CHAPTER XII
SITUATIONALITY AS
THE MAIN PRINCIPLE OF
CHINESE "AESTHETIC BEING"
LORETA POSKAITE
"Is not the highest point of reason to realize this glide under our foot, to view this pompous interrogation as a state of continuous astonishment, this pursuit of progress as a circle, this being as something that is unfulfilled?" M. Merleau-Ponty asks this at the end of his reflections on the perception of the work of art, or, in a broader sense, on the experience of its timelessness and temporarity, as it emerges out from the holistic, psychosomatic insight into the momentary spread of being
1. Almost at the same time, a similar idea flashed across M. Heidegger’s mind, after he turned to the poetic, situational interrogations on being, though evading any conclusive answers, and searching for the authentic existential experience in the process of artistic creation. Since then, the thinking process is conceived by him as a way leading forward by moving backwards, thus opening many paths to the true.Perhaps, the same was intended by F. Nietzsche in his enlightening as well as frightening idea of the "eternal return". Its originality and "lifelikeness" was perceived exceptionally by M. Heidegger, who conceived of it as continual self-creation, self-extension, and "repeatable unrepeatability", rather than the simple recurrence or moving in a circle which drove F. Nietzsche mad. It means the highest affirmation of life in its fullness and variety as it makes its way through the moments of eruption of creative energy, which cannot be determined by any logical discourse, nor conceptualized by the means of abstraction or universalization. This is the way in which the unity of philosophy and art, of art and life is achieved in the concrete "meeting" of time and space, namely, in the particular situation.
Heideggerian thinking, like the Great Boundary (taiji) in Chinese philosophy, seems to reveal the complete return of Western philosophy to the roots of forgotten being. Also, it manifests a turn (or return?) to Oriental wisdom, which speaks of the rising of the mysterious yin power, into which yang power transforms itself naturally, after it is exhausted and degenerated. The Heideggerian concept of language, as well as its direct manifestation, may be interpreted as a culminating point of the process of orientalization (namely, ontologiation and aesthetization) of Western thought that began with the "literary" philosophical reflections and aphorisms of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. Later on this process took on an increasing interest in postmodern "language games" and its obsessive inclination for the construction and deconstruction of implicit meanings in search of multiple perspectives for textual reading and interpretation, without giving preference to any one of them.
However, is not such a characteristically postmodern decentralization of the world and its points of view. Its breaking up into numerous perspectives is just another ominous extremity, which pursues Western thought like an unavoidable fate? Does playing endlessly with "hermeneutic situations", being obsessed with fragmentary realities and accidental formations in demonstrative opposition to any stable structure (essence, phenomenon) give any hope of developing a "positive vision of a hypothetical whole"
2 by which this chaos and relativism of semantic structures, this infinity of spontaneous statement would be justified? What place is assigned here, in the world of mental collages and "simulacra", to authentic being experienced in a psychosomatic way, or to life itself with its real time and space, things so ardently discussed by S. Kierkegaard, F. Nietzsche and M. Heidegger? Finally, is there any distinction between accidental and situational phenomena?These questions may be discussed by looking at Western "post-classical" thought and its permutations, in short, at postmodernism from its own perspective. There is also another way, namely, to look at it from China’s cultural perspective. This way once was chosen by F. Jullien, the great French sinologist, who revealed an original and interesting way the peculiarity of the strategy of meaning in Greek thought through the analysis of Chinese strategy
3. China is mentioned here not only on account of some associations between the words of Merleau-Ponty (cited above) on the circular return of being, on the one hand, and the cycle of hexagrams in the Chinese The Book of Changes (Yijing), which formed the basis of situationality as the main principle of Chinese thought and life (that is, Chinese culture at whole), on the other hand. The image of the circle first relates to "irregularity", indeterminacy, openness, and indirectness. It is exactly this path to the true (truthfullness) that is chosen by Western post-structuralists and maintained by Chinese strategists as well for more than two thousand years. Situationality, in contemporary Western as well as traditional Chinese thought, functions as a substitution for the rational, rigid systems of thinking, and as a means by which one enters into the direct, aesthetic relations with reality. However, in both cultures, it has different ontological backgrounds, perspectives, usages and meaning.The aim of this article is to unfold the peculiarity of the principle of situationality in Chinese thought and practice, namely, the "mechanism" of its function and application in the ethical, as well as the aesthetic realm. The main focus of my investigation falls on the process philosophy of Yijing, and its further transformations in Chinese art, in practice as well as theory. (As applied to the martial arts, diplomacy, politics and language it was analyzed in an original and exhaustive way by F. Jullien
4, and to Confucian ethics – by Tu Wei-ming, H.Fingarette, Li Chenyang, R. Ames and D. Hall5. It is supposed, that the universality and "lifelikeness" of this principle manifests itself through the conformity to the immanent laws of nature, whereby the peril of confining oneself exclusively to the problems of language is evaded, and the relation to ontological reality from an anthropocosmic perspective is maintained. It will be argued, that the Chinese principle of situationality, based primarily on Yijing, has prevented Chinese thinkers from succumbing to the disassociative fragmentation and artificial deconstruction of the world as has happen in Western postmodern culture.The Functioning of the Principle of Situationality in Yijing
I would like to begin by pointing out one important feature of Chinese traditional worldview, which contrasts with the Western outlook (as exemplified by the Greek philosophers), namely, the unity of the human and nature. The differences of its interpretation in both cultures were indicated and adopted with foresight by F. Jullien
