Since he started teaching at the China Academy of Art in 2004, Professor Jin Guantao, a scholar of Chinese intellectual history, has often heard students ask why there are such huge differences between Chinese and Western painting, in addition to contrasts in aesthetic taste. Realism, the representation of reality, has dominated Western art since ancient Greece and Rome, up until modern times. However, Chinese art demonstrates a unique style and elicits an aesthetic response that are completely different from those of Western art, A particular example of this is demonstrated in shanshui painting and Chinese calligraphy, both mainstream disciplines of Chinese art, yet hardly fit into the narrative of Western art history. Shanshui painting is not merely landscape painting representing a view, nor is Chinese calligraphy simply a technique for writing beautiful characters. This unique aesthetic taste has become the focus of attention among both Chinese and foreign scholars, yet fully understanding and defining the spirit of Chinese art remains a difficult task. To answer these questions, we have to engage with a broader perspective of civilization and attempt to understand the uniqueness of Chinese art from the perspective of the transcendence of Chinese culture.
According to Karl Jasper’s theory of “Axial Civilization”, Chinese civilization, as well as other ancient civilizations, has completed the transcendence and breakthrough of civilization, and continues to this day. Professor Jin Guantao refers to this transcendental breakthrough as the formation of a transcendental vision with “morality” as its ultimate concern, in contrast to the “search for knowledge” in ancient Greece, “redemption” for Hebrew people, and ‘liberation’ in ancient India. This ultimate concern determines that China will produce an art form based on ‘axiology’, and a most representative example of this can be found in the construction and development of the aesthetic paradigm of shanshui painting and Chinese calligraphy.
Under the guidance of Professor Jin, a group of young scholars at the China Academy of Art conducted a ten-year study to explore spiritual logic in Chinese calligraphy and painting. It found that the trajectory of the spirit in Chinese art conforms to the evolution of Chinese intellectual history: an ink wash-painted world in unity with heart and soul has subsequently emerged. This book explores the topic in three volumes: shanshui painting, Chinese calligraphy and the transformation of modern fine art.
