Art as Inquiry: The Path of Chinese Lyric Aesthetic (Departmental Seminar)

Abstract:

Beginning with music, through the emergence of lyric poetry, and culminating in the literati brush-and-ink landscapes of the Southern Song, something happened, something Kao Yu-kung calls Chinese lyric aesthetic. What is at issue for us here is the nature and character of this happening. I begin with a characterization of the fundamental orientation of Chinese thinkers (as contrasted with that of Indo-European thinkers), then turn briefly to the thought of Confucius and of Zhuangzi to expose the intellectual and existential roots of the lyric tradition. The lyric tradition itself is explicated as a working out of the Zhuangzian ideal of resonating, mirroring things as they are. Since our conception of Chinese lyric aesthetic can seem surprising, somehow unanticipated, the discussion concludes with an account of why this conception has for so long gone unremarked, an account that brings us full circle, back to the fundamental orientation of Chinese thinkers with which we began.

Delivered in English.
All are welcome.