6. He observed that for the Greeks, the main attribute and function of nature were transformation and spontaneous change, whereas those of human – were action, which is the result of its separation from nature. In contrast, for the Chinese the activity of human and that of nature consist in mutual reciprocity, according to which the functions of the former are conceived of as in correspondence (response) to the latter. From this follows the difference between the Western and Chinese understanding of the creativity and creation (including artistic one), its principles and forms7.In this context we should mention also a third point of difference: the conception of time in ancient Greek and Chinese cultures. As F. Jullien points out, for Greeks time was divided between, on the one hand, the "theoretical" (chronos) that is regular, measurable, knowable and controllable, and, on the other hand, "practical" time (kairos) that is chaotic, accidental, uncontrollable, irregular. From the standpoint of kairos the individual moment (event, situation) is perceived as accidental, as something that cannot be retrieved, repeated, predicted, rationally comprehended, and therefore is filled with drama and tragic. Such an accidental moment must be "practiced", and hence is related to the cult of action. In contrast the Chinese regard time not as an object of knowing or acting, but as a process that is in one sense unrepeatable, i.e., defying control, yet also repeatable, i.e., able to be predicted in the sense of waiting for the favorable moment
8. Such a conception of time generates specific problems for Chinese philosophy. It was concerned with investigating ontological principles, the "ordinary order of things", and with taking advantage of the knowledge gained in defining the strategic purposes of life, rather than in searching for the ideal, timeless forms, or essences of things, or for the ultimate cause of the universe.Such an attitude has been the basis of the Yijing, the most important compendium of Chinese "strategic" wisdom. The main point of this wisdom, as well as of the Chinese understanding of life and of the world’s development, way be summed up in one sentence: "The successive movement of the inactive (yin) and active (yang) operations constitutes what is called the way (dao)" (Xcz, I.V.24)
9. Yin and yang are the forces and energetic states rather than the substances, helping through their continual transformation and interaction to maintain the continuous process of "production and reproduction", "creation and reproduction" (sheng sheng), or of the natural current of things. It was being-in-process that for the Chinese constituted the particular "logic of nature" as an alternative to the "logic of thinking" and metaphysics10.How does this "logic of nature" unfold, or, to put in other words, how do yin-yang powers "bring being into being" and at what stages of reality do they manifest themselves?
The way of yin-yang is one of the continual "going away" and "coming back", "disclosure" and "closure", caught in-between the state of latent equilibrium (called the Great Boundary or Emptiness, taiji), and that of actualization. The interaction of yin and yang, when they are in the state of phenomenal being, is reflected in the changes of the sun and the moon, day and night (from the point of view of time), of higher and lower position (from the point of view of space), masculinity and femininity, strength and weakness, activity and passivity (from the point of view of depth). A special coincidence of those threefold measurements of reality gives rise to a particular situation that must be understood not only as the "actualization" of some circumstances but also as a boundary between past and future events. In other words, it is conceived as a result and a potential for a particular interaction of the yin and yang powers, a source of efficacy by which the possible future "current of things" is indicated. It is a sign that evokes a reaction (though not necessarily an active one).
This sign has a visual, graphic, symbolic form. It is said in The Great Commentary of Yijing: "Therefore in "Yi" there is the Grand terminus (Great Boundary), which produced the two elementary Forms. Those two Forms produced the Four emblematic Symbols, which again produced the eight Trigrams." (Xcz, I. 9) The symbol, thus, being a combination of two lines (yin and yang, the so-called two elementary Forms or "primordial signs") and revealing the movement of all things under Heaven (Tianxia, which refers to sensitive, lifelike, human and concrete rather than to divine reality), acts as a visual suggestion, not a concentration, of some idea
11 . It is not a source of any independent meaning, but the dynamic state of vital energy (qi), leading to the figurative, symbolic, numerological, and deeper dimension of the relationship between the human and the universe. The trigrams, as well as hexagrams, should be seen of as the result not only of the interaction of Heaven and Earth (namely, the universe), but also of the creativity of three components – Heaven, Earth and the human.It is the human person (whose ideal is the sage, shengren) who is "settled" between Heaven and Earth (but not on Earth) as a unifying axis. His purpose is to look in two directions, upwards (to Heaven) and downwards (to Earth), and to grasp the correlation between heavenly and earthly phenomena that is expressed by the symbols of the trigrams and hexagrams. He has to bring them closer instead of setting them apart from him (in his mind), thus making them not an object of one’s reflections, but the driving force of one’s life and creativity. Or, as it is said in Xicizhua", the sage of antiquity produced trigrams, hexagrams and their aphorisms as a means not only to reflect on the universe, but also for the management of daily affairs and the betterment of his or her destiny. No wonder that these symbols, as configurations of lines and ornaments (wen), were used by later aestheticians in explaining the main Chinese cultural forms (the system of writing, the art of painting, literature, since they are all based on the line as a common expressive means). Thus, Chinese traditional culture and art is understood, for example by V. Maliavin, the famous Russian sinologist, as the "repertoire of typical forms", namely, of the particular states of the concentration of vital energy (qi), which reveal the coincidence of the image (xiang) and transformation (hua), the relation between eternality and its situational manifestation
12. The cycle of hexagrams, based on the perpetual, yet hardly noticeable of the "soft" and "strong" (yin and yang) lines, reveals, first of all, the changing character of reality and the variety of its forms, while their aphorisms show that this changing character cannot be determined in any theoretical way. They hint but do not instruct us how to locate the "exit" on all sides of our surrounding when activity has no single purpose.The question may arise: are there any "supporting points" and "directing lines" that would help "tying together" all situations and conceiving them as variations of one theme? Originally, four mantic formulas (yuan, heng, li and zheng) were used in mantic practice of Yijing and exhibited some of the characteristics of the dynamic phases of symbols. It is important to note here, that these mantic formulas were called four virtues (si de), also that virtue (de), in the broadest sense of the term, refers to the main quality or the concentration of qualities that contribute to the best way of life accessible to a particular creature. Thus, the mantic formulas may be conceived as guiding, supportive points in the movement of the yin-yang powers, points that show the direction of further action or appropriate reaction to situation and therefore prevent from the "scattering" of situations, namely, from their becoming chaotic, meaningless "chance". Like one line, they "concentrate the space" and "energize" the aphorism that brings into relief the emptiness between the words by its polisemous allusions.
