Sign conceptions in Chinese Cultural History （中国文化史上的记号概念系统概览） Youzheng Li （李幼蒸） 载于：《关于自然和文化的记号理论基础的手册》 In: 德文书名： Ein Handbuch ZU den zeichentheoretischen Grundlagen yon Natur und Kultur 英文书名： A Handbook on the Sign-Theoretic Foundations of Nature and Culture 编者：Roland Posner, Klaus Robering, Thomas A. Sebeok 出版社：Walter de Gruyter, Berlin·New York, 1998 Contents Sign conceptions in China （the original title） 1. Introduction（导论） 2. Language （语言） 2.1. The sound system and phonetics 2.2. The transformations of the graphic forms of Chinese characters 2.3. Structure and formation of the characters 2.4. Grammar 3. Logic （逻辑） 3.1. Debates on the relationship between names and reality 3.2. Argumentation and inference 4. Philosophy （哲学） 4.1. Cosmological schematism 4.2. Basic categories of cosmic ontology 4.3. Ethical noumenal categories 4.4. The epistemology of Chinese Buddhism 5. Myths and religions （神话和宗教） 5.1. Myths natural gods and worship 5.2. Totern worship 5.3. Sorcery and divination 5.4. Some social effects of the native religions 6. Society and politics （社会和政治） 6.1. The significance of appellatives 6.2. Political effects of auspicious symbols 6.3. Social strata and symbols 6.4. Rituals and customs in daily life 7. Literature and historiography （文学和史学） 7.1. Literature 7.2. Historiography 8. The fine arts （艺术） 8.1. Painting 8.2. Calligraphy 8.3. The theory of homological relations between poetry and painting 8.4. Sculpture and frescos 9. Architecture and gardens （建筑和园林） 9.1. The typology of Chinese architecture 9.2. Buildings as symbols of social hierarchies 9.3. Temples as synthetical symbol systems 9.4. Artistic gardens 9.5. The symbolism of old city walls 10. The performing arts （表演艺术） 10.1. Music 10.2. Dance 10.3. Martial arts 10.4. Traditional Chinese Opera 11. Selected references （参考资料） 11.1. Source books in Chinese 11.2. Translations from Chinese Sources 11.3. Books in Western Languages ************** 1. Introduction The title “Sign conceptions in China” may touch Oil the following possible topics: (1) traditional ways of thinking in China and act ions with semiotic implications; 2) traditional Chinese discussions on l; (3) the present-day descriptions of 1 and 2; (4) present-day discussions on 1, 2 and 3 in terms of modern semiotic knowledge. While 4 is important it is not the object of the present discussion. Compared with Western intellectual history, 2 was mostly given in an unsystematic and structured way using pre-scientific terminology, so it is difficult to present 2 directly. However 1 is indeed an unparalleled source of sign conceptions, and China thus qualifies as an empire of signs in human history. This article is therefore intended to fall into category 3. Briefly, this is a topographical description of what traditional Chinese culture has contributed, both directly and indirectly, in connection with signs and sign systems. Unfortunately, such important subjects as traditional Chinese sciences and technology, the cultural histories of the frontier areas and contemporary Chinese society and culture cannot be handled here. 2. Language 2.1. The sound system and phonetics The phonetic evolution of the Chinese language can be broadly divided into four periods: the ancient (before 58 l A.D.), the medieval (581—1271 A.D.), the early modern (1271—1911 A.D.) and the modern (from 1911 onward).The phonetic structures have changed from one period to another. The traditional Chinese phonology established 1500 years ago remains applicable in analyzing modern Chinese phonetic systems. It takes a special system consisting of three kinds of components called respectively “sheng” (almost equivalent to the initial consonant), “yun” (approximately equivalent to the simple or compound vowel) and “diao” (similar to the tone). Thus the sound of a Chinese character consists of an initial consonant, a Vowel and a tone. The tone system has four types called “four tones” (high and level; rising; falling-rising; falling). The three components function in differentiating the parts of speech and meanings. Therefore, the sound of a character is the acoustic form of its morpheme, and its meaning is determined by a compound of three phonological components. Furthermore, one character represents one syllable rather than one phoneme, and one syllable with a tone represents one or more morphemes. Modern Chinese contains more than four hundred syllables; with tones added, the number of all syllables rises to about 1300. There are 21 consonants and 39 vowels, the numbers of both being less than they were in ancient China. The earliest Chinese phonological lexicons are Qie Yun (written by Lu Fa Yan during the Sui dynasty) and Guang Yun (written during the N. Sung dynasty).They classified all the then available characters into 206 sections according to 206 phonological types. 2.2. The transformations of the graphic forms of Chinese characters The history of the vocabulary systems of Chinese characters can be traced back 3000 years. The modern system of characters was established two thousand years ago in the Ch’in (Qin) dynasty. A history of the transformation of graphic forms of Chinese characters can be divided into three periods: (1) the period of Jiaguwen (the oracle bones and tortoise scripts in the Shang period) and Jinwen (scripts on bronze objects in the Chou period); (2)the period of Lishu (official scripts current in the Han dynasty); (3) the period of Kaishu (more regular scripts originated in the Northern dynasties; this system has been transmitted through to our times).The Jiaguwen and the Jinwen are already well-formed characters but t heir forms are still close to pictures. 