The Literati Interest In The Song Dynasty In The Eyes Of American Sinology

Researches on traditional Chinese aesthetic culture in American sinology is a combination of studies on Chinese thoughts,literature,arts and so on,among which studies on Chinese arts are also an important part of American sinology and have made achievements that should not be ignored.However,our domestic academia lacks attention on aesthetic researches in American sinology(especially the fields of traditional Chinese art).Consequently,I attempt to regard American sinologists’ researches on literati’s taste in Song dynasties,which is an aesthetic phenomenon and part of Chinese aesthetic culture,as a point to breakthrough.I shall observe and study the contents,methodologies within this subject and conversations between Chinese and western aesthetics,and find from this field the enlightening meanings to sinology itself and the way we regard sinology.This dissertation consists of an introduction,five main chapters and a chapter of conclusion.The introduction first introduces the general conditions of current researches on American sinology from domestic academic circles,major conditions of researches on aesthetics,art and aesthetic culture in American sinology and lack of attention to these fields in our domestic academia.Then I explain the meanings of paying attention to these fields,the subject of this dissertation,which focuses on literati’s taste in Song dynasties from the viewpoints of American sinology,and the methods of my observation and research on this subject.The main part of this dissertation will include chapters as followed:Chapter One,which starts with Hans-Georg Gadamer’s analyses of the concept of taste and its related aspects in European traditions of humanism,focuses on its unconceptional,practical and contextual features,and explains the possibility of using the concept of taste to enter aesthetic fields of different cultures.Then this chapter elaborates how American sinologists think about the fields of taste and the related thinking resources offered by American aesthetics.Chapter Two analyses how American sinologists view the identities,characteristics and embedded values of Song dynasty literati,who are the subject of issues of taste and culture.These analyses consist of three parts.First,because of the subjectivity of literati in traditional Chinese culture,it should begin with the concept of "aesthetic order",which is regarded as the way of traditional Chinese cultural thinking by American sinology.The second part bases on both traditional Chinese texts and American sinologists’ translations and explanations to elaborates the characteristics and embedded values in the identity of literati.The third part focuses on the representation of "aesthetic order" in Song literati.Chapter Three focuses on how American sinologists research on several typical aesthetic issues of Song dynasties in poetry and prose: the reaction to the Current Style and Xikun poems,the pingdan style(usually translated as "even and blight")and liqu(usually translated as "wit")in poetry,the change of repute of Song lyrics,and the cultural production in the emergence of Jiangxi poets.This chapter elaborates how American sinologists recognize Song literati’s aesthetic orientations and their judgments of value in writing from the issues above,and how they emphasize perspectives of individual expressions,everyday experience,self-cultivation and social-aesthetic viewpoints in their researches.Chapter Four bases on the background of scholar’s painting(or literati’s painting),observes and studies how American sinologists center on the taste of combination of poetry and painting and view literati’s taste in scholar’s painting(or literati’s painting)of Song dynasties.This chapter reveals the contents of the taste of combination of poetry and painting from American sinologists’ points of view: cultural influence,literati’s identity and fields in painting,pursuit for continuity of aesthetic experiences from poetry to painting and related modes of images and strategies of viewing.Their recognization of the phenomenon in Southern Song that literati’s taste became a image-cultural symbol reveals other ways of their visual researches.Chapter Five observes American sinologists’ researches on Song literati’s calligraphy aesthetics and their taste within.This chapter uses the concept of fa,du and fadu(usually translated as "method" or "measure")as the clue of this observation.American sinologists view fadu as a kind of harmony or supreme truth through norms,which is a cultural notion based on a sense of order.The transformation from fa of Tang to yi(usually translated as "idea" or "will")of Song in calligraphy are also regarded as different thoughts of order.The chapter of conclusion makes a summary about the features of American sinologist’s researches on traditional Chinese aesthetic culture and literati’s taste in Song dynasties,and explains their significance and values in Chinese-western cross-cultural communications.