It is this emptiness exactly that connects things for it is the functional, moving entity ( xu), not an ontological one (kong). It is associated with the spontaneous current of events (things), and it brings out their fullness, namely, the efficacy of their activity (like silence for the sound of music, or the unfilled space of a painted scroll for the picture represented). Here the emptiness may be conceived as the waiting for, or as a means for connecting situations and regulating their natural development, thus as a means by which they should emerge as variations of one theme (that is, of Dao or the correlative process of nature and human culture). The end of every phase (situation) coincides with the beginning of the next one, since the situation is a particular result of the interaction of yin-yang powers and a potential for their further development.
Because of this, the Chinese strategists gave primary attention to the origination, inclination, and energetic inception of the situation (called shi, and translated as moment, impetus, driving force, sign, situation) rather than to the " vortex" of events. As is said in The Great Commentary: "The I is a book in which the form (of each diagram) is determined by the lines from the first to the last (¼). There is difficulty in knowing (the significance of) the first line, while to know that of topmost is easy; they form the beginning and the end (of the diagram). The explanation of the first line requires calculating ( the markers), but in the end they had (but) to complete this." (Xcz, II.9) There lies a hidden end in the explanations of the first line, just as in the "seed" of a plant, or in the motive of an action. Thus, their realization leads naturally to that end, or, to be more precise, further on to the beginning of another situation. Such a concentration on the impetus or "the root" (as the most important element in Confucian ethics, and Daoist ontology, cosmogony, and cosmology as well) once again reveals an effort to avoid determinism and finality (not only in structural and hermeneutic sense, but also in strategic one).
Thus, the wisest way to act is to take advantage of the "potentiality" of the situation and of the further course of events (namely, changes) implied in it rather than of one’s deeds or rational considerations, since there exist only mutations and transformations without any strict rules. Such an advantage is neither action nor non-action, but some mean in-between. For the action or non-action implies the presence of the purpose (object), an agent (subject), and their mutual distinctness, as the result of "transcendental logic", namely, by assuming the view from outside. On the contrary, Yijing speaks about how to "act-without-acting" (wei wu wei) when any distinction between (or even existence of) subject and object vanishes and everything proceeds according to "immanent logic": the human person is "overcome" by the energetic impetus and carried away by the current of events driven by the pulsation of cosmic vitality and natural change. Then the problem of action or non-action as such, its motivation and boundaries disappears, and all activity takes on the form of continual adaptation to changes (hua), "production and reproduction" (sheng sheng). This concept also underpins the interpretation of artistic creation that focuses on the process itself rather than on the result. That is why Yijing says that changes reveal "without gaps" the way of Heaven and Earth.
Such "acting-without-acting" as spontaneous adaptation to the changes of nature has the characteristic of effortlessness that is another meaning of the word yi (from Yijing). It refers to one’s ability to penetrate and regulate everything without any effort in a simple and clear way. Such is the quality of Heaven (Qian), which, according to Xicizhuan, operates with ease and is followed by Earth (Kun), representing the most docile of all things under the sky. Thus, the sage has to link together the characteristics of the activities of Heaven and Earth, starting with whatever is at hand and acting in an invisible way by simply making the hostile powers to serve his good. That is why such activity comes so easy to him.
