The Perceptual Manifestation Of Chinese Characters: Oracle Bone Inscriptions And Stones

Chinese character,originated from pictograph,can trigger a distinctive aesthetic image.It is the manifestation of Chinese nation's unique way of thinking.The image inspired by Chinese character is configurated in its shape,meaning and pronunciation.Pictograph,crystalized in Chinese nation's mind,is the expression of Chinese value,affection and aesthetics.In addition,implication by Chinese character can be manifested in Chinese calligraphy.The calligraphy is the imitation of pictograph,through which the hand writer's affection and creation can be expressed As a result,the handwriting is the integration of concretization,image and abstraction,as a means to display the hand writer's spirit.style and consciousness.The images of Chinese character in calligraphy mainly include:line image,force image,knot image and style image.Therefore,the image is the hierarchical,organic and configurative construction,through which full expression can be achieved.Chinese character cannot be manifested without employing objects as carriers.In Chinese culture,"Object" is an organic whole with infinite vitality and heterogeneity,on the basis of which ancient Chinese have imbedded their own thinking and feeling in the use of materials to produce life objects.The ancients said:objects can be immortal as stone and metal,which implies immortal spirit and thought in Chinese character.The ancient sayings "inscriptions on stone and metal for future generations" and "hides in remote mountains for descendants" are the expressions of meaningful life.Therefore,Chinese characters inscribed in stone and metal embodies the heritage of spirit and the guidance of value.In the view of phenomenology,writings on stone and metal as "writing habitat" can be eternal.The color,quality and shape of stone and metal which work with inscriptions to create a writing habitat with intensive connotation,in a meaningful way,constitutes the vision background of Chinese character and participates in the construction of its implication.Take oracle bone inscriptions,bronze inscriptions and inscriotions on tablets as examples,we can find that implements the carriers show great impact on aesthetic form and meaning of Chinese characters.As one of the earliest mature text:oracle bone inscriptions have formed a set of complete system in brushwork,lines,structures,art of composition and so on,which has a relatively stable pattern of space.Its lines are thin,tall and straight with the vertical,horizontal and skewed structure and the art composition is well-arranged with the spectacular style.As a carrier of wizard culture,the aesthetic form of oracle bone inscriptions reflects the plain faithfulness to gods in the human's childhood,as well as their concerns about their own life and hope for a better life.The Chinese characters on bells,tripods and sacrificial vessels are the tools used for worshipping the gods and ancestors and offering sacrifice to the gods,which present a rich and elegant aesthetic style on the whole,and manifest the ancestors' growth and formation of cosmology and rational consciousness in Shang and Zhou Dynasties from sorcery history culture into ritual and music society.Carving inscriptions on stone tablets has a long history in China.Due to the content,font,calligrapher,inscription,writing materials,and the influence of various factors,the text form of stone inscription varies and also shows the macro aesthetic style which shared by the characters groups at their time.The tablet inscriptions in Han Dynasty,Wei Wei Dynasty and Tang Dynasty are three peaks in Chinese culture,which can also reflect aesthetical features of the Chinese characters in the most critical stage of calligraphical evolution accordingly.The vigorous and unadorned Han Tablet,the deep and maginificent Wei Tablet,and the robust and gorgeous Tang Tablet,all demonstrate the thinking of Chinese ancestors to the meaning of life,and provide the eternal spirit guide to the future generations.Thus,the epigraphic inscriptions display the spirit of calligraphers and graver,and contain the the writing tool is contained the vicissitudes of years and between the years vicissitudes of life,the deposit of culture,and the never-ending pursuit of the Chinese nation for meaning in life.Arnheim's art visual perception points that vision is often like a "field",regarding every thing or part of it exposed to space and time as a whole.Inscriptions on ancient bronzes and stones are first appeared as a whole image in aesthetic view,including the converge of three kinds of images:material image,calligraphy image and text image.Based on the classification of western hermeneutics,we classify the overall image into three kinds of "image",which are similar to those on the text level,the reflection level and the ontological level:the image inside the meaning,the image outside the meaning and the image outside the image.As the image of meaning,inscriptions on bronzes,bones and stone carvings are the perceptual manifestation of religious consciousness,the spirit of rites and music,auspicious ideas and feelings of men of letters.From the aesthetic perspective,the inscriptions,as a historical and cultural symbol,provoke our thoughts,and reappear,reconstruct and create various images in dating back to the history,and make us reflect on life to transcend the real life in multiple images.It is mainly embodied in three images:the image of God beyond life and death;the image of saints beyond the ego,and the image of freedom beyond utilitarian.In the mind of aesthetes,the images create a vast and empty space:artistic perception which entails the most authentic spiritual image-immortality.In sum,inscriptions appearing in contemporary world beyond time and space undertake a sacred mission telling us to associate the life of individual and the contributions he makes to the society and historical culture,attempting to transcend the secular life,and pursuing the immortality of spirit.