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As If One Witnessed the Creation: Rethinking the Aesthetic Appreciation of Chinese Calligraphy
- Philosophy East and West
- University of Hawai'i Press
- Volume 70, Number 2, April 2020
- pp. 485-505
- 10.1353/pew.2020.0031
- Article
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Abstract:
This essay uses present-day philosophical aesthetic terminology to examine important aspects of Chinese calligraphic appreciation, as they are revealed in classical texts on this art. I hold that the aesthetic objects in the experience of a calligraphic work are twofold: the outer form and the inner expressive qualities. I propose that calligraphic appreciation can be understood as a process of retrieval, a term I take from Richard Wollheim. Highly pertinent to the retrieval view is a recurring topic in traditional calligraphy criticism—whether a trained calligrapher is an ideal critic. I argue that a trained calligrapher is an ideal critic, because proper calligraphic appreciation relates to the kinesthetic experience one accumulates chiefly, if not only, through calligraphic practice.