The Aesthetics of Qiyun and Genius

In The Aesthetics of Qiyun and Genius: Spirit Consonance in Chinese Landscape Painting and Some Kantian Echoes, Xiaoyan Hu provides an interpretation of the notion of qiyun, or spirit consonance, in Chinese painting, and considers why creating a painting-especially a landscape painting-replete with qiyun is regarded as an art of genius, where genius is an innate mental talent. Through a comparison of the role of this innate mental disposition in the aesthetics of qiyun and Kant's account of artistic genius, the book addresses an important feature of the Chinese aesthetic tradition, one that evades the aesthetic universality assumed by a Kantian lens. Drawing on the views of influential sixth to fourteenth-century theorists and art historians and connoisseurs, the first part explains and discusses qiyun and its conceptual development from a notion mainly applied to figure painting to one that also plays an enduring role in the aesthetics of landscape painting. In the light of Kant's account of genius, the second part examines a range of issues regarding the role of the mind in creating a painting replete with qiyun and the impossibility of teaching qiyun. Through this comparison with Kant, Hu demystifies the uniqueness of qiyun aesthetics and also illuminates some limitations in Kant's aesthetics. The publication of this work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (project no: 3213042202A1).

Xiaoyan Hu is lecturer in art theory at Southeast University in Nanjing, China.

List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgements
Chronology
Introduction
Part I: The Notion of Qiyun in the Sixth to Fourteenth Centuries
Chapter 1. The Notion of Qiyun in Xie He's First Law of Chinese Painting
Chapter 2. The Thread of Qiyun: A Shared Legacy in 10th to 14th Century Landscape Painting
Part II: The Art of Genius: An Examination of Qiyun Aesthetics from a Kantian Perspective
Chapter 3. The Master of Qiyun: Genius As an Innate Mental Talent of Idea-Giving
Chapter 4. Spontaneity of Qiyun: Genius as the Innate Mental Talent of Rule-Giving
Chapter 5. The Impossibility of Teaching Qiyun: The Exemplary Originality of Genius in Yipin
Chapter 6. Genius as a Pure and Lofty Mind I: Aesthetic Autonomy and Balanced Human Nature
Chapter 7. Genius as a Pure and Lofty Mind II: Moral Cultivation of the Kindred Mind
Conclusion
References
About the Author