Title

On “Gesture” (zi 姿) and “Zhi ” (之) from the Perspective of Body Dynamics: An Analysis Focusing on Chen Shih-hsiang’s Poetics

Author

Cheng, Yu-yu

Genre

Article  

Pages

7-33

Download

PDF

Language

Chinese  

Key words

Chen Shih-hsiang, gesture, zi, Lu Chi’s “Rhapsody on Literature,” antithesis, body dynamics

Abstract

      In this essay, I explore Chen Shih-hsiang’s “detour” around classical Chinese literature and his efforts to reveal the multi-layered significance implicit in the character zhi (之). Beginning with his English translation of Lu Chi’s 陸機 “Rhapsody on Literature” (Wenfu 文賦), and continuing through his discussions of “gesture” (zi 姿), “poetics” (shi 詩), “emotional association” (xing 興) and even “time” (shi 時), Chen sought to demonstrate the corporeal meaning inherent in the term. By employing opposing conceptual pairs such as “advance/still,” “stop/move,” “hold back/let out,” and “disconnected/connected,” he sought to highlight the character zhi’s contrary yet complementary back and forth dynamic.
　　This active to-and-fro gesturing between the body and mind is a metaphor that symbolizes the amazing rhythm of literary creation. This gesturing not only establishes the body dynamics present in the lyrical tradition of classical Chinese literature, but it also implicitly, via the “embodiment” of Chinese language, echoes the efforts of May Fourth intellectuals to break through the language’s set metrical patterns and call for the re-establishment of a more natural rhythm. Through the embodied gesture, Chen attempts to build a rhythmic ontology that belongs exclusively to Chinese poetics.