Chinese Aesthetics: The Ordering of Literature, the Arts, and the Universe in the Six Dynasties

Chapter 10. The Conceptual Origins and Aesthetic Significance of “Shen” in Six Dynasties Texts on Literature and Painting

Chapter 10 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• The Conceptual Origins and Aesthetic Significance of “Shen” in Six Dynasties Texts on Literature and Painting Zong-qi Cai “Shen” is one of the most ubiquitous and polysemous terms in both philosophical and aesthetic discourses of premodern China. In many ways, its ubiquity has obscured its polysemy. As we frequently come across it in texts of all kinds, we become rather unmindful of its polysemous nature. We tend to see it as carrying the same nebulous import no matter where it appears. In translating it into English, therefore, we often choose the catchall term “spirit.” This tendency to ignore the polysemy of “shen” is particularly conspicuous in literary and art criticism. Scholars of Chinese philosophy often seek to distinguish the meanings of “shen” in different texts, but we seldom observe similar efforts in either Chinese-language or English-language publications on traditional Chinese literary and art criticism. So it behooves us to carefully examine the neglected polysemy of “shen” in various major texts on literature and the arts. Here I propose to study the polysemy of “shen” in Six Dynasties texts on literature and painting. During the Six Dynasties, “shen” began to be used extensively in reference to all major aspects of literary and art criticism. The proliferation of the term is very notable in discussions on authorial qualities, the creative process, the ranking of liter310 ary and art works, and the principles of aesthetic judgment. What is more significant is that this term figures prominently in some of the most important tenets or theories of literature and the arts developed during the Six Dynasties. Focusing on these tenets and theories, I shall examine how leading Six Dynasties critics ingeniously adapted different notions of “shen” developed by Confucian, Legalist, Daoist, Buddhist , and other philosophical schools to theorize about different aspects of literature and painting. By investigating the conceptual origins of “shen” in given tenets or theories, I aim not only to demonstrate the ramifying aesthetic significance of this all-important term, but also to shed some new light on the tenets or theories under discussion. As these tenets and theories constitute the core of Six Dynasties aesthetics, any new interpretation of them could in turn help us to better understand the broad historical development of Six Dynasties aesthetics. “Shen” as Conscious Supernatural Beings: “Spirits and Man Are Thereby Brought into Harmony” “Spirits and man are thereby brought into harmony” (shen ren yi he ) is the ending statement in the famous “Shi yan zhi” passage recorded in Shang shu (The Book of Documents).1 The word “shen” in this statement is used in its original sense of “live supernatural beings.” Xu Shen (ca. 58–ca. 147) provides a phonological gloss ( yin xun ) of “shen” in his Shuowen jiezi (Explanations of Simple and Compound Words). He considers (shen) and (shen) as homonymic and identical in meaning. He writes, “ (shen) is (shen).”2 In the Shanhai jing (The Classic of Mountains and Seas), appears and refers to a particular mountain spirit in the Qiyao Mountains: “The Mountain Spirit Wu Luo rules there.”3 If we pursue a graph-based gloss (xingxun ) of “shen” , we will reach the same conclusion about its original meaning. The radical of is used in oracle bone inscriptions and is written as . Xu Zhongshu contends “ represents the shape of a wood symbol or stone pillar fashioned in the image of a divine being.”4 He further explains that “In prognostications made during sacrificial occasions and recorded in oracle bone inscriptions, this graph appears as a generic name for heavenly Origins and Significance of “Shen” 311 spirit, earthly gods, the late dukes, and the late kings.”5 In the bronze inscriptions of Shang and Zhou times, the word “ ” begins to appear. It is constructed of and a graph like , signifying a man kneeling in worship. It is variously written as , , , and so on.6 The fact that “ ” can denote at once the spirits (shen) of heaven and earth and human ghosts (gui ) speaks to an inseparable relationship of “gui” and “shen.” In fact, in the texts about high antiquity, spirits and ghosts often appear together. Sometimes they are distinguished as separate categories. Sometimes spirits are seen as the finest of ghosts.7 More often they are used interchangeably, and as a result the phrase “guishen” (ghosts and spirits) comes into currency. Sacrificial service to ghosts and spirits constitutes the center of...