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Cupchik Et Al - Resonance - Ed - Comments2
Cupchik Et Al - Resonance - Ed - Comments2
INTRODUCTION
1 The concept of resonance has a firm footing in physics but is also relevant to
between two systems in both physics and psychology,. In classical mechanics, resonance
refers to oscillation in one system that is highly sensitive to the frequency of another
(Tipler, 1999). The two systems might modulate each other, resulting in a state of dynamic
stability that can withstand minor perturbations. This idea of interaction between two
systems or matrices, what Koestler (1964) referred to as “bisociation,” offers great potential
for describing relations between individuals or groups and the social/cultural worlds that
surround them. However, we should be careful when moving from the formal world of
memory, as “discursive” and not the thing in itself, akin to a phenomenon in the physical
world. This implies that we must be careful when taking a term such as resonance, which
describes a state of harmony between two systems, and extending it to the social world. It is
incumbent upon us to examine the assumptions underlying use of the term and treat it as a
time might use the same concept in different ways, describing different aspects of a unified
process. Like other concepts, discourse about resonance is “replete with metaphorical
allusions” (Danziger, 1990, p. 331) which offer holistic promise when understood in a
broader context. Perhaps the fact that resonance implies a relational state of harmony, rather
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than a thing, makes it easier to shift between physical and social accounts of the underlying
process.
from the 21st century in Western society to both Ancient Greek and Chinese cultures. As a
modern” European middle class society of the 21st century. Vorderer and Halfmann (2019)
situate the concept of resonance in very different social and cultural contexts to develop a
We accomplish this by stepping back to observe the different ways that resonance has
been both embodied and described as a process in the Ancient Greek and Chinese cultures.
This will help us escape the dangers of “presentism” and the illusion that phenomena of 21st
century society are somehow unique relative to those of older societies, as if anticipated by
surrounding culture has been ever-present. While 21st century society is indeed accelerating
technologically, wars and related traumas have had comparable effects on speeding up or
have much to learn about the nuances of resonance as a process from the profound thinking
Hartmut Rosa
Rosa (2003) has analyzed the impact of technological and social acceleration on
attempts to achieve “the good life” by middle class people living in “late-modern” Europe.
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Following an idea developed by Ancillon in 1828, According to Rosa, “To taste life in all its
heights and depths and in its full complexity becomes a central a central aspiration of modern
man” (Rosa, 2003, p. 13). Paradoxically, people have less time to do things as the pace of life
quickens and there is a “strict adherence to the values of activity, universality, rationality, and
individuality” (Rosa, 2003, p. 27). A rapidly changing social world gets in the way of “long-
term commitments, duration, and stability” (Rosa, 2003, p. 19). It requires a “situational”
basis” (p. 19). His focus on “efficacy” and “realized options” in search of “the good life”
would appear to describe the path travelled by members of the bourgeoisie rather than the
working classes who are more concerned with basic matters related to sustenance. Regardless
of social class realities, modern societies emphasize “science” over “knowledge” which is not
about “preservation and schooling” but about “systematically pushing the borders…into the
results from “escalatory acceleration” and has a serious impact on how “to live a good life”
deemed equivalent to “how we (want to) spend our time” (p. 39). According to his account,
“the overruling rational imperative of modernity” is to “Secure the resources you might need
for living your dream” ... “No matter what the future might bring, it will help if you have
money, rights, friends, health, knowledge” (p. 41). As a consequence, “having more and
moving faster” leads a person to adopt a “Triple-A” approach and search for “its qualities and
quantities available, accessible, disposable” (p. 42). Rosa’s “diagnosis” in that an unrelenting
search for the “Triple-A” solution leads to “burnout” as a “dominant cultural fear” (p. 44).
The search for an “‘enchanted’ world leads nowhere” (p. 45) and ends up with a state of
alienation.
