The aesthetics of Wu: Wang Bi's ontological paradigm and the transformation of Chinese aesthetics

This study examines the important philosophical and aesthetic developments that occurred during the turbulent period in Chinese history known as the Six Dynasties. More specifically, it establishes a philosophical and historical link between Wang Bi's elaboration of Xuan xue during the Wei-Jin (220--317), and the unprecedented proliferation of aesthetic treatises between the 4th and the 6th century. I argue that Wang Bi's ontological constructs of Benwu (Fundamental No-thingness) and Tiyong (substance and function) were instrumental in providing an epistemological framework for new treatises on painting, calligraphy, music and poetry. They allowed artists to accommodate the Taoist idea of Wu through such practices as conveying spirit in painting and inaudible sound in music. Broadly speaking, Wang Bi's dialectic treatment of Wu as both substance and function provided them with a new justification for recuperating the meaning of names and forms.; The first chapter, which forms the theoretical cornerstone of this study, examines the formation of this dialectic ontology and its aesthetic implications. Rather than attributing Wu an absolute, reified presence as substance, Wang Bi hypostaticized it more as a discursive or heuristic foundation. He was able to simultaneously affirm the function of names and forms, while maintaining the ultimate namelessness and formlessness of the Tao as substance. Chapters Two and Three offer case studies of how Wang Bi's ontological paradigm affected two specific artistic practices. Chapter Two focuses on the aesthetics of "inaudible sound" associated with the seven-stringed qin. Tracing the tradition of this quintessentially Chinese instrument, this chapter establishes the impact Wang Bi's dialectic ontology, and the Buddhist concept of Sunyata with its derivative ontology of ben (essence) and ji (traces), had on qin music. The third chapter focuses on how Wang Bi provided the epistemological foundations for the aesthetics reflected in the paintings and treatises of Gu Kaizhi (344--405). It explores the correspondence between Tiyong and Gu's fundamental concern with "transmitting spirit" through form. My main contention here is that the relationship between shen (spirit) and xing (form) for Gu was also based on Wang Bi's substance and function paradigm.