1. Introduction
The word “aesthetics” comes from the West. Phelps et al. (2004) suggest that aesthetics is defined as “all studies of the arts and related types of experience from philosophic, scientific, or other theoretical standpoints, including those of psychology, sociology, anthropology, cultural history, art criticism, and education. “‘The Arts’ include the visual arts, literature, music, and the theater art.” The term aesthetics was introduced to China, and is translated in Chinese as mei xue, meaning the study of beauty. Chinese scholars have their understanding of aesthetics. Li Zehou, a renowned philosopher, noted three levels of artistic experience in Chinese aesthetics: the sense of beauty, the satisfaction of mind heart, and the satisfaction of the intellectual intuition (Li, 1986). Contentment of mind-heart refers to the oneness of body and mind, while the intellectual intuition means the spiritual, inward, unconscious knowing or awareness. Every artist aspires to achieve the third or highest level of the artistic experience. Important Chinese aesthetic concepts include symbolism and simplicity.
Traditional Chinese aesthetic inquiry is largely influenced by China’s philosophical traditions. It is rooted in Confucianism and influenced by Buddhism and Daoism, the three pillars of traditional Chinese philosophy. Du Meng, a distinguished calligrapher of the Tang dynasty, put forth some important criteria for calligraphy such as mystery, balance, richness, purity, and divinity (Chiang, 1973). The state of divinity can only be achieved through intuition, as it refers to the spirit rather than appearance of things and therefore goes beyond technical skill. Conventionally, metaphysics in Chinese thought is related to the cosmological order, which defines a coherent system of relationships. These relations are expressed in a metaphorical way. This aesthetic approach tends to integrate functions of parts into the total system in line with a particular belief. Chinese arts put emphasis on spiritual aesthetic satisfaction. For example, musical modes work together to shape a particular mood. This paper investigates aesthetic approaches and values related to Chinese arts in general and Kunju in particular.
2. Aesthetic Value
Art expresses human creativity and imagination. It includes drama, music, painting, and literature. The traditional Chinese arts are largely different from their Western counterparts, due to cultural differences. And it “must be judged by native standards”, Buss (1922) rightly noted. Chinese drama, literature, and painting, among others, are indigenous. Western art theories do not apply to those traditional Chinese art forms. Traditional Chinese music, for instance, is of highest artistic value, as it has transcendental quality. It is closely related to traditional Chinese philosophy, thoughts that set up a priori rationale largely based on the cosmological principles that indicate a system of relationships. For example, the term “five elements” is a key idea in Chinese philosophy. Traditional Chinese music has five musical tones. Historically, nanqu (Southern Opera), predecessor of Kunju, featured pentatonic scale.
Aesthetic sense demonstrates sensitivity to or sense awareness of the artistic and symbolic representations of reality. These interpretations often reflect abstract qualities or values, such as beauty, goodness, and enjoyment. Those values are widely shared in East and West. In daily life, we can choose, interrelate, and integrate various kinds of affective and cognitive experience, making some enhancements and refinements. These experiences are heavily reliant on psychological reception, and sense of time and space. An image is formed in the mind’s eye of viewers. An aesthetic approach helps us synthesize cognitive, conceptual and intellectual experiences. The aesthetic process is created through the integration and interaction of awareness from sensory and emotional to rational and metaphysical perceptions. Aesthetic significance is given by affection and cognition, feeling and understanding. Music appreciation comes from understanding sound combinations and building relations between them.
Chinese aesthetics refers to the distinctive Chinese aesthetic sensibility—tradition of taste and aesthetic preference. As Chinese translation of aesthetics is mei xue—the study of beauty, the sense of beauty is of primary importance to art appreciation, perceptual and conceptual or intellectual. The beauty of an object elicits aesthetic response called mei gan in Chinese or sense of beauty in English. The sense of beauty develops from aesthetic cognition.
