Aesthetics from Ancient China

This book presents the concept of Fenggu, one of the most important aesthetic categories of ancient China. As an inspiring aesthetic principle, it once encapsulated the particularities of various types of artistic creation and played an important role in traditional artistic creation and theoretic critique. The present volume aims to systematically elaborate on its etymological origin, connotations and generation, its great role in overcoming the tendency of creative stereotypes, its logical positioning in the ancient aesthetic system and its profound connection with traditional culture, via comprehensive analysis of a rich repository of original materials, in combination with calligraphy, painting, and poetry criticism. The theoretical character of traditional aesthetics has been derived from agglomeration of Fenggu with other several important categories of paradigm significance. Therefore, its investigation can offer insights into the organic rhythm of the development of ancient aesthetic thought and consequently lay a solid foundation for the construction of ancient art history and aesthetic history. Yonghao Wang, professor and doctoral supervisor of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Fudan University; distinguished professor of the Yangtze River Scholar Program of the Ministry of Education; Vice Chairman of China Literature and Art Critics Association, Vice Chairman of Shanghai Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Chairman of Shanghai Literature and Art Critics Association and Vice Chairman of Shanghai Poetry Society; Vice-chairman of the National Social Science Journals of Institutions of Higher Learning Institute, and Editor-in-Chief of Fudan Journal (Social Science Edition).

Yonghao Wang, professor and doctoral supervisor of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Fudan University; distinguished professor of the Yangtze River Scholar Program of the Ministry of Education; Vice Chairman of China Literature and Art Critics Association, Vice Chairman of Shanghai Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Chairman of Shanghai Literature and Art Critics Association and Vice Chairman of Shanghai Poetry Society; Vice-chairman of the National Social Science Journals of Institutions of Higher Learning Institute, and Editor-in-Chief of Fudan Journal (Social Science Edition).

Chapter I Standards and Norms for Calligraphy and Painting: Fenggu in Calligraphy.- Chapter II Art in a Class of Its Own: Fenggu in Painting.- Chapter III The Beauty and Subtlety of Language: Fenggu as an Aesthetic Genre in Poetry.- Chapter IV The Formation of FenggüFrom Brush and Ink to Character.- Chapter V Shared Sensation and Connectedness-An Overview of Fenggu Aesthetic Genre.