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The Aesthetic Uniqueness of Li Yu through His Attitude towards “Elegance”
2017/2018 School of Chinese Research Students Seminar
從對“雅”的態度看李漁的審美獨特性
The Aesthetic Uniqueness of Li Yu through His Attitude towards “Elegance”
魏琛琳Wei Chenlin
December 1, 2017 (Friday), 5:30-6:45pm
Room 730, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus
Language: Putonghua
晚明時期，社會上出現了“崇雅”風尚。不僅士大夫階層以風雅相尚，在日常生活中和著書立說時强調和推崇“雅”的概念；富商巨賈、達官顯貴也競相表達對“雅”的追逐，收藏雅物、雅器的行爲比比皆是。此現象的出現，主要是由於晚明商業的極度繁榮和物質財富的大量積累，導致原有社會秩序的瓦解和新的商品社會關係的建立。在這個過程中，士人階層地位下降且愈加貧窮，處沒落邊緣；而財富擁有者們在具備經濟實力後，對本群體在文化領域和政治領域的話語權展開了爭奪。爲緩解地位下降的失落和身份界限模糊的焦慮，文人士大夫們便試圖通過對“雅”概念的重塑，建構起與衆不同的自我大衆形象，將自己與社會上隨處可見的所謂“鑒賞家”和“收藏者”等劃清界限，爲自己的文化地位扳回一城。崇“雅”的社會風尚表現在晚明的鑒賞文獻中，便是“雅”出現的頻率很高，成爲精英文人常用的批評話語和審美標準。值得注意的是，對“雅”和“俗”的强調並不侷限於精英文人群體，普通的士大夫知識分子亦積極使用“雅”和“俗”的概念，來進行階級身份的拔高和自我標榜。因主體身份相近，普通文人對“雅”的態度與精英文人有相似之處，但不同的生活背景或言論心態，使這些主體身份相近却不盡相同的文人們在對某物做具體評價時，與精英文人有差异或矛盾。李漁便是其中之一。本次報告將透過李漁對“雅”的態度和精英文人們對“雅”的態度之對比，來探討李漁的審美獨特性。
In the late Ming period, there emerged a trend of elegance-worshipping. Not only did the scholarly class embrace this practice, perpetuating this concept in both their daily life and in their writings, but wealthy merchants and officials also pursued “elegance” actively in their devotion to elegant objects. The chief reason for this phenomenon is great commercial prosperity and the accumulation of material wealth, along with the disintegration of the existent social order and the establishment of a new commodity-society relationship. During this process, the scholarly class became increasingly impoverished, standing on the verge of decline; whereas other classes competed to fill this cultural and political void with their economic wealth. To alleviate the sense of loss caused by status decline and the anxiety of identity blurring, the scholars tried to reshape their image by giving “elegance” a new meaning. Though this, they could build a distinctive self-image and categorize themselves from those so-called “connoisseurs” and “collectors”. The emergence of elegance-worshipping in the late Ming writings can be traced through the evocation of the word of “elegance”, which appeared frequently and became a critical discourse as well as an aesthetic standard of elite literati. However, it should be noted that the idea of “elegance” and “vulgarity” was not only used by elite literati groups, but also by ordinary literati who actively used these concepts to elevate their class identity and glorify themselves. Because of similar identities, ordinary literati had some viewpoint concerning “elegance” in common with elite scholars. However, different backgrounds and personal mental states made them different when evaluating specific objects. Li Yu is one of them.This talk will explore the aesthetic uniqueness of Li Yu by comparing his attitude towards “elegance” with the attitude of elite scholars.
ALL ARE WELCOME!
