Su Shi in razcvet tem v poeziji ci – na primeru pesmi na melodijo »Mesečina na Zahodni reki«

Študija razloži značilnosti poezije ci 詞 in na primeru enega najpomembnejših pesnikov oblike ci iz dinastije Song (960–1279), Su Shija 蘇軾 (1037–1101), in njegovih petnajst pesmi, ki jih je napesnil na melodijo ・・Mesečina na Zahodni reki・・, razišče njegovo inovativnost pri širjenju tematike v obliki ci s pristopom našanja elementov poezije shi 詩 v poezijo ci (以詩為詞). Teh petnajst Su Shijevih pesmi, ki jih je iz kitajščine prepesnila avtorica študije, kaže tematsko pestrost, ki je poezija ci pred Su Shijem ni poznala. Tako v tradicionalnih kot inovativnih pesmih Su Shi širi tematiko s pomočjo aluzij, sposojanjem elementov iz literarnih, zgodovinskih, filozofskih del in z ustvarjanjem asociacij na zgodbe, dogodke in osebe iz zgodovine, mitologije in literature.

Older and Younger Brothers: Su Shi and Su Zhe

Here we have a pair of brothers whose relationship is known to us primarily through the hundreds of poems they exchanged with each other through their lives, during which they spent more time apart than together. To have a relationship rooted in literary work this way was not unusual in Chinese life. What was unusual was the fame these particular brothers attained, even while still alive. This article explores the nature of the brothers’ relationship as best we can discern it through their actions and what they wrote to each other, including their mutual affection, disagreements, and competition. Their lives were played out against a backdrop of high office, empire-wide renown, and political persecution. We see that their relationship to each other was in some ways the most enduring and sustaining aspect of their lives, even when their ultimate ideal of spending their final days together went unrealized.

Su Shi’s “Transforming into Bamboos” and John Keats’ “Negative Capability”: A Comparative Study

The seemingly identical artistic terms put forward respectively by the Chinese poet Su Shi and English poet John Keats, “Transforming into Bamboos” and “Negative Capability” contain significant differences due to their distinct cultural context and the poets’ personal experience. Firstly, their subjective mentalities are different. Rather than the total repression of human faculties and the Taoist world-weary attitude, Su Shi advocates an initiative subject, a fully charged mind with a deep humanistic concern; while for Keats, a state of passiveness and receptiveness overwhelms the exercise of intelligence and reason. Secondly, their ways of approaching “Truth” are different. Su Shi values both talent and hard practice, together with a dialectical attitude towards language and media while Keats emphasizes a dispossessed ego, an imaginative soul，a chameleon quality, and a full trust on language and symbols. Thirdly, the claimed “Truth” they are pursuing are different. For Su Shi, the goal of “Transforming into Bamboos” is to catch Li(理) , a Confucian variant or derivation of Tao while what Keats looks for through “Negative Capability” is an aesthetic utopia where he finds justice for his art and himself under an age of industrialization.

The Aesthetics of the Intellectual (Wenrenhua) School in the Milieu of Chinese Renaissance Ideas

This article mainly focuses on one of the most refined movements in world aesthetics and fine art—one that spread when Chinese Renaissance ideas arose during the Song Epoch and that was called the Intellectual (Wenrenhua) Movement. The ideological sources of intellectual aesthetics are discussed—as well as the distinctive nature of its fundamental theoretical views and of its creative principles in relation to a changing historical, cultural, and ideological contexts. The greatest attention is devoted to a complex analysis of the attitudes toward the artistic creation of the most typical intellectuals, Su Shi and Mi Fu; the close interaction between the principles of painting, calligraphy, and poetry is emphasized; a special attention is paid to the landscape genre and to conveying the beauty of nature. This article discusses in detail the most important components of artist’s creative potential, the opportunities to employ them during the creative act, and the influence of Confucian, Daoist, and Chan aesthetic ideas. The various external and internal factors influencing the intellectual creative process are analyzed; artist’s psychological preparation before creating is discussed along with the characteristics of his entrance into the creative process. This article highlights the meditational nature of artistic creation typical of representatives of this movement, the freedom of the spontaneous creative act, and the quest for the inner harmony of the artist’s soul with expressions of beauty in the natural world.