Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.4, 2018 

Negotiation between Zhongqing (Emotional) and Wuqing (Emotionless): On the Inner Contradiction of the Wei-Jin Style

(Abstract)

Yu Kailiang

As a major feature of the Wei-Jin style (Wei Jin fengdu), zhongqing (being emotional) has always been highly valued by scholars of Wei and Jin thought. However, some scholars often use the two concepts of xingqing (temperament) and ganqing (emotion) interchangeably, and thus make one-sided conclusions. The Wei-Jin style had been double-influenced by the traditional philosophical views of qi gan lei ying (qi moves according to the categories) and the new metaphysics that had been developed since the end of the Han Dynasty. The former had constituted the daily modality of the zhongqing of the literati of the Wei and Jin dynasties, while the latter led to wuqing as their ideal pursuit. The negotiation between zhongqing and wuqing continually constructed the inherent contradiction of the Wei-Jin style, presenting the contradicting aesthetics of life of the Wei and Jin literati. It is necessary to distinct the two categories in discussing the “consciousness of qing (emotion)” of the Wei-Jin aesthetics.