The sense of beauty involves both cognitive and emotive elements. Cognitive factors refer to the perception, sensation of the beautiful whereas emotive element means the aesthetic experience and emotions aroused by the beautiful. The sense of beauty arises from people’s sense awareness of objective beauty. This cognition is gained by people’s sense of objective beauty. Therefore, recognition of objective beauty is crucial to the sense of beauty. Only when subjective consciousness acquires right cognition of objective beauty can the sense of beauty arise.
Sense of beauty, Cai (2009) insists, means the cognition of the beauty of external objects, cognition that stirs psychological reactions, primarily emotions or feelings. According to him, only if we first recognize the law of being beautiful that our sense of beauty can be aroused by the beauty of an object (Cai, 2009). That is to say, we must recognize universality as well as particularity or individuality, for the former is manifested in the latter. Put it differently, we must grasp “its peculiar character or prominent individuality”, and “its essential nature, the fully manifested universality within its individuality” (Cai, 2009). Cai argues that this aesthetic cognition involves two simultaneous processe—perceptual and intellectual (Cai, 2009). Specifically, knowledge of the law of beauty determines the beauty of the object or the objective thing (Cai, 2009). If we have little or no knowledge of the law of beauty, we are unable to appreciate the beauty of the objective thing. Both perceptual and intellectual cognition have two components: form and content.
Perceptual cognition is mainly auditory and visual. Visual contents include color or pretty form. As for Kunju, contents of visual sense may cover costume, makeup, and lighting, among others. But these are beyond the scope of this paper. In music practice of the Peony Pavilion, contents of auditory sense are primary concerns. The beautiful lyrics and associated melody of the Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzhu, its various adaptations afterwards, are, to some extent, subjective and objective simultaneously. But when staged, the playscript and performance conventions are objects for viewers to appreciate and critique. Each version is unique, and different from others. Viewers’ subjective perception occurs simultaneously with the sense cognition. For example, if the lyrics are beautifully written and their melodies are beautifully delivered, the subjective perception it arouses would be pleasing and satisfying. The same playscript and performance arouse different emotions or feelings in various groups of audience, largely due to people’s knowledge of and preference for Kunju.
Intellectual cognition is also indispensable to the sense of beauty. Because the nature of a beautiful thing is fully demonstrated by its external presentations, its universality revealed in its individuality is recognized by intellect only. The intellect helps us understand the law governing why a beautiful thing is beautiful. Intellectual cognition, therefore, builds on external phenomena or objective contents. It is largely satisfied by these contents. Intellect helps perception recognize and reinforce the pleasure it has experienced. By so doing, the sensation or sense pleasure is elevated to the emotional pleasure or pleasure of feelings. Feelings are different from sensation. But the occurrence of feelings is made by and developed from sensation. Sensation concerns perceptual cognition, whereas feelings are based on sensation and determined by intellect. Feelings, by nature, are activities of the mind or consciousness. Thus, sense of beauty refers to the pleasure of body and mind simultaneously. That is, perception and intellect work together to acquire the sense of beauty. Aesthetic cognition develops from perception to intellect by lifting perceptual delight to the pleasure of feelings. Feelings are controlled and regulated by intellect. In other words, these feelings or emotions are rational, though seemingly spontaneous.
The sense of beauty consists of perceptual pleasure and intellectual satisfaction. Perceptual pleasure is stirred by cognition or sense awareness of objective beauty. This perception, meanwhile, delights the mind, leaving one intellectually satisfied.
The perceptual and intellectual procedures occur simultaneously. This aesthetic process involves sensory, emotional, and rational elements. Both feeling and understanding are essential to the aesthetic cognition. Feelings are stirred by an object while understanding builds on knowledge over the object. In terms of musical art, viewers’ understanding goes beyond the perceptual stimuli or sound combinations by developing those stimuli into patterns (Meyer, 1956).
Confucianism emphasizes harmony between heaven and earth. Harmony is also the most vital standard of Chinese music aesthetics. Harmony is concerned with relationships. When it comes to music in Kunju, the relationships refer to conherent interrelations between form, content, mood, tone, and meaning. Beauty of Kunju music is expressed and symbolized in harmonious presentations. Joy or pleasure is achieved through understanding the harmonious forces in the musical order. In the aesthetic cognition of musical art, the subject (the perceiver) interacts with the object (music piece). This communication brings artistic fulfillment and aesthetic pleasure.
