Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.1, 2021

Qiyun as Qihua Aesthetic Criticism and Its Cross-Cultural Significance

(Abstract)

Liu Yiqing

Classical Chinese literature and arts were deeply influenced by the theory of qihua cosmology. With the purpose of presenting the continuous reproduction of life (shengsheng buxi), the works formed the qihua aesthetics. The term qiyun was born in the profound tradition of qihua aesthetics. Together with other qihua aesthetic critical terms, it constitutes the qihua aesthetic criticism system and becomes its pivotal concept. This paper explores the evolution of the connotation of qiyun in the context of qihua aesthetics, centering on qiyun and using landscape painting as an intermediary, and reveals the influence of qihua cosmology on Chinese aesthetic criticism. It further discusses the characteristics and significance of the qihua system of aesthetic criticism with qiyun as its pivot. The scope of this criticism, which is based on the theory of qihua, views all things in terms of this pivotal concept. Viewed from such a perspective, all things present their own beauty, which contains the inherent vitality of heaven or nature. The term qiyun has not only been innovatively interpreted in the process of introducing Western theories, but has also become a key word for bridging Chinese and Western literary theories; Western scholars have also tried to build a bridge between Chinese and Western cultures with qiyun as the key term, in order to explore the unchartered territories in Western aesthetics.