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The cure for alienation, requires “a true, vibrant exchange and connection.” in other
words, resonance! This will make it possible to live “a ‘good’ or fulfilling way of relating to
places, people, time, things, and self” (p. 46). Crucially from a process perspective, resonance
involves a “dual movement of af←fection (something touches us from the outside) and
e→emotion (we answer by giving a response and thus by establishing a connection) thus
always an inevitably has a bodily base” (p. 47). A receptive and active connection can
progressively transform the self and world. Thus, after encountering a meaningful book or
through “self transcendence.” This idealized and romanticized account of personal change
through that “elusive” experience of “resonance” (p. 48) is expressed along three “axes”;
achieved through the risky decision to make oneself vulnerable in “contexts of mutual trust
Of course, the modern Westerner cannot hope to go back to the state of eudaimonia
prescribed by Aristotle that emphasized active community membership with free time that
provided for aesthetic pursuits, if only because this “relied upon an exploitation and exclusion
of workers, women, and foreigners” (Rosa & Henning, 2018, p. 7). Charles Taylor’s (2018)
self and world” (p. 55) through a process of connection. He situates Rosa’s discourse within
ideas of 18th Romantic scholars who sought to unify the self and reconcile mind and body as
well as persons with nature treated as a living organism. In essence, Rosa’s use of language in
his discourse about resonance is metaphorical, whereby our relationship with people and
nature should move away from the instrumental and toward one in which our imagination is
dedicated to connection and reconciliation. For Taylor (2018), the idea that we should see
“the world as the locus of living purpose” and “recreate the meaning of things” (p. 61) lies at
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the heart of Rosa’s project. One might suggest, further, that the “dialogical view of
language,” whereby we re-establish “contact, communion between ourselves and the world”
(p. 62), links an emphasis on communication by the Romantic philosophers of the 18th
Vorderer and Halfmann (2019) have theorized about the confluence of “late modern”
society as per Rosa, that they situate in the 1980s, and studies on “the uses and the effects of
media entertainment” (p. 1) which began in the 1970s. They frame an effort to understand
transcendent media experiences” described by Oliver et al. (2018). They draw a basic
motivational distinction between the desire for “pleasure” and enjoyment, on the one hand,
and intellectual “appreciation,” on the other. While the former is grounded hedonically in
terms of pleasure, an effort after meaning underlies appreciation as people search for “life’s
meaning, truths, and purposes” (Oliver & Raney, 2011). The concept of eudaimonic
The link with Rosa (2018) has to do with ways that social connection can cure
Being literally connected via the internet can distract a person from opportunities to connect
in face-to-face (FTF) with others who are physically co-present. They conclude “that new
technologies and new ways to access and experience media content do not categorically
prevent but make the occurrence of resonance even less likely” (p. 10).
This leads to the question of “what media users are looking for” and “what happens
with the mind of a user when exposed to a narrative” (p. 10). Alternatives include
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“identifying” with fictional characters or feeling “transported” to novel situations. Rosa’s
(2016) answer to this question is that people engage with cultural products to intentionally
“practice loneliness, and desertion, melancholy and connectedness...” that enable them to
“moderate and modify their individual relatedness to the world” (in Vorderer and Halfmann,
2019, p. 10). By this means, they can come to terms with themselves rather than merely
modifying and modulating moods. This psychological activity is existentially grounded and
directed at the person’s present and future as they “cognitively and affectively try out,
rehearse, or practice actions and experiences that may be possible in the future” (Vorderer &
Halfmann, 2019, p. 11). Vorderer and Halfmann, propose that the term entertainment applies
pleasure and overcome alienation, or search for “resonant connections” through aesthetic
encounters with situated characters that help them have self-transcending experiences.
communities and cultural backgrounds, can contribute to this discussion of the elusive
resonance concept. What is new in the account provided by Rosa and applied by Vorderer
and Halfmann to the domain of entertainment? The first thing that comes to mind is that
scholars live in different, temporally bound “discursive communities” (Danziger, 1997). This
isolation of scholars within different silos means that they do not necessarily appreciate
relevant ideas proposed by others in nearby scholarly communities whose language and
central research focus diverges from their own. More importantly, illusions of modernity may
lead scholars to only consider ideas and cite literature representing their own social era and
society reflects ideas proposed by German Romantic philosophers of the 18th century.
