The Confluence And Differentiation Of "Qi" And "Yun"

Xie He’s book Six principles of Chinese painting was the first book which created a more complete painting theory system in China’s history. In which, the usage of the phrase "Qi Yun Sheng Dong(rhythmic vitality)" has become an extremely important criteria in Chinese aesthetic categories, laid a solid foundation for the development of painting aesthetics ideology in ancient and even contemporary China. Thus, the study of "Qi Yun Sheng Dong(rhythmic vitality)" this aesthetic proposition was quite rich since ancient times, The study of "Qi Yun Sheng Dong(rhythmic vitality)" this aesthetic proposition was quite rich since ancient times, different times and different areas have different understanding on it; but we look at a variety of research, it shows that the scholars’ aesthetic debate on "Qi Yun Sheng Dong(rhythmic vitality)" mostly focused on the relationship between "Qi Yun(rhythmic)" and "Sheng Dong(vitality)", the connotation definition of "Qi" and "Yun" and the relationship status between "Qi Yun Sheng Dong(rhythmic vitality)" and the other five methods these areas, while there is little on the analysis on the necessity of inner concordance mechanism for "Qi" and "Yun". In fact,the conjunction of "Qi" and "Yun" has deep intention for Xie He.In the long development process of the history, "Qi" from the Xiang of nature at the beginning had gradually sublimated to the nature of things with metaphysical meaning, forming a unique Chinese philosophy- Qi Ontology. Qi Ontology not only exists as the beginning of the development of Chinese philosophy, its germinal explanation had become the foundation of the development of Chinese aesthetic theory. While "Yun" as the most important criteria at the field of aesthetics, experienced the development process from the meaning of music, sound to character appraisal and then to painting theory, which is the crystallization of Chinese cultural development,with significant Chinese traditional cultural features.In "rhythmic vitality", on one hand, Qi generates all things, which is the fundamental of life in the universe, also the manifestation of lively "Yun". On the other hand, "Yun" is the manifestation that the "Qi" of individual life is operating and to be perfect and harmony, which is the necessary condition to achieve aesthetic, also an important symbol of artistic consciousness.Therefore, the "Yun" without "Qi" and "Qi" without "Yun" both has its own limitations as aesthetic evaluation criteria.But the appearance of "Qi Yun" is far from the adding of the characters of "Qi" and "Yun",while it has aesthetic meaning beyond the literal meaning of the word. Later with the gradual strengthening of the self-consciousness of creation subject and aesthetic theme art, the use of "Qi Yun" use also broke the limitations of painting theory, gradually appeared in calligraphy, poetry,literature, music and other fields, which had become extremely important meaning in aesthetic activities and was widely used. In addition, the artists in later ages on the basis of differentiation of "Qi" and "Yun", also created more aesthetic categories related to "Qi" and "Yun", making Chinese aesthetic theory even richer.