Effortlessness and readiness to start with whatever is at hand is related to the ordinariness that is the third meaning of the word yi in Yijing. As stated above, the symbols (trigrams, hexagrams) of Yijing are considered as visual suggestions of the ordinary situations rather than of ideal forms or ideas. R. Wilhelm aptly observed this feature. According to him, it is impossible to grasp adequately the whole system of the book if one is searching but for the "dark" and the "mysterious" in it, since its meaning lies in what is light and understandable for everyone
13. We can now see how this meaning of Yijing is absorbed all too eagerly by contemporary Western "esoteric" literature that stresses its usefulness for all the spheres of human life and of various people (from women to men, from business to love) and thus tends to the other extreme of vulgarizing its meaning. In my opinion, here (as well as in most cases of interpreting Chinese ideas in light of Western thought) some mean, so peculiar to Chinese mentality and the way of life, must be found, namely, something between the simplicity (ordinariness) and complexity (mysteriousness) of its meaning. It must be recalled that mysterious spirituality (shen) is characteristics of Dao (as well as of the shifting of yin-yang powers), which is the manifestation of the universality and inexhaustibility of Dao.Secondly, another important idea, based on Chinese polar thought and developed by Daoists and Confucians, is that the most subtle things are hidden in the most obvious ones, and the greatest deeds in the smallest ones. They are hidden in what is nearby. This approach, however, can be understood and realized not by everyone:
The successive movement of the inactive and active operations constitutes what is called the course (of things). That which ensues as the result (of their movement) is goodness; that which shows it in its completeness is the natures (of things). The benevolent see it and call it benevolence. The wise see it and call it wisdom. The common people, acting daily according to it, yet have no knowledge of it. Thus it is that the course (of things), as seen by the superior man, is seen by few (Xcz, I.5).
The ordinariness of the meaning of Yijing was inexhaustible not only in an ethical but also in aesthetic sense, thus forming a background for Chinese "aesthetic being" as an intercourse of human person and the universe in a direct, intersubjective, holistic way, and giving meaning to his or her contextual, authentic self-cultivation and self-creation in accordance to the immanent principles of the macrocosm. Ordinary action, mentioned in Yijing, was first of all conceived in ethical terms, as the generative process of the goodness (shan) which, according to Confucians, is realized through the cardinal human virtues, namely, humanheartedness (ren), righteousness or appropriateness (yi), ritual propriety (li) and knowledge (zhi). These virtues are exactly the "supporting points" for the behavior of "the gentleman" or "exemplary person", junzi), and the invisible (since they are constant, everyday) guidelines of his self-transformation and situational interaction with the macrocosm. They help strengthening one’s inclination to "go with the flow", to be obedient to the laws of nature (or destiny, ming) and also to bear responsibility, which is the creative way of his destiny.
In addition, the main ideas of Yijing which speak about the transformation of yin and yang powers (namely, about reality as a field of their interaction) and the human person’s need to follow situationally their "force impulses" have influenced greatly Chinese artistic imagination as well. The realization of such a "situational strategy" in Chinese artistic creativity and aesthetic worldview will be analyzed below.
SITUATIONALITY IN ART CREATION AND
AESTHETICS
One of the most appreciated arts in ancient Chinese culture was music. Confucius assigned it the highest position in the hierarchy of arts, conceiving it as the most suitable means for the person’s self-cultivation and the harmonization of all things under Heaven (the state, humankind, the universe). Music was valued no less by Daoists. Zhuangzi, for instance, could hear its sound and harmony in the most ordinary and strange things – the dancing of the butcher’s knife, the murmur of the trees, joy and anger, the mutability and stability of the universe. Confucius appealed to the contrasting examples of music of the Wei and Chu states, while Zhuangzi to the sounds of the flute of Earth and Heaven, and of the human in order to show the perfect character of music. The music of Heaven for Zhuangzi seemed to arise from emptiness and arrange itself spontaneously into perfect ornament without the help of any visible conductor.
The interpretations of the genesis of music may be found in the first treatises on music – Yueji (later included into the Liji) and Lushi Chunqiu. Here they repeat almost word-for-word the scenario of the origin of ritual (as presented in Confucian canons) and cosmic changes (as presented in Yijing), thus the origin and evolution of the whole universe. As is said in Lushi Chunqiu: "The origin of music is in the very remote past. It was born of equal measurement and rooted in the Grand Unity. The Grand Unity gave birth to the Counterparts (heaven and earth). The Counterparts gave birth to yin and yang. The yin and yang transformed and stratified into higher and lower levels. These came together and formed regular patterns"
14. In other words, the musical sound is conceived of as the concentration of the vital energy (qi) or the various arrangement of its "firm" forms and energetic waves, corresponding to the dynamic movement of the sun and the moon, the stars and the planets, the rhythmic alteration of seasons, the cycles of the day and the night. However, music (yue, yinyue) does not consist of a single sound (yin). It is the harmonious concord of several sounds, namely, a sounding ornament (wen) that was copied and "translated" into the language of human communication by the legendary cultural heroes Fuxi, Yao, Shun, Huangdi, the inventors of the main musical instruments. Due to their authority, at least in part, music acquired a cosmological function, becoming a means for unifying the universe.It must be recalled that music is primarily a temporal art, expressing itself not only through the arrangement of the sounds, but also (and first of all) through the movement that responds to cosmic changes and affects these arrangements. Therefore, according to the Chinese, music should not be played in any arbitrary fashion, but in accordance with the time of the season, the occasion, the balance of natural powers, and the inner state of the person and that of the universe. A similar situational strategy of Yijing is maintained in the process of playing music. Two points from what was discussed above are very important here, namely, foreseeing the concrete circumstances that are the most favorable for playing and "catching" the initial energetic impulse or driving force (shi).
It is this purpose that all technical instructions serve. For instance, in some treatises by later Chinese intellectuals we find the enumeration of typical situations that are most favorable for playing the qin, one of the most intimate instruments of Chinese artists, which helps in the best way to reveal the vibrations of the human soul and turn them into the vibrations of nature. Therefore, it is favorable to play it while meeting an expert in music, sitting at the top of a tower or on a stone, sailing in a small boat, resting under the shadow of a tree, and so on. This helps to tune up one’s mind appropriately and create (re-create) the particular mood or atmosphere.
