On The Aesthetic Concepts Of Traditional Chinese Painting "like"

As the ultimate establishment of an aesthetic definition,"likeliness"is closely related to the synchronized rise of landscape painting and landscape poetry. Though descriptions of mountains and rivers appeared as early as in the Pre-Qin period, landscape served only as a prop or background of human figures before the Eastern Jin Dynasty without an independent aesthetic meaning. The same is also true of the literary situation. Descriptions of landscape also appeared early in ancient times, but those were not descriptions in the aesthetic sense. Independent landscape poetry and landscape travel notes could only appear after literati began to regard landscape as a kind of aesthetic target in their real life, and this didn't come true until the Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties. Be literati in the turbulent times complacent or frustrated, they all had a strong sense of insecurity. Thus, mountains and rivers became what they could rely on to escape from reality and cure their spiritual trauma. When facing with mountains and rivers and beginning to walk towards them, they found their beauty, which also gave them spiritual consolation. They wanted to express their aesthetic feelings for mountains and rivers through poetry or paintings. Therefore, landscape poetry and landscape paintings in the real aesthetic sense emerged in large quantities. Corresponding problems about theories appeared in consequence of the fact that describing mountains and rivers through poetry or paintings became a universal practice, with"likeliness"and"similarity in shape"being the most basic problem. It should be said that"likeliness"("similarity in shape") is one of the most basic problems in the history of traditional painting aesthetics in China. Many other theoretical problems all derived from the category of"likeliness", being related to the understanding of and attitude to it. Such concepts as"expressiveness","charm"and"vividness"all derived from"likeliness", becoming questions related to it, and all expressing understanding and apperception of it. Without the problem of"likeliness", such problems as"vivid description"and"lively charm"would not have appeared.Problems derived from"likeliness"can be generally divided into three types. The first type lays particular stress on"likeliness", believing that"similarity in shape"is the substantive characteristic of painting as the basic reason of why paintings can be paintings. This concept can be called as"Theories attaching importance to shape". The second type lays emphasis on"vividness"and"charm", which can be called as"Theories attaching importance to charm". And the third type lies between the first and second type, emphasizing the importance of both"similarity in shape"and"vividness". Problems of this type hold that without"similarity in shape", there will be no"vividness", and vice versa, and they can be called as"Theories attaching importance to both shape and charm".Though attaching importance to"performance"is a powerful tradition in classical Chinese aesthetics, it is not the only one. Even when such theories as"charm","verve","meaning","flavor"were in their prime, there were still people insistently emphasizing"shape","likeliness"as well as"verisimilitude". As a result, laying stress on"likeliness"and"realistic portrayal"is also a powerful tradition in classical Chinese aesthetics."Similarity in shape"is not necessarily contradictory to"vividness"."Charm"can also be produced when"similarity in shape"comes to an extremity. However, since"similarity in shape"has been the highest standard of painting for a long time, reflection of and reaction to it is extremely rational. Since human spirit is infinitely rich and complicated, there is infinite possibility in the art of expressing human spirit in theory.Though"similarity in shape"and"profoundness and subtlety of descriptions"are not necessarily in contradiction with"vividness"and"charm", and the former two can also be"extraordinarily refines"as well as being capable of expressing the"likeliness", certain spiritual states of human beings cannot be expressed without a breakthrough in"similarity in shape", and certain emotional feelings of human beings cannot be expressed without"dissimilar likeliness". Therefore, ending the phenomenon of"similarity in shape"dominating the whole situation is undoubtedly quite necessary. It is safe to say that extreme resistance and negation to"similarity in shape"have made their appearance exactly due to the extreme pursuit for it.When studying various concepts in classical Chinese aesthetics, we must avoid over-generalization, thus making an isolated understanding of only a few words. We must learn to see the essence of things through the superficial phenomenon. In the history of classic Chinese painting, there were some theorists and painters attaching more importance to similarity in shape, and there were also some paying more attention to charm. But there was hardly one going for certain extremity, be it entire negation to the former or the latter. Even if in certain periods when such persons appeared, they exerted no lasting and extensive impact.What we should see is that those representatives of"Theories attaching importance to shape"have also left remarks emphasizing charm; and representatives of"Theories attaching importance to charm"have also left remarks emphasizing similarity in shape. In fact, generally speaking,"attaching importance to both shape and charm"is the art pursuit holding domination in the history of painting in China as the most basic evaluation standard of art. It can be said that this is the excellent tradition in the history of ancient Chinese art. It is due to this tradition that such works of art with both refined"shape and charm"can be produced.