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- This aesthetic finds its roots in the poetry of Qu Yiian (4th century BCE), the earliest known Chinese poet. His �Li sao� is a long description of a shamanic flight written by the author after he had retired or been dismissed from office. The poem established a poetic style and provided a terminology (based on a past form of shamanism) for later poems (of the 1st century BCE). Some of these poems, written in a period when Daoist thought had spread among the intelligentsia, emphasized the mystic experience (the experience of self-loss, of nothingness).
The political chaos subsequent to the end of the first major empire, the Han dynasty, eighteen hundred years ago, led to major intellectual and social changes for the scholar- officials. Holding office was dangerous in times of rapidly changing governments, and many of the shi preferred a life of retirement, focusing on Daoist concepts of freedom from responsibility and cares, on ziran. It was a time that saw the beginning of poets famed for their drinking.
Drinking alcohol had a number of functions with regard to aesthetics. First, alcoholism, whether real or feigned, could be used as an excuse to avoid the normal political life of the educated. Secondly, the excuse of being drunk, symbolic rather than actual, allowed for the dropping of complex precedence and rituals among the educated, (who were with few exceptions hierarchically ranked officials or ��retired� officials) enabling them to relax at literary and artistic gatherings. Third, alcohol was used to gain ecstatic states to facilitate spontaneous artistic creations.
This was also a time that saw the beginning of an artistic orientation towards shanshui (literally: mountains and streams, usually translated as �landscape�); many poems were written on the theme. The term arises from several sources: sacrifices made to particular mountains and bodies of water as far back as we have historical records, the combination of Buddhism and Daoism that took place in southern China in the fourth and fifth centuries, and the scenery of Hangzhou, Guizhou, etc., that later became centres for major developments in painting.
At this time, writing came to be understood as an exemplary form of visual arts based on a free-form mode of brushing characters. A father, Wang Xizhi (321-78), and his son are by tradition understood to be the progenitors of this aesthetic. Centuries after they lived, their style was adopted as the literati standard. Both were followers of the newly developed institutional Daoism, and it is quite possible that the writing in mediumistic trance found in this aspect of Chinese religion was influential on their style of writing. In this practice, it is understood that it is the deity that is writing via the possessed person�s body; thus such calligraphy is not only freeform due to the possession-trance state, but sacred. Little if any of the Wangs� calligraphy has survived, the most credible example is a personal letter, demonstrating that it is the brushwork that is valued rather than the content. Many centuries later, Mi Fu, who set aesthetic tastes from his time to the present, emphasized the style of the Wangs, and applied it to painting as well, as did his friend Su Shi, who was famous for painting at parties after becoming inebriated.
Prior to the Yiian (Mongol) period of the 13th century, most painters were professionals who were considered craftsmen by the scholar-officials. Even if they were of the Imperial Academy; they were not considered members of the literati�s own self- defined class. During times in which it was unhealthy (despotic emperors), unnecessary (economic stability and/or excess of examination graduates) or unpopular (concepts of loyalty in re change of dynasty) to hold office, it is not surprising that increasing
that they could use the brush expertly with no conscious effort, allowing for a free flow
of both ink and nature.
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