The technique of playing the qin reveals in the most evident way the synthesis of movement (time) and visibility (space) as a means for making the aesthetic experience "soundlike". The early notation system for instrument players is characterized by the holism that is also evident in the Chinese characters. It is used for recording the manner of producing sound (fingering, the positions of hands – shou shi) or for describing certain movements of the performer rather than for marking the pitch of a sound. The position of hands (shi) may be conceived of as the incentive or moment of the movement of the natural energetic forces (yin-yang) that is revealed in polisemous way by Yijing aphorisms. The same polysemy may be found in the "theory" of music in which the imaginative metaphors, taken from the life of nature, are used for enunciating the positions of hands and the movements of playing. These are, "the flying dragon is buried in the clouds", "the pilgrim insect catches the cicada", and the like (similar metaphors are employed in characterizing brushstrokes in calligraphy as well). Metaphors like the ones, as well as the aphorisms of Yijing served as references not to only one right way (to play or produce a sound), but to many ways leading to all the directions, or the general atmosphere of the way by which the creative energy is unleashed. At the same time, attention is focused on the meaning between the lines or the inner vibrations perceived as the most subtle and barely heard sound.
This helps to disclose another characteristic of playing the qin (and of Chinese aesthetics and art in general). It is a species of minimalism that was developed as a result of attributing great importance to the subtle variations in details (observable, for example, in the "minimal" changes of the lines in the circle of hexagrams of Yijing). The ideal of minimalist expression is best satisfied by playing the qin which has only few strings. In consequence, the beauty of its music consists in the variety of its timbres, in striking subtle semitones and shades rather than whole tones and intervals. Of even greater importance is the power of statement that a pause or silence can exert in music (like that of ink washes or white space in a painting). The effects of qin music are produced through a special interplay of visible hand movements and sound, which sometimes passes into a disconnection of the visible and the audible. As Kenneth J. De Woskin observes, "there are moments in a qin performance when the left (stopping) hand is apparently still and a number of subtly distinct tones are played. There are other moments when the performer’s hands dance through a series of complex shapes and motions, rendering nothing audible, especially to the ears of the non-initiate"
15. For example, a special technique of vibrato is presented in some handbooks, that should evoke the image of "fallen blossoms floating down the stream" or "the cry of a dove announcing rain". Sometimes no movement of the finger is required, letting the timbre be influenced by the pulsation of blood in the fingertip.One may hear absolute silence at certain moments of absolute silence. Such an experience does not serve just the purpose of relaxation; it rather facilitates the retention of the sound just heard in one’s memory and enables the apprehension of all its nuances. Such moments, called "after-tone" (you yin), actually are the most expressive and meaningful (just like an "after-taste" in drinking tea or "after-image" in the looking at a picture). For it is they that reveal the infinity of every situation (as a certain coincidence of time, space and depth) by "tying together" its separate impulses and inviting the listener to enjoy the play of its overtones, while interfering as little as possible with the process of change.
As has been mentioned above, the most beautiful music for Zhuangzi was the sound of the flute of Heaven, namely, of "the same wind that makes different hollows produce different sounds", producing and sounding so by itself (ZZ, p.17)
16. It is the sound of nature itself, embracing the human voice as well. Once more, it reminds us of the landscapes of Chinese painters in which the human person is represented as if being lost in nature. No wonder, then, that the sound of the flute of nature for Daoists seems more beautiful than that of the human voice.The reminiscences of this approach may be found in subsequent literature. For instance, Zhang Chao (the XVII century intellectual, who wished to become an old unuseful tree, the butterfly or a big free fish Kun, once described so picturesquely by Zhuangzi) in his collection of aphorisms "The shadows of the deep sleep" referred to such natural sources of the most subtle music as water, wind or rain. As he observes, the nuances of their music vary according to situation: a ripple of the water sounds in one way, and its quiet stream in a ravine – in another; the sound of rain, when it is falling on the leaves, is of one kind, and when it is flowing in the bamboo vessel, of another kind
17. The pleasure of listening to human music varies, too: one kind of music ("mood") is produced by playing the qin, another by the tapping of checkers or the rustling of playing cards, and all of these "kinds" may be enjoined in different ways – in solitude, in the company of two or more people. Such an enunciation of the various nuances of music rests on the same principle of the "typification of situations" of cosmic change was based the strategy of Yijing as well as Chinese ethical and aesthetic self-consciousness. It is the dynamic states of things, or the particular and the ordinary moments of their mutations that are enjoyed, not their substantiality.The same principle is important for the art of drinking tea. In the treatises on tea aesthetics one can find the enunciation of certain temporal moments (situations), favorable to tasting tea. Such moments may be: reading boring poetry, stopping the sound of music, chatting at midnight, taking rest in the bedroom, watching the boats drifting in the channel, sitting in the shadow of a lotus on a sultry day, visiting a temple in a lonely place. Here attention is given not so much to the subtle ritualization of every moment and the purification of the senses that are too important for Japanese tea masters (who turn tea drinking into a highly refined, aestheticized, and ritualized process in which time is stopped at the moment of its "boundary perfection", namely the purity and silence, and removes one from the outside, chaotic and ever-changing world). Chinese tea masters gave more attention to the visual and audible aspects of the tea making process itself (for instance, by indicating certain stages of the process of water boiling: first, when the fizzling of the small bubbles is heard, second, when the big bubbles appear, and third, when the water boils in full swing), as well as the nuances of its taste – unfolding experiences in the course of time, namely, the sensations and other perceptual occurrences inside the human body after drinking the first, second, third, or sixth cup of tea.