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Our goal in the remainder of this chapter is to identify general processes of aesthetic
and cultural resonance that apply to different cultures at different times. While technological
acceleration might characterize Western European society since the mid-1800s, comparable
dynamics existed during the Golden Age in Greece, the Italian Renaissance, and in Ancient
China. We will now explore how concepts and theorizing regarding resonance, hedonics, and
heightened self-realization have a long-standing history in Greek and Chinese culture. This
goes beyond the more romanticized description of the “late modern” period and narrow
Greece from mythology to the passage of oral culture and to literacy, and from Plato to
Aristotle (from 8th to 4th century BC) (see Kraut, 1992). In Greek, the term “resonance”
found as a backstage, sounding method for enhancing acoustics in the Greek theatre. In Greek
mythology, resonance appears in the myth of Echo and Narcissus, the man who rejected Echo
and fell in love with his own reflection on the still, mirroring surface of a lake. Clearly, the
concept of resonance has many nuances, but this mythological combination could have
seemed implausible unless it connoted a missing resonating link between them. In the ancient
Greek culture, this link is operative mimesis which applies to a range of resonating
I. The dangers of resonance as evident in Homer's Odyssey (avoid movement at all costs)
Sirens were dangerous creatures who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music
and singing to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Odysseus, curious to hear their
song, asked his sailors to plug their ears and tie him to the mast to resist. He ordered his men
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to leave him tied tightly, no matter how much he would beg. When he heard their irresistible
song, he ordered the sailors to untie him but they bound him tighter. Overtaking the Sirens,
Odysseus and his sailors released themselves and escaped he power of involuntary resonance.
background)
contagious synchronicity between voices and bodies shaped an immersive collective flow. In
this trance state, the sense of time disappears, pain is not experienced, and experience swings
in two extremes; a primordial ‘tearing the body into pieces’ (sparagmos) and a euphoric
merging of bodies and voices into a communal primordial state that could lead to
transcending experiences of mystic “oneness” with the divine. Such experiences were
collective level of consciousness. These embodied experience unified mind and expressive
body.
III. Musike and mimesis (the educational vehicle from orality to literacy and theatre)
and musical instruments can resonate, in the sense of imitate, the human voice1 or other
humans. This is done by tuning the dynamics of voices and bodies with the rhythmic
simulated the expressive intonation of someone’s voice, they were imitating by actualizing
his/her accent in their bodies and voices. The same resonating action appears when
imitating animals, expressive gestures that connote intention (i.e., hunting) or affect, or
1
The aulos flute, accompaniment for Dionysian rituals and the lyrical passages in tragic performances, was regarded by the
Greeks as capable of capturing the timbre of the human voice and deep emotions. Pindar imagines that the many “voices,”
of which wind instruments are capable, were devised to fulfil a mimetic-imitative function.
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mood towards others2 (i.e., polemic attitude in pyrrikhe dance), or by embodying the
accompaniment that was central to the Greek culture and served as the main vehicle from
“orality” to literacy, from the poems of Homer to theatre. Musike was seen as an embodied
technique to move with and from within in tune and synchronize in rhythmical patterns
exploited the human capacity to manifest various resonating patterns (Larlham, 2012; pp.
24-26). It turned out to be reinforcing, shaping a cultural, general attitude to engage bodily
and affectively with the world or the other (Larlham, 2012). The Greek socio-poetic
collective unit and projecting a single emotion that imparted a “generalized collective
configurations, musical typoi that condition the soul and shape ethos (ethical conditioning)
Aristotle attributes to harmony and rhythm a direct pleasing effect from childhood (i.e.,
Poetics. 1448b). He directly links rhythm, music, movement, emotions, moral virtue, and
a dynamic and embodied resonating interface of ‘feeling cum perceiving cum imagining’
through which the temporal arrangements and the intensity contours of the rhythms can
become integrated into the body and create choreographic postures (schemata) and expressive
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Rhythm alone, as choreographic schemata of the temporal and intensity dynamics (Metaph.
985b 4), is the means in the dancer's imitations (Poetics. 1447a27-28); for even he, by the
well as what men do (intention movement patterns; Politics. 1341b 17) and suffer (expressive
gestures, movement and emotions: Politics.1340b8-10, 1342a8; On the Soul. 403a, 408b).
