Aesthetics in Digital Photography

Appendix 2Aesthetics in China

The sea has a torrent, the mountains are lurking, the sea has a throughput, and the mountains have arches. The sea can swallow the clouds, the mountains can be transported, the sea has a torrent, and the mountains are also lurking. The sea has a state of vomiting, and the mountains are arched and polite... The mountains and rivers are full of intricate characters. [...] If a person can grasp the “one painting” in a specific way and understand the subtlety, then the intention is clear and the pen and ink are clear.

Shitao (Cheng 1991a)

A2.1. The image in Chinese literature

Let us begin with an overview of Chinese aesthetics, which is significantly different from Western aesthetics. Our observations here have been largely borrowed from the following texts:

– first of all, François Jullien’s work. “The Great Image Has No Form”. This was said by Lao Tseu and F. Jullien, philosopher and sinologist, has borrowed this term to be the title of his work on Chinese aesthetics (Jullien 2003);

– the work of François Cheng, writer, poet, calligrapher, member of the Académie Française, steeped in both cultures (Cheng 1991ba and b);

– the memoirs of Françoise Verdier, painter trained in the demanding classical Chinese school of art (Verdier 2001, 2003);

– the lectures and texts of Xun Jiang, writer and contemporary art historian in Taiwan (Xun 2015, 2016), kindly translated and commented on by Pr. Sun Hong;

– the collection of translations of ancient texts, ...