Xu Wei's Spirit Of Art

In the late Ming Dynasty of China, society, politics and economy were characterized by drastic turbulence and intranquility, and thoughts in literature and art advanced by leaps. As a result of the interactive melding between humanism and pragmatism, not only were artists'cultural psychology and aesthetic consciousness influenced, but their artistic sensitivities and spontaneous passions were also stimulated. In other words, in the late Ming Dynasty, artists aspired after liberal thinking and advocated ego consciousness, which already arose as a main stream in various trends of thought in literature and art. Xu Wei(徐渭), living in the late Ming Dynasty, is both a typical figure in Chinese history of culture and a monument in the history of literature and art. He didn't get deserving recognition from society of his time, so he died mopishly at last. Nonetheless, his innovational spirit of art received the esteem of intellectuals of his time, and Yuan Hongdao(袁宏道)even acclaimed him as "the best in the Ming Dynasty". The cultural trend of thought in the late Ming Dynasty had a great impact not only on his artistic achievement and development of his ego consciousness, but also on his comprehension of the spirit of art and his concern about poetic inspiration. So far, his artistic spirit has been effectively inspiring later artists to achieve more. Xu Wei made brilliant achievements in poet, prose, calligraphy, painting, drama, couplet and riddles. Setting Xu's artistic achievements and frustrated life as the main thread, this article unscrambles his spirit of art step by step from such aspects as Wild Inbeing, Interest in Buddhism, Understanding of Confucianism and Taoism, Natural Heart and Artistic Inspiration. Besides, on the basis of studies of former scholars, it attempts to get some new understandings of Xu Wei in the background of given history, culture and thinking. It can be judged that this article is making the first stab at the research on artistic spirit in the late Ming Dynasty. Assuming it can benefit the research on culture and thinking in the late Ming Dynasty and Chinese artistic spirit, it will be gratifying.