For him, mimesis functions as a scaffold being both (a) a positive mood primer—an affective
‘openness’ to explore-taste (oreksis) and be perceptually, bodily and affectively engaged, and
(b) a resonating ‘feeling cum perceiving cum imagining’ mechanism that could work within
the body and across people. It thereby became the main vehicle for symbolization and
Plato states that “rhythm and harmony most of all insinuate themselves into the
inmost part of the soul and most vigorously lay hold of it in bringing grace with them” (Rep.
401d). Plato, introducing Damon’s music theory, assumes that the various musical modes
were associated with certain models (typoi) of an instant affective disposition of the soul and,
thus, shape ethical character (ethos). For example, Ionian and Lydian modes surmise slack
affects and were therefore suitable for celebration and dissoluteness (Rep. 398e-400d).
Musike then, became the tool for indoctrination and ethical conditioning. This raised
controversial socio-political issues for Plato. He claimed that music should remain the “most
supreme” form of education in his ideal polis, since harmonic modes and rhythms promote
specific states of body and soul that have lasting effects (Rep.401d). Yet, he banned all
harmonies except those appropriate to “an orderly and courageous life” of endurance in war
and moderation in times of peace (Rep. 399e). His ethical concern was pronounced in his
distinction between mimesis and diegesis (story telling), which reflects the shift from story-
telling to first-person speech (theatre). Plato’s focuses on how ‘speaking directly in first-
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person’ could invite a manipulative relationship between the actor [ethos-poios (ethos
resonance with the world and has transformative power that involves socio-political
aspects.
V. Plato’s resonance approach: methexis and the rings’ metaphor--ethical emulation and
contagiousness of ecstatic enthusiasm and the way in which a magnet exercises a pulling
force to metal rings (Ion 535e-536a). He equates the Muse to a magnet and the epic/tragic
poet as the first magnetized ring; the singer of rhapsodies and tragic actor are the
intermediate links, along with a chain of the choral dancers who are suspended at the side
of the rings hanging down from the Muse. The last of the rings is the spectator who
receives the power of the original magnet through the preceding rings. In this hanging
chain of rings, the Muse exercises a tight pulling force to the first magnetized ring that
results in the communion (methexis) of the Muse with the poet. The other chained rings,
however, being contagiously attracted to the magnetic Muse, start loosely becoming
suspended, since the Muse’s magnetic power ring by ring fades, especially when reaching
the last suspending ring (the spectator). What is communicated between the two poles (the
Muse and the spectators) is a gradually faded replica or reflection (mimesis as a third-hand
copy–concerned with something that is third from the truth (Rep. 602c). This, for Plato,
cannot be disentangled from theatrical ‘truth’ conveyed by the poets, through the text, to
the audience and mimesis in arts. So, in Republic (X), Plato, via Socrates, focuses on visual
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arts by analogy and passes on to theatre by concluding that they have something that is far
away from truth. Whatever is related to them is beyond ‘wisdom and discretion, phronêsis,
since this contagious reflection produced by mimesis can neither produce a healthy attitude
in theatre, is a controlling mechanism, and thus he bans certain rhythms while diminishing
the value of tragedies and poets. Instead, he emphasizes passive reception and slices out
the body as a corrupt anchor for mimesis. Plato was uninterested in solving the paradox of
tragedy and empathy in part because he saw his “citizens” as quasi-autonomous and prone
perception and leaving movement out, he ended up with a detached model of observation
that left little space for interaction. This is the example of the mirror which described the
relationship between mimesis in art and world-nature, as appearances like reflections that
stress an opposing observation stance of subject and object (Rep. 596c-e–598d). The
painter, like the mirror-wielder, has no direct access to truth or to the forms themselves but
the real” but at best making “something that is like the real, though not real itself” (Rep.
597a).
Plato then stressed only imagination and ended up either in (a) methexis, or in (b)
idea (idealization). Methexis, however, was the most moving experience (i.e., Phaedrus), a
other/divine and elevating the soul to the ideal (the eternally resonating absolute-divine).
