Title

Ethical Connotations of Calligraphy: Processes of Gongfu Theory of “Self-Cultivation” and “Route to Others

Author

Tan Kang-lin

Genre

Article

Pages

391-429

DOI

10.6503/THJCS.202206_52(2).0005

Download

PDF

Language

Chinese

Key words

subject of calligraphy, ethics, gongfu 工夫, others, abstraction, qi cultivation

Abstract

In the contemporary “post-modern” era, a variety of issues have entered an even more challenging stage. Academia has explored arts and aesthetics in an attempt to retrieve a disappearing aura, and the possibility of Chinese calligraphy has also become one of the focuses of philosophical discussion. In the tradition of Chinese philosophy, cultivation and ethics are inseparable from each other. If calligraphy can involve the gongfu 工夫 of life practice, how can gongfu practice open up a broad road to ethics? In order to answer this question, this study aims to develop the ethical connotations of calligraphy. Calligraphy is a part of life for the literati. In every era, the life imprints of many literati are passed down to the present in the forms of study utensils, writings, books, or authors’ biographies where there are abundant resources to be explored. The ideas inherited by calligraphy are inseparable from Zhuangzi and Mencius. This paper demonstrates the philosophy of Zhuangzi and Mencius, and particularly pays attention to the aspects of body and qi 氣 to engage in an intercultural conversation with western philosophy in an attempt to outline the gongfu theory of “self-cultivation” and “route to others.”