idejami harmonizacije slikarja s stvarmi (podobami), ki jih naslika v procesu stvarjenja umetniškega izdelka. Namen prispevka je to proučiti in prikazati nekoliko bolj niansirano, filozofsko in ne-evropocentrično interpretacijo tovrstne specifične harmonije stvari ali njihovo »enost v posebnosti«, navdihnjeno z Zhuangzijevimi idejami in utelešeno v kitajskem slikarstvu literatov. S tem namenom prispevek najprej predstavi nekaj konceptualnih modelov, ki so jih formulirali zahodni sinologi kot posebne filozofske sheme za razumevanje Zhuangzijeve epistemologije in kozmologije, ter poskuša prikazati njihovo uporabnost z upoštevanjem odnosov med slikarjem in svetom, kot je prikazano v zgodnji klasični estetiki in teoriji kitajskega slikarstva.

Dickinson's Dao

“…Dickinson's poetic experiments seem more successful than those of her literary predecessors or contemporaries. The Daoist philosophy, especially Zhuangzi, espouses an aesthetic, contemplative attitude towards life as a whole, a principle that exerts a great impact on Chinese landscape painting; many Chinese painters try to embody in their art Zhuangzi's ideal of “spiritual freedom, spontaneity, wandering and reclusiveness,” enjoying the “all‐embracing harmony of change” (Poškaitė, , 223). In Dickinson's poetry, we can see these ideas exemplified in her “erasing‐while‐writing” model, “her poems about the coming of evening,” and some cryptic quatrains (Kang, , 76–79).…”