Taste the true meaning of beauty

"History of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting Aesthetics" by Fan Bo by Rong Baozhai Publishing House

The art of calligraphy and painting is an important part of traditional Chinese culture. In the long historical practice and evolution of calligraphy and painting, a large number of rich calligraphy and painting theories have been produced. Since the Sixth Dynasty, a large number of brilliant masters of calligraphy and painting have been born, from the "book saint" Wang Xizhi, the figure painter Gu Kaizhi, to the Tang Dynasty "painting saint" Wu Daozi, from the "first line of the world's book" "Orchid Pavilion Preface" to the "Sacrifice nephew manuscript" full of family and country feelings, from the brilliant "Map of a Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" to the "Qingming River Map" that reflects the secular life of the citizens of the Song Dynasty, these achievements not only highlight the aesthetic creativity of the Chinese nation in art, but also embody the profound connotation of Chinese thought and culture.

In today's field of calligraphy and painting research, there is one discipline that should be paid attention to, that is, the history of Chinese calligraphy and painting aesthetics. The author of this book, Mr. Fan Bo, has been working on it for a long time, extracting content with aesthetic significance from the theoretical materials of ancient calligraphy and painting, removing the essence, paying attention to the logic and historical development that runs through it, and constructing the "History of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting Aesthetics", which is a complete system and rigorous academic work.

Chinese aesthetics shows a unique ideological charm of the ancient East, inherits China's profound cultural genes, and embodies the national aesthetic consciousness that has been nurtured and formed for a long time. In the "History of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting Aesthetics", there are also many relevant analysis and comparisons, especially in the chapter on the aesthetics of Ming and Qing dynasty calligraphy and painting (including some of the content of the Yu Theory), the author examines the artistic reaction and trade-offs of Chinese painters to the intervention of Western painting from various levels in connection with the specific era background of Western learning and Eastern learning, revealing that Chinese painters not only have a broad-minded vision of absorbing foreign culture and art, but also have their own unique aesthetic stance and artistic vision.

Today, constructing a unique aesthetic system in the context of Chinese culture is a historical mission that contemporary scholars need to undertake. Mr. Ye Lang, a contemporary aesthetician, once pointed out in the Outline of the History of Chinese Aesthetics: "Chinese classical aesthetics has its own unique categories and systems", and should "respect the particularity of Chinese aesthetics and conduct independent and systematic research on Chinese classical aesthetics". As one of the essences of traditional culture, Chinese painting and calligraphy should deeply study the extremely valuable aesthetic ideas contained in it, which is a task that scholars should undertake today.

In Chinese art, calligraphy and painting, as a kind of literati, have non-utilitarian characteristics, and the works are the allegories and expressions of the inner feelings of the literati doctors, so they must include the pursuit and understanding of beauty. To grasp this point in depth, it is necessary to closely link the aesthetics of Chinese painting and calligraphy with the chinese pre-Qin philosophy and aesthetics. As the author says, the logical starting point of Chinese painting and calligraphy aesthetics is the works of pre-Qin philosophers and aestheticians (such as LaoZi, Guan Zi, Yi Chuan, Zhuangzi, and Xunzi). He summarized this logical starting point into sixteen propositions: existence and non-existence, Taoist nature, the world under one qi, the cultivation of the gods, the yin and yang harmony, the law of universal physics, the composition of imagery, the beauty of neutrality, the human Lunbide, the aesthetic mind, looking up and looking down, advancing on the Tao, discerning the form of god, rhetorical sincerity, and temperament expression. It can be said that the emergence and evolution of the entire history of calligraphy and painting aesthetics is based on these sixteen propositions. The aesthetics of calligraphy and painting in later generations elevated the experience of artistic practice to the height of philosophy and aesthetics (often sought from the treasure house of pre-Qin thought), and further summarized and developed, thus constituting a complete aesthetic history of calligraphy and painting that has both metaphysical and speculative colors and exudes sensual qualities.

The study of the history of calligraphy and painting aesthetics is of practical significance— as the author argues in the introduction to this book: "Ancient Chinese aestheticians and artists have put forward a series of very profound and wonderful aesthetic ideas and views. Through research, it can be found that these ideas and viewpoints clearly transcend and break through the limitations of a particular historical era, and thus have a universal and eternal theoretical value that spans ancient and modern times. ...... This theoretical value shines like a brilliant starlight and opens the hearts and wisdom of generations of people. "In the contemporary context, inheriting and carrying forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture and highlighting the humanistic spirit and aesthetic value in the art of calligraphy and painting cannot but attach importance to the study of the history of calligraphy and painting aesthetics."

The author links Chinese painting and calligraphy with aesthetics to investigate "history", explores the structured and systematic aesthetic system in Chinese painting and calligraphy, and explores the logical development of the beauty of calligraphy and painting at all levels and from different angles from the standpoint of "China", which is not only an academic innovation and the call of the times, but also the need to build a Chinese aesthetic system. Specifically, this investigation has two dimensions: one is the theoretical care of aesthetics, and the other is the systematic investigation of historiography.

As a branch of philosophy, the "conceptuality" of aesthetics is obviously more focused on speculative theoretical elaboration. Therefore, the history of aesthetics of calligraphy and painting focuses on the history of logical development composed of a series of concepts, categories and propositions, rather than a simple description of aesthetic experience. Although there was no concept of "aesthetics" in ancient China, there was no lack of awareness and discussion of beauty. This is especially evident in the two types of art forms of calligraphy and painting. In early art literature such as "Books" and "Paintings", we can hear the precursors of the aesthetics of calligraphy and painting, such as the description of the style of famous artists, the evaluation of "natural" and "kung fu", and the elaboration of propositions such as "six laws", which condense the ancients' thinking on the beauty of calligraphy and painting. In the afterword to his work, the author further summarizes this "aesthetic thinking" of the ancients into sixteen aspects: pen and ink connotation and color character, shape and knot law, composition and chapter method, mind, contemplation, creation, form, style, style, style, imagery, meteorology, artistic conception, appreciation and criticism, inheritance and development, humanistic cultivation, indoctrination function, and so on. From this, we can make theoretical summaries of the main issues concerned in the history of calligraphy and painting aesthetics, thus echoing the logical starting point mentioned above.

Today, the state vigorously carries forward the spirit of Chinese aesthetics, which provides a good opportunity for the study of the history of calligraphy and painting aesthetics. Grasping the theoretical characteristics of calligraphy and painting aesthetics, bringing together the theoretical essence of calligraphy and painting aesthetics in previous generations, and fully excavating the cultural resources contained in the history of calligraphy and painting aesthetics are an aspect of inheriting excellent traditional culture and national art. When we are faced with those ink paintings, jumping calligraphy, from a landscape, a flower, a brushstroke, a seal to understand the ancients' understanding and creation of beauty, when we try to read the true meaning of beauty word by word from the vast number of art classics, when we walk into the depths of history with awe to find the "logical net" that has been woven by our predecessors, the sail of research on the history of calligraphy and painting aesthetics has been raised. I am sure that the History of the Aesthetics of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy can help us embark on the journey of pursuing the beauty of calligraphy and painting, so as to go deeper into Chinese culture...

(Author: Xi Le, Editor of Rongbaozhai Publishing House)

Source: Guangming Daily