Enjoying both ordinary and extraordinary experiences along with their subtle "semitones" is like reading long, unending Chinese novels that allow the reader to "sink" slowly in the fine details of events, to be drawn into the particular rhythm by awakening his or her "spiritual ears" and opening his or her eyes to the fascinating moments of ordinary life. It is true that the cultivated Chinese intellectuals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries took delight not so much in penetrating the soundless, formless Dao or silence as in watching the bright moon in the clear sky, a vase with flowers, a hazy landscape, enjoying the moments of picking tea and mandarines, and the like
18. As may be seen from the examples above, the same "logic of nature" was upheld until the culmination and the ending point of the history of traditional Chinese culture. This "logic of nature" was based on arresting (although quite passively) the changing aspects of nature and turning them into typical situations (which may be conceived of as repeatable in their rhythmical movement, yet unrepeatable in their subtle nuances).Nevertheless, it is the art of painting that may be considered as the most perfect way for "responding" to natural changes both in a temporal and a visual fashion. It is said in the aesthetics of painting that the line as its basic expressive means takes its origin from the same Great One (or Dao) that is supposed to be the source of changes in Yijing and of musical sound in Lushi Chunqiu. In the process of painting we find a subtle combination of "acting according to the situation" and "natural penetrating the alterations of things" (considered as non-action, wu wei). The starting point of the act of painting itself implies choosing the favorable moment or consulting the course of cosmic time, as has been shown by Gao Jianping, the famous contemporary researcher of Chinese painting, aesthetics and culture
19. According to him, such moment of the "impetus of natural change" (shi) is the embodiment of the vital energy (qi) that turns a painted landscape into a response to natural changes or to a spontaneous moving direction (ziran zhi shi). Therefore, not only lines but also things must be arranged in a certain sequence, since every thing (form) emerges in its proper time just like in nature. Thus every brushstroke or image is a response to previous one, as well as to its context, and the creation of new possibilities and new contexts (expressed by a phrase like the "strokes give birth to each other", "the objects are in need of each other").Gao Jianping makes an interesting comparison between the art of painting and playing go (a game with stones, highly enjoyed by Chinese intellectuals since the third century) whereby he wants to elucidate the "playful" relation of the moment and the whole, or show the importance of the particular situation (as a configuration of forces) to the dynamism of the whole current. He cites some thoughts by Chinese aestheticans about the closeness of the principles of these two arts. And so, what do painting and go have in common? First, both take into account the general context, namely, in go, the player tries to occupy the largest territory possible, in painting the artist tries to produce the broadest space possible. In one of the manuals on painting it is said: "In painting, one must begin with a few strokes to form the general situation. This is exactly like go-playing. If the player concentrates on only one corner, he can occupy a small territory but lose the match.(¼) A good go-player can decide the situation of the whole match with only a few stones. A good painter must be able to do so, too"
20.In other words, the first strokes, just as the first stones, serve as a means for the initiative momentum (shi) or indicating the situation, the sensation of the movement of spiritual vitality. The skillfulness of the painter, as that of the go player, manifests itself primarily in his or her ability to "inspire with spirit" or broaden the space in order to give more freedom and power to action or the creative self-expression. The more extensive is the space, the more meaningful is the role of its every "active element", namely, the brushstroke, form or the stone of go. As a consequence, they can not be arranged in any arbitrary way:"¼ In go-playing, even if only a single stone is laid in the wrong place, the whole situation will be destroyed. A painting contains a certain principle even though there are no definite positions marking the relationships between the upper, middle, and lower parts¼"
21.In the process of painting any thing, one must follow a certain sequence of representing its details that corresponds to the natural development of life (for instance, painting the bamboo from the bottom, the way it grows up). This is why the use of the brush (bi fa) was later considered as one of the most important technical skills and virtues (de) of the painter, and highly prized by the Chinese painting school of "literati" (wenrenhua). The contact of the brush as yang power and the ink as yin power becomes the first transformation of Dao, implying a "changing changeability" (hua hua). In coming into contact with the silk, the ink transforms itself into the yang (active, giving, creative), and the silk becomes yin (passive, receiving) power. Thus, brushwork is interpreted as the recurring process of Dao vitality or cosmic creation and change.
The cosmogonic and cosmostructural conception of the process of painting was formulated and summarized in Shi Tao’s (Yuan Ji’s) theory of painting. According to him, painting is the great way for changing (hua) the universe. Its essence lies in One stroke (yi hua, yi bi) that was conceived by Shi Tao as the sign of the transformation of being and non-being, embracing all the universe and bringing out the idea or principle (li) nurtured inside. The One stroke is the microcosmic embodiment of the macrocosm, as it reveals what is great through what is small. The One may be associated with Dao, the absolute, which was talked about in Laozi, Zhuangzi, Yijing. It is hidden in and beyond every thing, giving birth to the two (yin and yang, the strong and weak line) wherefrom ten thousand things spring up. The variety of their configurations is expressed through the sixty-four hexagrams of Yijing, understood as the transformations of the One stroke (yi hua).