This type of existential, extreme mimesis, coming from the Orphic mysteries and the
VI. Aristotle’s approach to resonance: the rings metaphor as nested one within the other
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creating an evolving resonating concentric space—the virtual
ambivalent distinction between methexis and mimesis as a corrupted copy of the ideal.
interactive layers for resonance. Aristotle approaches tragedy from its genesis in Dionysus
rituals and Homer. The overall longitudinal but active scaffolding is mimesis, being an
affective primer to be tuned with, to stay in touch. It is within this shell that the function of
resonate within and across. All of them are tied around the critical ring, a central plot,
concurrently coated by mimesis that keeps the ties elastic and engaging (Stamatopoulou,
2007).
various ways in its different parts; in dramatic — active performance, not narrative form;
achieving, through pity and fear, the catharsis of such emotions (1449b).”
wisdom. Aristotle attaches great importance to the plot/myth that should resemble a living
organism where each of its parts makes no perceptible difference by its presence or
mimesis of action and life of people that shift from happiness to misery (1450a). It is a
Aristotle sounds like an expressionist when he claims that, in tragedy, we can have
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plots without characters, but not the inverse (1450a28-29). Tragic characters, being
inclusive to the plot, are not developed per se by the poets (1541a24). The tragic hero’s
incidents and dilemmas that lead to a disaster are the result of a dishonorable flaw woven
into his habitual character (1453a19) and not something for which he is blameworthy.
Aristotle insists that the characters shall be better than ordinary men (1454b3-8). The
failure is an unforeseen potentiality and, when it becomes actuality (i.e., ruin), it is pitiable
and fearful. It must be depicted in a plot in which incidents occur unexpectedly in order to
have an effect but, at the same time, in sequence (1452a3-4), yet neither by chance nor by
Aristotle requires a plot that implies opposing dynamics (i.e., overlapping contraries
carried from the same person)—the full view of what causes these opposing forces is
obscure, unless the tragic hero and the audience realize the active and passive options of
resonating field that actualizes emergencies; it reveals a character that his ethos is co-
modulated, beyond conditioning, by his choices and his realized potentialities of active or
passive causes, which all turn out to be the reason of his shift from failure-ignorance to
awareness/consciousness (1451a2-4). It is this interplay between characters and the plot that
results in the statement of the universal (katholou). This statement, taken together with
the requirement that the free-active choice (evolved ethos; 1454a20) of the tragic characters
should be supported by what they say and do with regard to the action they are involved
symbols (Sifakis, 2001). This approach reflects the dynamic, “anti-naturalistic” attitude of
In chapter 14, Aristotle introduces the fact that tragedy’s main function is the
catharsis of the emotions of pity and fear. What is meant here is a certain becoming of
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consciousness, in which something is being accomplished in the sense that it is a praxial-
in-structure synthesis via doing, moving, feeling, not as a mere mental activity, that leads
between space of joint attention and merging of action where both the audience, and the
tragic character are tuned to the unfolding of the myth. This is affected by the shifting
forces-roles that elicit fear and pity intra- and inter-subjectively, across both, tragic heroes
create di-synchronizations in the flowing of the myth, and reveal the gap—the ruin—the
non-recoverable error. This brings detached awareness (distancing) that triggers reflection,
actualized as a realization of the unconceivable—the completely harmful that sets the limits
(feeling cum imagining) the essential, beyond potentiality and brings up what is really
significant and meaningful (as entelechy; Stamatopoulou, 2007). The plot then being a
which is cathartic and transcending (catharsis). This shared transcending space of flow
wisdom (phronêsis) and not to hedonics. This taps to a new consciousness and it has a very
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RESONANCE IN CHINESE AESTHETICS
during the Six Dynasties (220 – 589 AD) period as well as its intellectual
Zhongshu 董仲舒, a Han Confucian scholar, coined the phrase “Tian Ren
cosmos. In this term, tian 天 means sky or heaven, ren 人 means human,
gan 感 means the movement or affecting of the heart and ying 应 means
culture, ranging from ideas about the good life to visual and literary
aesthetics.
aesthetics and art criticism between: (1) people and nature in general that
and artworks; and finally, (3) the artist and the viewer (or reader)
mediated by the artwork. In this context, one can therefore examine three
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Daoist perspective. Finally, the concept qi 气 (spirit or vital energy) refers
perspective
art and aesthetics can be traced back to “Yue Ji”乐记 (“Record of Music”),
classics that were collected by a scholar at the end of the Western Han
dynasty (206 BC - 9 AD) though they were written earlier by the students
and followers of Confucius mostly in the Warring States period (475 - 221
BC). The essay “Yue Ji,” arguably compiled by Liu, De 刘德 during the
reign of Emperor Wu of Han (157 – 87 BC), reflects ideas both before the
end of the Warring States period and of the Western Han dynasty.
