Hu, Xiaoyan
(2020)
The Art of Genius: The Notion of Qiyun (Spirit Consonance) in Chinese Painting and Some Kantian Resonances.
Doctor of Philosophy thesis, University of Liverpool.
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Abstract
This thesis discusses and provides an interpretation of the notion of qiyun (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. 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 thesis addresses an important feature of the Chinese aesthetic tradition, one that evades the aesthetic universality imposed through the lens of Kant. The thesis 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 10th 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.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctor of Philosophy) |
|---|---|
| Divisions: | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of the Arts |
| Depositing User: | Symplectic Admin |
| Date Deposited: | 18 Aug 2020 09:10 |
| Last Modified: | 18 Jan 2023 23:48 |
| DOI: | 10.17638/03090712 |
| Supervisors: |
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| URI: | https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3090712 |
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