Thus, the painter has to be a great sage who gathers within himself all the immense variety of the universe and conveys it in the painting, – conveys what in principle cannot be conveyed. Also, he must be a great strategist who follows the method of non-action, discussed above, as a means for the "situational dynamization" and "differentiation" of the image into many perspectives. The main rule of his creation is the "absence of any rule" so that the world can be presented (represented) as it really is for itself (ziran) in its boundlessness and "repeatable unrepeatability" without suggesting a more subjective meaning of the world represented by the painter.
The mutability and inexhaustible virtue of being and the creative spirit is represented in the most imaginative way by the dragon, an especially complex and polisemous symbol of Chinese culture and visual art. It may be recalled that in Western culture the dragon was conceived as a monster and was associated with the conservative and unrestrained fury, while in Chinese culture it is related to masculinity (yang power), the Eastern direction which implies inexhaustible vitality and productivity (sheng sheng). According to Yijing, it was the Yellow Dragon that appeared to the legendary Fuxi and revealed the ornaments that became the basis of the Chinese writing system, of its visual, linear culture and situative thinking in general. Thus, the dragon symbolizes the spirit of the life and mutability itself, for sometimes (if necessary) it becomes invisible and decreases to the size of cocoon of silkworm; sometimes it becomes enormously big and covers up all of Heaven and Earth, while disguising its real size.
However, the tip of its tail, seen from the shroud of clouds, and the other parts of its body, resembling different animals, refer to the presence of the one, same, whole and entire body that is able to regenerate itself and preserve the power of all the other creatures. It symbolizes not only benevolence but also perfect wisdom and its power manifests itself through the ability to take advantage of the continual "renovation" of the situation, or "to act-without-acting". It has no fixed shape, for it moves continually, thus harmonizing itself with the natural course of life and becoming as invisible and elusive as water, the symbol of Dao. Finally, the strategy of dragon is revealed through moving in a circle that implies continual non-finality and constancy as well (that is, spinning around the inner axis).
CONCLUSIONS
Chinese situational thought arouse as a consequence of experiencing directly the harmony between the human person and the universe rather than as a result of opposing any theoretical systematization of the world and its phenomena that ultimately leads to a cleavage between the human person and the universe, as it happened in Western postmodernism. It served as a means for relating knowledge and action. Situational thinking helped to conceive human creativity (culture) as a continuation of Heavenly (cosmic) creativity and a response to its transformations.
Situationality was based on the "logic of nature" that called for reliance on time and its changes. It supported the idea that every transformation will be repeated after some time; only the configuration of powers will be different, as every situation is neither totally accidental nor fully predictable.
Situationality in Chinese traditional thought was free of the chaotic. The change of situations is based here on the all-permeating immanent principle (Dao), which like the "situational rule" and "all-bending spring" prevents its elements from chaotic scattering. Thus, the main purpose of Chinese artists and strategists was to experience and reveal indirectly the working of this inner principle through the situational activity. In situational activity (creativity), concentration on the impetus (shi) of the situation rather than on its "culminating point" confirms the fact that the relation of situation to its source, as well as of situation to the general current of events (or, to put in postmodern language, "the text" and "context") is more important than the situation itself considered in and of itself.
This inner principle prevented isolating the human person from the rhythmic course of nature and from imprisoning it in the world of independent meanings, as it has happened in postmodernism (particularly, in its "esoterically formalistic" movement). The principal value in Chinese situational thought is given to the all-embracing anthropocosmic power or virtue (de) rather than to some conceptual meaning, and this virtue is a means by which meanings arise spontaneously and transform themselves into another stage of configuration. Thus, the main purpose is to take care of its continuation, preservation, and transformation in the process of perpetual changes (the so called cycle of "production and reproduction", sheng sheng).
With this in mind we come to see how the situationality of Chinese thought is realized through the paradigm of ritualism and traditionalism of Chinese culture (that is not a characteristic feature of Western postmodernism). It was the ritual (li) that grounded the mantic practice of Yijing human relations in Confucianism, but also Chinese artistic creativity and self-expression. Thus, it may be conceived of as a means – inward, as well as outward – for regulating human life by which the situational behavior and creativity was maintained in harmony with the universal process of changes, and the fragmentation of the "situational configurations" and unprecedented circumstances was avoided.
The focus of interest for Chinese strategists and artists was not the result of their activity (creativity) but the process itself that maintained (through the ritual) the direct relationship of the human person with being and time. A similar significance is attributed to the creative process by Western postmodern culture. However, when compared to the Chinese conception of process, it seems to attach too great an importance to it and therefore tends to another extreme, namely, the separating of being and time and enforcing the cult of speed. Hence, it is no wonder that many Westerners feel frustration or desperation while listening to "silent" pieces of music or looking at "empty" paintings that are inspired by the Oriental (Daoist, Buddhist) idea of emptiness. They feel frustrated because of an inability to connect in their memory one note with another, as they are interrupted by too long a silence which separates the present from the past. Perhaps this is the reason why many Westerners are traveling these days to the East not only in search of spiritual light, but also in pursuit of that peace of mind that helps to recover the natural harmony of the human person and being.
