Xiaoyan Hu | Southeast University (China) (original) (raw)
Papers by Xiaoyan Hu
Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics, 2021
In this paper, I suggest that the notion of qiyun (qi: spirit; yun: consonance) in the context of... more In this paper, I suggest that the notion of qiyun (qi: spirit; yun: consonance) in the context of landscape painting involves a moral dimension. The Confucian doctrine of sincerity involved in bringing the landscapist's or audience's mind in accord with the Dao underpins the moral dimension of spiritual communion between artist, object, audience, and work. By projecting Kant's and Schiller's conceptions of aesthetic autonomy and the moral relevance of art onto the qiyun-focused context, we see that the reflection on parallels and differences between the two cultural traditions helps to better understand the moral dimension of qiyun aesthetics.
Asian Philosophy, 2019
In this paper, I show that classical Chinese artists adopted either Daoist or Chan Buddhist medit... more In this paper, I show that classical Chinese artists adopted either Daoist or Chan Buddhist meditation to cultivate their mind to be in accord with the Dao, and that their view of the detached mental state as an ideal mental state for art appears to fit in with Kant’s notion of aesthetic freedom. Even though it might be claimed that sensibilities are stressed over rationality in the classical Chinese artistic tradition, I suggest that the detached mental state cultivated through Daoist or Chan Buddhist meditation and experienced in artistic practice helps artists restore a balanced human nature. By projecting Schiller’s account of the play drive, and the account of aesthetic freedom he developed from Kant’s ideas, into the classical Chinese artistic context, I attempt to explain the balanced nature realised through artistic play by classical Chinese artists and point out the differences behind the parallels between these two approaches.
Philosophy East and West, 2019
In this paper, I attempt to examine the feasibility of projecting Kant’s account of genius as an ... more In this paper, I attempt to examine the feasibility of projecting Kant’s account of genius as an innate mental talent of idea-giving into the context of qiyun-focused Chinese painting. I will explain parallels and significant differences between pictorial yi (idea) or yixiang (idea-image) and Kant’s aesthetic idea, and between the shen (spirit) taken to animate yi and the spirit that Kant thinks animates the aesthetic idea. Key words: qiyun (spirit consonance), Kant, genius, aesthetic idea, spirit, yi (idea), xiang (image), shen (spirit), Chinese painting.
Proceedings of the European Society for Aesthetics, volume 11, 2019
In this paper, I suggest that the notion of qiyun (spirit consonance) in the context of landscape... more In this paper, I suggest that the notion of qiyun (spirit consonance) in the context of landscape painting involves a moral dimension. The Confucian doctrine of sincerity involved in bringing the landscapist’s or audience’s mind in accord with the Dao underpins the moral dimension of spiritual communion between artist, object, audience and work. By projecting Kant’s, and Schiller’s somewhat modified Kantian philosophy of aesthetic autonomy and the moral relevance of art into the qiyun-focused context, we shall see that reflection on parallels and differences between the two cultural traditions helps to better understand the moral dimension of qiyun aesthetics.
Proceedings of European Society For Aesthetics. Volumn 9 /2017 p. 246-274, 2017
This paper explores the elusive dialectic between concentration and forgetfulness, consciousness ... more This paper explores the elusive dialectic between concentration and forgetfulness, consciousness and unconsciousness in spontaneous artistic creation favoured by artists and advocated by critics in Chinese art history, by examining texts on painting and tracing back to ancient Daoist philosophical ideas, in a comparison with Kantian and post-Kantian aesthetics. Although artistic spontaneity in classical Chinese aesthetics seems to share similarities with Kant’s account of spontaneity in the art of genius, the emphasis on unconsciousness is valued by classical Chinese artists and critics inspired by the Daoist idea of ‘Wu Wei’ (acting without conscious intention or effort). As the Qing painter Wang Yuanqi (1642–1715) claimed when admitting his failure to copy the Yuan master Ni Zan (1301–1374), Ni Zan’s success in
natural and untrammelled expression lies ‘in between having an intention and not having one’. A similar idea about the dialectic of consciousness and unconsciousness in artistic spontaneity was suggested by Heinrich von Kleist’s On the Marionette Theatre (1880), which demonstrated that while self-consciousness might disturb and hinder the naturalness of artistic expression and thus encourage affectation, it does not mean that there is no role for consciousness. Although the views on unconsciousness in art and the co-play of consciousness and unconscious in artistic creation by Schelling, Schiller, Goethe, and even Nietzsche might get inspirations from Kant’s hidden view of the unconscious, Kant’s emphasis on the harmonious cooperation between imagination and understanding disguises his inexplicit idea of the unconscious. This paper will demonstrate that while in both Classical Chinese and European cultural contexts, artists, critics and philosophers talk about the same elusive relation, the philosophical explanations of the same phenomenon are essentially distinctive.