Beauty seems detached from subject’s wills, but it gains aesthetic significance only when it is perceived and conceptually understood by the perceiver or human subject. The sense or awareness of beauty exists in individual’s perception, conception, and appreciation. Men’s perceptive cognition verifies but does not determine the existence of beauty. For instance, the music beauty of the Peony Pavilion is independent of men, but when taken as an aesthetic object, it depends on the audience’s perception and appreciation. But this perceptive and appreciative process is affected by viewer’s knowledge about the perceived. Beautiful representation of music resonates with the audience.
Perceptual cognition is not merely response to the aesthetic object, but involves synchronic process of cognitive and intellectual absorption. Once the human subject perceives beauty, the form of beauty expresses subjective feelings or emotions by elevating from perceptual to conceptual or intellectual levels. The aesthetic object’s intrinsic expression, essense or nature evokes human subject’s response to the artistic stimuli. The formal elements of aesthetic object alone cannot express their own characteristics, but they are able to stir the sense or awareness of the subject or perceiver through their conherent and inherent properties or qualities. The subject reacts to the artistic stimuli from the object. This subject-object communication is key to aesthetic appreciation. But Hanslick holds a different view. He argued that extra-musical associations cannot express moods because no intrinsic elements in music can justify those associations (Hanslick, 1891). We cannot neglect the intermediate link between the object and the subject. How aesthetic values, specifically beauty, are conveyed from the artistic or musical object to the audience or the subject? These non-musical associations often derived from ordinary experience to understand the logic of the musical phenomena, according to John Dewey (1934).
Chinese aesthetics takes a syncretic approach, integrating and incorporating intrinsic and extrinsic factors into artistic reception and appreciation. The intrinsic form and extra-musical meaning interact with each other. Aesthetic principles, such as unity, change, and complexity, are demonstrated in patterns of tension-release, motion-rest, sound-silence, regularity and novelty (Schwadron, 1973). Such music structure helps plot developments and characterization by means of symbolic representations on stage.
Symbolism is a major principle of traditional Chinese aesthetics. It transfers aesthetic meaning and significance from the artistic object to viewer’s cognition, reinforcing the audience’s perception and conception. This symbolic transferral of aesthetic values is achieved by syncretic intensification of perceptual and intellecutal cognition. Such cognition comes from sense awareness and feelings aroused. This process is commonly known as aesthetic experience.
Music makes a symbolic transformation of feelings (Langer, 1953). Musical symbols are received, interpreted, and integrated by the listener or the human subject to achieve feelings and meanings. This syncretic process gives men truly aesthetic experience.
In Chinese aesthetics establishment of a general feeling tone or mood is a prerequisite for music experience. Otherwise, the same melody would generate different feelings in different individuals. Confucius saw music education as instrumental in standardizing moods corresponding to modes (Confucius, 2007). By so doing, the same mood would generate similar if not the same feelings in different individuals.
Mood associations are viewed as the rationale for Chinese classical drama—Kunju. Kunju music features qupai and qupai suites. The music structure consists of suites of qupai (tune matrices) in particular sequence according to modes or mode key and their corresponding moods. Visual symbols include makeup, costume, props, and body gesture. But these are beyond the scope of my dissertation, since my project focuses on music practice. Conherent music structure evoke related emotional response in the audience.
The human subject or viewers of Kunju obtains aesthetic enjoyment through the perceptual and intellectual cognition of the musical logic and design. Viewers judge a Kunju production by the attainment of desired mood and sustained feeling tone. The beauty of Kunju performance is actually not any type of realistic beauty but kind of beauty of symbolism.
3. Sense of Beauty
The history of aesthetics suggests that aesthetic idea was originally aimed to explain why the beautiful reveal beauty. When discussing the issue of beauty, Plato elaborated on why these objects are beautiful while holding that such objects are beautiful.
