The Artistic Expression of Zhuangzi's Parables - Presented by Huang Shao Chen's Oil Painting

• Main Authors: HUANG, SHAO-CHEN, 黃少貞
• Other Authors: LI, JIAN-YI
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/18409078035700620057

碩士 === 玄奘大學 === 視覺傳達設計學系碩士班 === 105 === Zhuangzi's aesthetics is among many traditional Chinese artistic studies. It not only displays its spirit in tangible paintings, but shows it in impalpable theoretical arguments as well. Its artistic expression is emphasized in the importance of intuition, and the majority of the showing, are based on personal feeling and impressions. Zhuangzi's is very erudite, his academic theory is based on Laozi’s philosophy. The book “Zhuanzi” is mainly a parable, all stories are about fictitious characters. It used the allegorical narrative style to deliver the spiritual and philosophical ideas, and it also using a variety of lively characters (i.e. a wide range of people with different background, or a variety of natural phenomena, such as: wind, the sea, the Yellow River, the shadows, and also with lively animals like: fish, albatross, frog and sparrow) to render the main idea of the book. The philosophy inspired by Zhuangzi’s Parables, influenced the development of another layer of Oriental way of thinking, and it produced a particular form of Oriental aesthetics. The concept of Ying and Yang, just like the relationship between virtual and reality. Also the “intentionally leaving blank” style used in Oriental aesthetics, it was used not only in Chinese brush painting, but widely used in drama, pottery, calligraphy, literature and sculpture as well. In contrast, the Western aesthetics emphasized in systemic analysis. In his book “Critique of Judgment”, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804）indicated that “In its pure and original form, the nature brings imagination to people in abundance.” If seeking realism in artistic expression, then the systemic analytical format can make the aesthetics in art the same as the highest aesthetics in natural. Also, Mr. Kong-Chien Chu has indicated that Chinese aesthetics lacks some concept which shown in the Western aesthetics. For example, both concepts of tragic and beauty in Greek drama came from the Christian’s concept of God’s Creation. Yet, in today’s civilized world, every task is established under both cooperation and competition. As stated in Thomas L. Friedman’s “The World is Flat”, that globalization is a trend, not an option. Everyone in a network community can connect to another higher level network structure. People around the world connected to each other through internet, and the majority of the things are standardized. So our “art” must also figure out a way to open up a new frontier and yet maintain its uniqueness to stand out in a global artistic field, to overcome the competition from other part of the world. In the meantime, there is benefit under this intense competition: Under this highly connected network, the fusion and absorption of other cultures from other part of the world, will create a new form of art. In this rapid growing information age, gaining instantaneous fame is not uncommon, but it could also be phased out at record speed as well. If pursuing the trend blindly, specially in the field of “Art”, and ignoring traditional culture, will resulted in an artistic style which missing its own trait. As an artist, one should not only learning and absorbing different kinds of art aesthetics, but also maintain the inherent culture root. At the same time of learning foreign elements, one should uphold its own culture specific characteristics and form an unique artistic style of their own. This research is to study and summarize the influence of Zhuangzi’s Parable and the Chinese Aesthetics’ “Virtual”, “Real” and “Freehand” to the Western Oil Painting. This researcher also uses specific concepts of Oriental aesthetics as a base of research, and the Zhuangzi’s Parables as the base of creation, to convey the researcher’s pursuit of different forms of art.