Proceedings of 2016 20th International Congress of Aesthetics, 2016
Proceedings of European Society For Aesthetics. Volumn 8 /2016 p. 247-268, 2016
‘Spirit consonance engendering a sense of life’ (Qi Yun Sheng Dong) as the first law of Chinese p... more ‘Spirit consonance engendering a sense of life’ (Qi Yun Sheng Dong) as the first law of Chinese painting, originally proposed by Xie He (active 500–535?) in his six laws of painting, has been commonly echoed
by numerous later Chinese artists up to this day. Tracing back the meaning of each character of ‘Qi Yun Sheng Dong’ from Pre-Qin up to the Six Dynasties, along with a comparative analysis on the renderings of ‘Qi Yun Sheng Dong’ by experts in Western academia, I establish ‘spirit consonance’ as the rendering of ‘Qi Yun’. By examining texts on painting by significant critics in Chinese art history, and by referring to specific works by painters from the Six Dynasties up to the Yuan Dynasty, I present the merits and demerits of the different interpretations by Western experts, and explore the essence of ‘Qi Yun’. Once the painter successfully captures ‘spirit consonance’ as the essential character or ‘internal reality’ of the object, and transmits it into the work, ‘Qi Yun’ further implies the expressive quality of the work beyond formal representation. Additionally, the fusion of expressive and representative functions also leaves space for further explaining the aesthetic interaction among artist, object, work, and audience. From the Six Dynasties onwards, Chinese painters have practised the expressive pursuit beyond epresentation on the basis of the unification of ‘Qi Yun’ (spirit consonance) and formal representation, although spirit consonance was valued more highly than formal likeness.
Talks by Xiaoyan Hu
About the event In this lecture, we will see how the aesthetics of emerging-submerging realised i... more About the event
In this lecture, we will see how the aesthetics of emerging-submerging realised in the depictions of sinuous water, undulant mountains, mists and haze, in the 10th to 14th century landscape paintings reflect the painters’ love of challenging themselves to capture the eternal transition and modification of nature. From the examination of a synthesis of Confucianist and Daoist ideas behind the story of mists, we shall better appreciate why and how this aesthetics reflects landscapists’ conception of existence as processual.
Books by Xiaoyan Hu
Lexington Books (an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield), 2021
The appendix lists the original Chinese texts mentioned in the book The Aesthetics of Qiyun and G... more The appendix lists the original Chinese texts mentioned in the book The Aesthetics of Qiyun and Genius: Spirit Consonance in Chinese Landscape Painting and Some Kantian Echoes; the translations of some texts are partially quoted or paraphrased in the book. The number in the brackets refers to page where the English translation of the original Chinese text is quoted, or the original Chinese text is mentioned.
Lexington Books (an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield), 2021
This book discusses and provides an interpretation of the notion of qiyun in Chinese painting, an... more This book discusses and provides an interpretation of the notion of qiyun 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. A central feature of my discussion is a comparison of the role of this innate mental disposition in the aesthetics of qiyun and Kant’s account of artistic genius. Through this comparison, the book addresses an important feature of the Chinese aesthetic tradition, one that evades the aesthetic universality imposed through the lens of Kant.
The book includes two parts. The first part draws upon the views of Xie He (active 500–ca. 535), the late Tang art historian Zhang Yanyuan (847), the tenth-century landscapist and theorist Jing Hao (ca. 870–ca. 930), the Northern Song art historian Guo Ruoxu (ca. 1080) and the early Yuan connoisseur Tang Hou (ca. 1255–ca. 1317), to explain and discuss qiyun and its development from a notion mainly applied to figure painting to one that also plays an important and enduring role in the aesthetic 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. These include why the ability to create paintings replete with qiyun is regarded as determined by an innate mental disposition endowed by tian (nature) and belonging only to a few gifted artists, how genius establishes pictorial yi (idea) under the animation of shen (spirit) in the context of qiyun-focused landscape painting, how following the rule of tian enables qiyun to be captured in artistic spontaneity, and why somatic training or practice of genius is required despite the impossibility of teaching or learning qiyun. Also discussed are why and how yipin (the untrammelled class) demonstrates the originality and exemplarity of genius, why and how a pure, untrammelled and lofty mind is cultivated as an ideal mental state for conveying qiyun, how the disinterested aesthetic pleasure of the heart in tune with forest and stream is combined with an interest in pursuing the carefree wandering of a city-recluse-artist, and how a balanced human nature is nourished and its union with tian realised through painting a work replete with qiyun. Finally, I explore how the Confucian doctrine of sincerity is involved in spiritual communion (shenhui) between artist, object, work and audience, and how aesthetic autonomy and the moral relevance of art are reconciled under the first criterion of qiyun. The comparison with Kant on these issues demystifies the uniqueness of qiyun aesthetics and also illuminates some limitations in Kant’s aesthetics.
Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics, 2021
In this paper, I suggest that the notion of qiyun (qi: spirit; yun: consonance) in the context of... more In this paper, I suggest that the notion of qiyun (qi: spirit; yun: consonance) in the context of landscape painting involves a moral dimension. The Confucian doctrine of sincerity involved in bringing the landscapist's or audience's mind in accord with the Dao underpins the moral dimension of spiritual communion between artist, object, audience, and work. By projecting Kant's and Schiller's conceptions of aesthetic autonomy and the moral relevance of art onto the qiyun-focused context, we see that the reflection on parallels and differences between the two cultural traditions helps to better understand the moral dimension of qiyun aesthetics.
Asian Philosophy, 2019
In this paper, I show that classical Chinese artists adopted either Daoist or Chan Buddhist medit... more In this paper, I show that classical Chinese artists adopted either Daoist or Chan Buddhist meditation to cultivate their mind to be in accord with the Dao, and that their view of the detached mental state as an ideal mental state for art appears to fit in with Kant’s notion of aesthetic freedom. Even though it might be claimed that sensibilities are stressed over rationality in the classical Chinese artistic tradition, I suggest that the detached mental state cultivated through Daoist or Chan Buddhist meditation and experienced in artistic practice helps artists restore a balanced human nature. By projecting Schiller’s account of the play drive, and the account of aesthetic freedom he developed from Kant’s ideas, into the classical Chinese artistic context, I attempt to explain the balanced nature realised through artistic play by classical Chinese artists and point out the differences behind the parallels between these two approaches.
Philosophy East and West, 2019
In this paper, I attempt to examine the feasibility of projecting Kant’s account of genius as an ... more In this paper, I attempt to examine the feasibility of projecting Kant’s account of genius as an innate mental talent of idea-giving into the context of qiyun-focused Chinese painting. I will explain parallels and significant differences between pictorial yi (idea) or yixiang (idea-image) and Kant’s aesthetic idea, and between the shen (spirit) taken to animate yi and the spirit that Kant thinks animates the aesthetic idea. Key words: qiyun (spirit consonance), Kant, genius, aesthetic idea, spirit, yi (idea), xiang (image), shen (spirit), Chinese painting.
Proceedings of the European Society for Aesthetics, volume 11, 2019
In this paper, I suggest that the notion of qiyun (spirit consonance) in the context of landscape... more In this paper, I suggest that the notion of qiyun (spirit consonance) in the context of landscape painting involves a moral dimension. The Confucian doctrine of sincerity involved in bringing the landscapist’s or audience’s mind in accord with the Dao underpins the moral dimension of spiritual communion between artist, object, audience and work. By projecting Kant’s, and Schiller’s somewhat modified Kantian philosophy of aesthetic autonomy and the moral relevance of art into the qiyun-focused context, we shall see that reflection on parallels and differences between the two cultural traditions helps to better understand the moral dimension of qiyun aesthetics.
Proceedings of European Society For Aesthetics. Volumn 9 /2017 p. 246-274, 2017
This paper explores the elusive dialectic between concentration and forgetfulness, consciousness ... more This paper explores the elusive dialectic between concentration and forgetfulness, consciousness and unconsciousness in spontaneous artistic creation favoured by artists and advocated by critics in Chinese art history, by examining texts on painting and tracing back to ancient Daoist philosophical ideas, in a comparison with Kantian and post-Kantian aesthetics. Although artistic spontaneity in classical Chinese aesthetics seems to share similarities with Kant’s account of spontaneity in the art of genius, the emphasis on unconsciousness is valued by classical Chinese artists and critics inspired by the Daoist idea of ‘Wu Wei’ (acting without conscious intention or effort). As the Qing painter Wang Yuanqi (1642–1715) claimed when admitting his failure to copy the Yuan master Ni Zan (1301–1374), Ni Zan’s success in
natural and untrammelled expression lies ‘in between having an intention and not having one’. A similar idea about the dialectic of consciousness and unconsciousness in artistic spontaneity was suggested by Heinrich von Kleist’s On the Marionette Theatre (1880), which demonstrated that while self-consciousness might disturb and hinder the naturalness of artistic expression and thus encourage affectation, it does not mean that there is no role for consciousness. Although the views on unconsciousness in art and the co-play of consciousness and unconscious in artistic creation by Schelling, Schiller, Goethe, and even Nietzsche might get inspirations from Kant’s hidden view of the unconscious, Kant’s emphasis on the harmonious cooperation between imagination and understanding disguises his inexplicit idea of the unconscious. This paper will demonstrate that while in both Classical Chinese and European cultural contexts, artists, critics and philosophers talk about the same elusive relation, the philosophical explanations of the same phenomenon are essentially distinctive.