The beauty of the objective thing lies in the thing itself, independent of man’s subjective evaluation. If beauty rests on man’s assessment, some would see beauty whereas others hold a different view. In some cases, the same person may regard the object as beautiful at a certain time but find no beauty in that same object at other times. Beauty being dependent on man’s perception actually denies the existence of beauty in itself.
Beauty comes from the real, beautiful thing or object itself, rather than from the subjective consciousness of those who appreciate it. Since the beauty of the real object or thing is concrete, and demonstrates nature or essence of the real object or thing through auditory and/or visual means, cognition of beauty is then achieved by combination of sensible and rational factors.
The beauty of the real object or thing exists in the object or thing itself, because the beauty is clearly inseparable from the form or image of the beautiful object or thing. And the distinctiveness of the beautiful object or thing is its form or image. Meanwhile, the beauty of the real object or thing is demonstrated not merely in its form or image but in its content and essence. The form or image of the real object or thing represents the form and essense of the object or thing. The beauty of the real object or thing, thus, consists in the integration of the apparent form or image of the object or thing and the inherent nature or essence.
The beauty of Kunju is also closely related with the form this classic drama boasts and the image it presents. The beauty of Kunju music is expressed by the poetic lyric, particular melody, and vocal delivery. Chinese music aesthetics holds that expression comes from the form. Formal elements are thus crucial to the development of expression, though moral aspects are also stressed. Music is evaluated in the duality between text and music. Both words and music have formal structures in Kunju. As for the text form, chang duan ju (short-long phrase) is the norm. In terms of music, lianqu ti (joined qupai suite) is the defining feature. Tang Xianzu emphasized the poetic beauty of lyrics, reinforced by the musical form.
Kunju music contains three major elements: mode key or modal system, metrical type, and melodic phrase. It is based on formal structures with qupai (tune matrices). Each qupai has a title, meter structure, and specific melody. The relationship between lyrics and melody in qupai or qupai suite presents a challenge for composers, because composition must be made in particular melodic and linguistic context. Composers have to tackle the relationshipo between melodic structure and text structure, or musical structure and speech-tone structure.
Kunju music text consists of chang duan ju (long-short phrase). Each phrase or musical line often contains different number of character or syllable which can be further divided into multiple units. Each unit is called a dou and sometimes marked by rests in the vocal part. The number of characters in each line ranges from one to ten-plus. Generally, four-, five-, six-, and seven-character line are most commonly used in musical line. For example, one five-character line can be divided into two units (2 + 3 or 3 + 2). One seven-character line can be subdivided into three or four units (2 + 2 + 3 or 2 + 2 + 2 + 1). This phrasing structure requires the melody correspond to it by singing each dou with two, three, four, or more melodic phrases. Varying structure of units or segment generates different melodies to fit in plot developments.
Kunju boasts the highest level of musical expression from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.) when the Yangtze River delta saw poets, musicians, and scholar officials actively involve in literature and artistic creations. Kunju music was closely associated with the musical activities of the literati. This music genre represents the highest aesthetic achievements of the elite class who accepted Confucian ideals like refinement and moderation.
Beauty is the basic aesthetic value in traditional Chinese drama. Composers and performers pursue beautiful presentation of performance on stage. As Wichmann put it, “everything within the world of the [traditional Jingju] play must above all be beautiful” (Wichmann, 1991). Compared with Kunju, Jingju (Beijing Opera) is a late comer and absorbs some elements from the former. Beauty is so vital to Jingju that it has become the criterion of succes. “In training schools and rehearsal halls, the criticism heard with much the greatest frequency, directed at song, speech, dance-acting, and combat alike, is that the particular sound or action being performed is incorrect because it is not beautiful. And the highest praise that can be given a performance is to say that it is beautiful. Ultimately, beauty as an aesthetic value connotes conformance to the aesthetic aim and principles of Beijing opera” (Wichmann, 1991). Like Jingju, Kunju is also judged by whether it is beautiful vocally and visually.
Beauty comes from nature of the musical object, which presents harmonious and meaningful musical ideas. The beauty solicits aesthetic responses from audience, whose awareness of beauty is aroused and raised. Coherence and harmony are two major components of generating those aesthetic values.