the term “Tian Ren Gan Ying” 天人感应 (Affecting and Response between
belief in the resonant relationship between humans and the cosmos can
human society within the order of nature and cosmos. The essay “Yue Ji”
explained the resonance between human and things with both a political
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function and a natural origin. In the “Yue Ji”, yue 乐 (music) is related to li
with li, yue can help maintain the peaceful and orderly coexistence of all
beings in the world. Thus, in the human world, yue can promote social
stability.
humans and everything. The essay starts by explaining the origin of music
modulations of the voice, and its source is in the affecting (gan 感) of the
92) How is the mind affected (gan 感) by external things? Humans have
the nature of xue qi 血气 (blood and vital energy) and this nature is
(“YO KΔ, 1885, p.107) and manifest as emotions such as happiness and
sadness. Thus, the creative process of music according to the “Yue Ji”
involves: (1) the stimulus of things; (2) the affecting of humans; (3) the
3
With reference to James Legge’s translation “Music is (an echo of) the harmony between heaven and earth;
ceremonies reflect the orderly distinctions (in the operations of) heaven and earth. From that harmony all things
receive their being; to those orderly distinctions they owe the differences between them.” (1885). “YO KΔ (J.
Legge, trans.). In F. M. Müller (Ed.), The sacred books of China: the texts of confucianism;
part IV. Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 100. For original text please refer to Yang, T. (2004). Li Ji Yi Zhu
(礼记译注). Shanghai: Shanghai Classics Publishing House.
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The “Yue Ji” explains the gan 感 phenomenon in art appreciation
that, when evil notes gan 感 (affect) men, a corresponding evil spirit
inside men will respond to them. When correct notes gan 感 (affect) men,
the world “affect one another severally according to their class” (“YO KΔ,
cosmos from heaven to human society, the “Yue Ji” explains the
perspective
Wang criticized Dong’s interpretation of the “Tian Ren Gan Ying” 天人感应
4
Please see Wang, C. (1990). Lun heng(论衡). Beijing: Zhonghua Publishing House and Wang, C. (2015). Lun-
Heng (A. Forke, trans.). Scholar’s Choice.
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After the collapse of the Han dynasty, a Neo-Daoist school of
popularity during the Six Dynasties (220 – 589 AD), a long period of
aesthetic thinking was endowed with independence for the first time in
China (Cai, 2004) and led to a flourishing of aesthetic writings and art
to access the state of resonance. The essay starts by raising the tricky
choice of words5. In order to resolve the problem, the essay proposes four
feeling and intent in the canons, follow the change of four seasons, and
darkness” comes from Daoist master Laozi 老子 (likely 6th or 4th century
BC). In his Dao De Jing (or Laozi), Laozi used xuan 玄 to describe the
5
With reference to Chen, Shixiang’s translation. Please see Lu, J. (1952). Essay on Literature (S. Chen, trans.).
Portland: Anthoensen Press.
6
With reference to Stephen Owen’s translation. Please see Owen, S. (1996). Readings in chinese literary
thought. Cambridge: Harvard Univ Press, pp. 87-90.
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existence of dao 道. For Laozi, the dao 道 of things are too subtle and
argues for an epistemology of “Di Chu Xuan Lan” 涤除玄览 to approach the
dao 道 by abandoning all existing thoughts and personal biases, and then
observe in the darkness (pp. 20-21). Zuangzi inherited this thinking and
and thoughts.