Proceedings of 2016 20th International Congress of Aesthetics, 2016
Proceedings of European Society For Aesthetics. Volumn 8 /2016 p. 247-268, 2016
‘Spirit consonance engendering a sense of life’ (Qi Yun Sheng Dong) as the first law of Chinese p... more ‘Spirit consonance engendering a sense of life’ (Qi Yun Sheng Dong) as the first law of Chinese painting, originally proposed by Xie He (active 500–535?) in his six laws of painting, has been commonly echoed
by numerous later Chinese artists up to this day. Tracing back the meaning of each character of ‘Qi Yun Sheng Dong’ from Pre-Qin up to the Six Dynasties, along with a comparative analysis on the renderings of ‘Qi Yun Sheng Dong’ by experts in Western academia, I establish ‘spirit consonance’ as the rendering of ‘Qi Yun’. By examining texts on painting by significant critics in Chinese art history, and by referring to specific works by painters from the Six Dynasties up to the Yuan Dynasty, I present the merits and demerits of the different interpretations by Western experts, and explore the essence of ‘Qi Yun’. Once the painter successfully captures ‘spirit consonance’ as the essential character or ‘internal reality’ of the object, and transmits it into the work, ‘Qi Yun’ further implies the expressive quality of the work beyond formal representation. Additionally, the fusion of expressive and representative functions also leaves space for further explaining the aesthetic interaction among artist, object, work, and audience. From the Six Dynasties onwards, Chinese painters have practised the expressive pursuit beyond epresentation on the basis of the unification of ‘Qi Yun’ (spirit consonance) and formal representation, although spirit consonance was valued more highly than formal likeness.
About the event In this lecture, we will see how the aesthetics of emerging-submerging realised i... more About the event
In this lecture, we will see how the aesthetics of emerging-submerging realised in the depictions of sinuous water, undulant mountains, mists and haze, in the 10th to 14th century landscape paintings reflect the painters’ love of challenging themselves to capture the eternal transition and modification of nature. From the examination of a synthesis of Confucianist and Daoist ideas behind the story of mists, we shall better appreciate why and how this aesthetics reflects landscapists’ conception of existence as processual.
Lexington Books (an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield), 2021
The appendix lists the original Chinese texts mentioned in the book The Aesthetics of Qiyun and G... more The appendix lists the original Chinese texts mentioned in the book The Aesthetics of Qiyun and Genius: Spirit Consonance in Chinese Landscape Painting and Some Kantian Echoes; the translations of some texts are partially quoted or paraphrased in the book. The number in the brackets refers to page where the English translation of the original Chinese text is quoted, or the original Chinese text is mentioned.
Lexington Books (an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield), 2021
This book discusses and provides an interpretation of the notion of qiyun in Chinese painting, an... more This book discusses and provides an interpretation of the notion of qiyun 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. A central feature of my discussion is a comparison of the role of this innate mental disposition in the aesthetics of qiyun and Kant’s account of artistic genius. Through this comparison, the book addresses an important feature of the Chinese aesthetic tradition, one that evades the aesthetic universality imposed through the lens of Kant.
The book includes two parts. The first part draws upon the views of Xie He (active 500–ca. 535), the late Tang art historian Zhang Yanyuan (847), the tenth-century landscapist and theorist Jing Hao (ca. 870–ca. 930), the Northern Song art historian Guo Ruoxu (ca. 1080) and the early Yuan connoisseur Tang Hou (ca. 1255–ca. 1317), to explain and discuss qiyun and its development from a notion mainly applied to figure painting to one that also plays an important and enduring role in the aesthetic 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. These include why the ability to create paintings replete with qiyun is regarded as determined by an innate mental disposition endowed by tian (nature) and belonging only to a few gifted artists, how genius establishes pictorial yi (idea) under the animation of shen (spirit) in the context of qiyun-focused landscape painting, how following the rule of tian enables qiyun to be captured in artistic spontaneity, and why somatic training or practice of genius is required despite the impossibility of teaching or learning qiyun. Also discussed are why and how yipin (the untrammelled class) demonstrates the originality and exemplarity of genius, why and how a pure, untrammelled and lofty mind is cultivated as an ideal mental state for conveying qiyun, how the disinterested aesthetic pleasure of the heart in tune with forest and stream is combined with an interest in pursuing the carefree wandering of a city-recluse-artist, and how a balanced human nature is nourished and its union with tian realised through painting a work replete with qiyun. Finally, I explore how the Confucian doctrine of sincerity is involved in spiritual communion (shenhui) between artist, object, work and audience, and how aesthetic autonomy and the moral relevance of art are reconciled under the first criterion of qiyun. The comparison with Kant on these issues demystifies the uniqueness of qiyun aesthetics and also illuminates some limitations in Kant’s aesthetics.