4. Aesthetic Experience
The Chinese language gives insights into the nature of aesthetic experience, as verbal symbolism offers clues to realities. For example, the character gan suggests varying degrees of awareness. Ganjue means general perception, and ganqing conveys emotion. Other examples are weidao, quwei, and yiwei. Weidao refers to flavor, and quwei means something is interesting. Yiwei denotes that something is meaningful. These words express some sort of feelings or emotions triggered through the senses. They represent the aesthetic values in the arts. Sight and sound generate a kind of image.
The two concepts, qiyun and yijing, are basic aesthetic principles in Chinese arts. Qi in qiyun refers to air or energy that can transmit force or support a motion or power. Chinese musical arts are closely related to qi. Other art forms, from painting to literatrue, also attach great importance to qi. In his essay titled On Literature, Cao (1964) said: “Literary works rest on quality of qi. They may be refined or vulgar made by individual writer.” He stressed the importance of qi for the success of literary compositions. Similarly, painting is also evaluated by the quality of qi. Individual viewers have an instantaneous cognition and perception of color, line, and shape. In the 6th century Xie He (n.d., as cited in (Tang, 1626) pp. 1-2) firts put forward the idea of qiyun shengdong as the first of the six cannons of painting in his article Critical Essays on Ancient Paintings. Shengdong means aliveness and vividness. The phrase qiyun shengdong refers to the vitality in an artistic work. It has become the highest quality of artwork in China. Qiyun is the most important principle for any artistic product. Artisitic creation starts with an intuitive idea which is then be expressed by particular techniques. This process sees an infusion of idea and activity. Qi means the essence of an idea growing out of a variety of impressions. Yun means manifestation of that idea through particular design or activity. While the creator goes from qi to yun in creative activities, the viewer reverses this process and goes from yun to qi in artistic perception and appreciation. Those perceivers get certain elements from the design in finished products such as music and painting, making configuration or event of their own choosing. These metaphorical transformantions end up in some synthesized idea. In Chinese arts, the idea comes before the formation of artwork. The application of the idea is manifested in the seemingly natural happening of a music note or a word. Qiyun represents some kind of vitality in Chinese aesthetics.
Qi also plays a vital role in calligraphy and music. In calligraphy, qi is represented by three manifestations—ink, power, and employment of the brush. According to the Art of Calligraphy (Xiang, n.d., as cited in (Jin & Wang, 1995) pp. 276-278), “Calm your mind before executing the brush in order to gather qi; on writing, strengthen your qi to make your mind well prepared….” This idea was shared by Yu Shinan. In his Essence of Calligraphy, Yu (n.d., as cited in (Jin & Wang, 1995) p. 485) notes, “If you are going to write, you need to compose yourself by forgetting worries and gathering thoughts, and by focusing your mind and moderating your qi….” Clearly, qi is a key derminant of successful calligraphy.
As in calligraphy, the art of playing the guqin, a seven-stringed plucked instrument in some ways similar to the zither, emphasizes buildup and control of qi. When the guqin is set before you, you are compelled to collect your thoughts and get your qi ready as if the guqin was not in front of you. You are required to free yourself from all worries and maintain a serious and sincere disposition. It is necessary to control qi when one is playing the guqin. Qi is demonstrated in musical sound. When the players move his fingers slowly at the guqin, which suggests depression and sadness. When they play in a hurried way, music tune turns noisy. These are manifestations poor handling of qi. One should adapt his/her qi skillfully while playing. Qi should be adjusted to change of tone (Yang, 1961). Music performance is largely influenced by manipulation of qi, which enables smooth flow of phrasing and musical line. In calligraphy, qi gives vitality to strokes of characters. In a word, qi is the creative and active force that breathes life into artwork. Qi is the basis for yun, though the two are mutually reinforcing.