This line of thinking was adopted by art critics like Lu as a key step
for freeing the self and being open to feeling a resonance with everything
method to solve the problem that meaning cannot fully represent the
1952, p. 20) and a full concentration on the mind that can then roam with
in the West. But the uniqueness of this process in China is that, in the
beings share “grief and rejoice” with “autumn and spring” when we
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“follow the change of four seasons” and look at the “falling leaves” and
newly emerged “pliant branches” because we are part of nature and live
developed by another literary critic Liu, Xie 刘勰(465-521). Liu wrote the
most comprehensive literary criticism of the time: Wen Xin Diao Long 文心
雕龙 (The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons). In this work, Liu
In the chapter “Wu Se” 物色 (“XLVI. The Physical World”), Liu starts
his argument by depicting a lively natural world where all things “call to”
one another (Liu, 1959, p. 245; Owen, 1996, p. 289), and human beings
are no exception. According to Liu, this “call,” which is similar to the idea
gan 感, can shape people’s feelings. Like Lu, Liu also points out that the
changing of the four seasons and things can affect or move people’s
Liu further described the process of how the poet resonates with
things and lingers in the world with his sensations and endless
things, poets, and their poems that when poets depict both the qi 气 and
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the appearance of things, they themselves are following the dynamic
change of things; and then, when they choose the words for depiction,
they associate the words with their feelings (Liu, 1959, p.246).
and noted two differences. First, Chinese poets “linger” beside things
rather than observe them from an opposing stance of subject and object
stance, it is crucial for poets to first empty their personal thoughts. Similar
stated that the most important thing for shaping literary thought is the
“emptiness and stillness within” (Owen, 1996, p. 204). Liu then vividly
explained two methods to reach that state: one is to dredge clear the
inner organs and second is to wash the spirit pure like snow. Second, the
Although Liu placed qi 气 as the key for depicting things, Liu did not
works for the resonance between the things and artists and its
the Western Zhou dynasty (1045–771 BC), even prior to the appearance
the collecting and the dispersion of qi 气 becomes the life and the death
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all things and humans are originally one unity. For Zhuangzi and his
From this point of view, resonance between artists and nature is due
to the movement and effect of their shared qi 气. This qi 气 is, at the same
time, the spirit of everything and its energy for movement and effect. It is
also both interior and exterior to the body so that it has the ability to
move and affect both from within and among the bodies. The qi 气 from
things provokes the qi 气 of people, moves their feelings and, when this
things.
sheng dong 气韵生动 (liveness of qi yun 气韵) as the first and the most
Diao Long, Liu defines yun 韵 together with he 和: while he 和 means “the
7
The punctuation here refers to Zhang, Yanyuan 张彦远’s Li Dai Ming Hua Ji 历代名画记 (“On Famous
Paintings Through the Ages”). In regarding the different ways of punctuation of the text, please refer to Cahill,
J. F. (1961). The Six Laws and How to Read Them. Ars Orientalis, 4, 372–381.
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harmony of different sounds and tones”, the yun 韵 means “the consonant
response of the same final vowel” (Liu, 1959, pp. 182–185). Thus when
1949). The term has also been translated earlier as “Spirit Resonance (or
Vibration of Vitality) and Life Movement.” (Sirén, 1936). Therefore, the first
has the energy to move the viewer in resonance with the painter’s
experience.
CONCLUSION
processes. The impetus for this was Hartmut Rosa’s proposal that
Romantic theorizing of the late 18th century that emphasized the search
25
for a unified self in the face of alienation from both nature and the social
world.
sociologists for over 100 years on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
economy. In the digital age, this need to establish (the illusion of) a social
whom they identify. Rosa’s analysis describes the next stage when
isolation. Peters (2017) discusses Rosa’s work and points out that Eric
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Fromm (1965) had clearly established that “connection” (i.e., resonance)
is the fundamental cure for alienation and this began well before the
that ranges from mere bodily resonance and mimesis to an elevated state
of self-reflection and connection with both the social and spiritual worlds.
The Greek approach runs the gamut of possibilities from collective dance
activity that could lead to an ecstatic encounter with the cosmos. Plato
how encounters with tragic dramas could both release pent up emotions
(fear and pity) while offering an opportunity for consciousness raising. The
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On the other side of the world, Ancient Chinese scholars and
or a direct personal encounter with nature and the cosmos (Daoism). Both
in the West and the East, the socio-political environment interacted with
with nature are also very similar to those expressed by German Romantic
philosophers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Whether we are
social circumstances related to social cohesion and conflict are the same
like Chinese artists of the Six Dynasties who were in harmony with nature
technology has made it clear that harmony (i.e., resonance) with our
fellow citizens and the environment might save us from destroying the
planet.
28
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