A similar emotion may be evoked by looking at an empty canvas (presented as a painting) that may convey a very profound intention to reveal that zero-point, that moment of the absolute beginning from which all being spreads out and to which it returns. I personally think, however, that such emptiness seems too challenging and destabilizing when it appears without any context. It comes nobody knows where from and leads nobody knows where to. The last painting in the cycle of Chinese Chan-Buddhist paintings known as "The Taming of the Buffalo" may be approached in quite a different way. Emptiness in here represented in the shape of the circle. It is the same circle that was described at the beginning of this paper as continual, irregular, indirect movement in a certain direction. The emptiness may be conceived of here as the result of the previous being and process, a new point of support, hinting (only from another standpoint) to the same being. As it is said in the commentary on this painting: "Both the human being and the buffalo have disappeared without any trace, only the moonlight illuminates the deserted world. However, if somebody wants to disclose the meaning of this painting, let him or her look at the wild flowers that grow so-for-themselves"
22.
NOTES
1
Merleau-Ponty, M. L’OEil et l’Esprit. – Paris: Gallimard, 1964, p. 92. The translation into English is mine.2
Iljin,I. Postmodernizm: ot istokov do konca stoletija – Moskva, 1998, p. 52.3
Jullien, F. Detour and Access. Strategies of Meaning in China and Greece (transl. By Sophie Hawkes). – Zone Books, New York, 2000. My notes on this book are taken here from the Russian translation: Zhuljen,F. Putj k celi. – Moskva, 2001.4
Jullien, F. Detour and Access. Also another his book on the propensity of things and a history of efficacy in China. Here, my notes are taken from Russian translation of his second book on this subject (originaly Traite de l’efficacite, 1996): Zhuljen F. Traktat ob efektivnosti. – Moskva, Sankt-Peterburg, 1999.5
Hall, D. L., Ames R.T. Thinking Through Confucius. – Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987; Fingarette, H.. Confucius – the Secular as Sacred. – New York, Evanston, San Francisco, London: Harper & Row, 1972; Li Chenyang. The Tao Encounters the West. Explorations in Comparative Philosophy. – Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999; Tu Wei-ming. "The Creative tension Between Jen and Li" . – In Philosophy East and West, 1968, vol. 18; Tu Wei-ming. "Li as process of humanization". – In Philosophy East and West, 1972, vol. 22, no. 2.6
Zhuljen,F. Traktat ob efektivnosti. – Moskva, Sankt-Peterburg, 1999, pp.63, 77-78.7
My special comparative study on the concept of creation in the Chinese classical and Western "post-classical" philosophy is written in Lithuanian: Poskaite, L. "Kurybingumo suvokimas klasikineje kinu ir "poklasikineje" Vakaru filosofijoje" – In Liaudies kultura, 2000, 6, pp. 37- 44.8
Zhuljen,F. Traktat ob efektivnosti. – Moskva – Sankt-Peterburg, 1999, pp.91-92.9
The Chinese classics with their abbreviations:Xcz – Xi ci zhuan ("A Great Commentary" from The Book of Changes): Yijing (transl. by J. Legge). – The Chinese-English Bilingual Series of Chinese Classics, Hunan chubanshe, 1994.
10
The polysemanticality of the Yijing have influenced a great variety of its interpretations, some of which are in opposition one to another. For example, the Russian sinologist from the "structuralist" trend negates a widespread idea on the absence of formal logic in China, taking as an example of it not other one but the Yijing and even treating it as the particular manual of Chinese logic. See: Krushinskij A.A. Logika "I szina. – Moskva, 1999. The rudiments of abstract, rational thought in this canon book were pointed to by the famous Russian "yijinist" Shctutskij J.K. See: Shctutskij, J.K. Kitajskaja klassiceskaja Kniga peremen. – Moskva, 1993, p.38. A. Kobzev, another great Russian sinologist, treats it as an example of the particular Chinese logic, namely, numerology. See: Kobzev, A.J. Uchenije o simbolach I chislach v kitajskoj klassiceskoj filosofii. – Moskva, 1994.11
It is some confusion in usage of the word "symbol" here, as for some scholars it means "four emblematic symbols" (xiang) – the compositions of two lines, whereas for others – the trigrams (and even the hexagrams).12
Maliavin, V.V.(ed.) Vozhozdenije k Dao – Moskva, 1997, p. 393.13
Vilhelm,P., Vilhelm,G. Ponimanije "I czin. – Moskva, 1998, p.186.14
Cited according to: DeWoskin Kenneth J. A Song for One or Two. Music and the Concept of Art in Early China. – Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan, 1982, p. 56.15
Ibid., p. 123.16
ZZ – Zhuangz (transl. into English by Wang Rongpei). – China: Hunan People’s Publishing House, Foreign Languages Press, 1999.17
Maliavin,V.V.(ed.). Kniga mudrych radostej.(A Book of the Wise Joys). – Moskva, 1997, pp.403-404.18
Ibid, p. 425.19
Jianping Gao. The Expressive Act in Chinese Art. – Uppsala, 1996, pp.93-103.20
Ibid., p. 66.21
Ibid., p. 67.22
Cit. from: Maliavin V.V.(ed.) Molnija v serdce. – Moskva, 1997 , p.176.