Yun has mutiple meanings in different contexts. It means resonance, and melodic motion in music. It refers to rhyme in poems and means rhythm in painting. In Poetic Lyrics on White Cranes, Cao Zhi (n.d., as cited in (Zhao, 1985) p. 239) says: “Listen to the pure yun of the elegant guqin.” Yun was once the most sought-after beauty among artists. In literature, yun involves characteristics such as depth, richness, elegance, subtleness, and magnificence. These features are also important for music and fine arts.
Qiyun has long become a key aesthetic principle in Chinese arts. It is associated with traditional Chinese philosophy. Yijing is also a significant aesthetic concept. This idea expresses the feeling, mental image, and the inner vision presented. It is the artistic conception that all artists focus their attention on. Wang Changling (n.d., as cited in (Chen, 1548) p. 92) notes that poetry has three types of jing (world) in poetry—wujing, qingjing, and yijing. Wujing means physical or objective world, where event and object are portrayed in an artistic way. Qingjing means emotional or sentimental world, where emotions or feeling is expressed artistically. Yijing refers to world of ideations and contemplations. It is the elevation of artistic image. These three levels of world are three major aesthetic concepts in music, painting, and poem. Wang Guowei ((n.d., as cited in (Tu, 1970)), a great Chinese philosopher, depicted three levels of jingjie (world). People from past to present who have achieved enormous achievements must have experienced three worlds. The first world lies in the lines: Last night the west wind blowed through the green trees. Climing the tower alone, I look at the road extending to the horizon. The second world finds itself in the following lines: I have no regrets as my girdle is too long for my waist; with deep love I think of you. The third world is manifested in verses: I have searched for her in the crowd thousands of times; unexpectedly, I turn back and spot her under the dim lanterns. The three worlds correspond to wujing, qingjing, and yijing. Observation of external objects or objective things gives rise to emotions or sentiments. It is yijing that every artist strives for. Yijing is an artistic and metaphysical conception.
Yijing is an inner vision about things or objects that are vividly presented in people’s mind and imagination. It refers to literary, cosmological, or philosophical idea that is evoked by poem, music, and painting. It depends on the imagination of the perceiver. The flow of vitality in an artwork is then manifested. Yijing is the perfect beauty and the highest artistic goal that all artists work toward. It involves the emotion and imagination of the viewers. And artists should understand Chinese aesthetic principles.
Yijing is seen as a key indication of an artist’s knowledge and skills. In Chinese painting, painters express themselves through brush and ink. The beauty of paintings presents itself to the viewer. Similarly, Chinese literature also stress the significance of yijing. Wang (1949) notes that yijing (world of ideas) and qingjing (world of emotions) are complementary to each other and form a dialectic unity in the minds of essayist and poet. These artists conceive of ideas before starting creation. Almost every art form involves artists’ design of emotion, tone, scene, and spirit, which correspond to Wang Guowei’s idea of three worlds in poem and literature. In each artwork, form or scene is external while emotion is internal. Form and expression work together to make a good artistic product. This duality is widespread in Chinese arts.
Chinese aesthetic approach to arts features a syncretic process that integrates the work of art with the viewer’s perception and reception. The artwork presents its beauty to the perceiver, who interacts with the artistic object. The holistic approach unites intrinsic form and extrinsic meaning underlying each artwork. The internality and externality are mutually inclusive and reinforcing in Chinese arts. Chinese poetry, for example, puts emphasis on aesthetic principles such as unity, density, variety, and equilibrium. These rules make various dynamics common to all arts.
5. Conclusion
Chinese traditional aesthetics takes a holistic approach to arts. This approach acknowledges that the beauty of artwork lies in the work itself while recognizing the role of the perceiver in art appreciation. Chinese people follow some aesthetic principles that grow out of the long history of Chinese culture. Artistic concepts like qiyun and yijing are revealed in almost all artistic products.
Traditional Chinese aesthetic approach to arts employs a synthesis of idea, including form and expression, emotion and symbolism. Various forms of arts are delivered symbolically and metaphorically by artists. These symbolic representations solicit aesthetic responses from viewers who experience a holistic dynamic process. The syncretic process is a key aesthetic approach to all Chinese arts.