2.3. Structure and formation of the characters A character is a compound of form, sound and meaning. The form of a character consists of a few related strokes and a structure formed through them. Five basic stroke types combine to give over twenty main stroke types, which In turn form about 60000 characters through their various possible combinations (concerning the syntactic description of line drawings and characters by means of graph grammars).Due to the radical differences between spoken and written language, the traditional Chinese written material has kept its independent identity and value. A classical theory of motivating principles for character construction called “Six Shu” was firstly raised under the Han dynasty. Later, Six Shu was reduced to four principles for the structure of characters, namely (1) imitating the form of the represented object; (2) pointing at the nature of or at the relations between objects (most items of this category are abstract words); (3) combining a meaningful part of one old character with that of another; (4) a picto-phonetic principle, according to which the newly formed character consists of an old ideogram and an old phonogram. Generally speaking, in the course of transformations the Chinese characters tended to become less pictographic and more ideographic at first, and later less ideographic and more phonographic. Nevertheless, in Han times most Chinese characters became pictophonetic. 2.4. Grammar There are five linguistic levels in the Chinese linguistic hierarchy. Word order and empty (function) words are the means by which the lower linguistic units can form the higher units. They are: morpheme, word, word group, sentence and composite sentence. The number of empty words, i.e., of words serving as function units, is about 400.It should be pointed out that most set phrases are four-character groups. They not only signify compound meanings but also imply rich poetic and musical connotations. Semantically, the Chinese set phrases abound with graphic beauty, rhythmic charms and historical associations, considerably enriching the expressive potential of Chinese as a literary language. 3. Logic In ancient China, a discipline of logic in its modern sense did not exist; nevertheless there were lively discussions on the relations between name, concept and referent and the proper ways of reasoning among philosophers, Buddhist scholars and literary critics. On the whole, most of these discussions were connected with ethical and political considerations. After Indian Buddhism entered China, the Indian classical Logic “Yin-Ming” was also introduced, but its influence was limited to the field of Buddhist scholarship. 3.1. Debates on the relationship between names and reality 3.1.1. The theory of name-rectification in the Confucian School The principle of name-rectification was raised earlier than other logical problems in China. The major representatives of this trend of thought were Confucius (55 l-479 B.C.), Mencius (late 4th century B.C.) and Hsun Tzu (298-235 B.C.). In this ethically semantic discussion the first principle was “conformity between name and reality”. Confucius’ two maxims were: “to rectify errors and incorrectness in factual judgments” and to “rectify improper names and claims in social and ethical orders”. As a great summarizer of ethic-semantic thoughts, Hsun Tzu raised the important principle that “names are made in order to denote real things”. He particularly emphasized relations between the individual and the universal and distinctions between such concepts as “similarity”, “difference”, “single” and “common”. His most important contribution is the doctrine on the classification of names. 3.1.2. The School of Names (dialecticians) The Chinese dialecticians played a considerable role in Chinese intellectual life between the fifth and the third centuries B.C. The most famous among them were Hui-Shi (370-310 B.C.) and Kung-Sun Lung (325- 250 B.C.).They changed the earlier topic of name rectification to more serious semantic analysis. Hui-Shi’s central claim was that “equality of similarity and difference” (“mountain is on the same level with marsh”) proves the relativity of difference in space and time of things. Analogously, “dog is similar to sheep”, for each of them is an animal with four feet. Besides, he pointed out that the perceptual fire and heat are different from the conceptual ones, for the former is individual and the latter is general names are disconnected from physical shapes” 1), Kung-Sun was famous for claiming that “property is different from its substance” (or “hardness and whiteness of a stone can be separated”). His discussions cover the wide range from the concept of class, the difference between intension and extension, the norms of judging to the forms of reasoning. 3.1.3. The Mohist School of dialecticians The logic of Mohist and the later Mohist schools was the most systematic, influential and important one among various ancient systems of Chinese logical thought, and it paid attention to the practical aspects of logical reflection as well. The classic Mohist Canon by Motzu (480-390 B.C.) raised six tasks of logic: distinguishing between right and wrong, social order and disorder, similarity and difference, name and reality, benefit and harm, and removing doubts. 3.1.4. The Taoist logic of unnamableness The Taoist school and its original founder Lao Tzu (about 600 B.C.) said that “Tao” (‘the great way’) is unnamable since the namable involves physical things. Another founder of this school, Chung Tzu (369-286 B.C.) applied the Tao principle to political ethics, sharply criticizing the Confucian name-rectification theory and advocating the do-nothing principle of Tao. 3.1.5. The relations between word and meaning Ou-Yang Jian (died 300 A.D.) raised the proposition that words can completely express the meanings which correspond to things that exist in their own right, while the great Neo-Taoist scholar Wang Bi (226-249 A.D.) of the same period took the opposite position, namely that words cannot completely express ideas. He developed an extensive doctrine of the relations between words, ideas and symbols, concluding that “once symbols have been grasped, words can be forgotten (…), and once meanings have been grasped, symbols can be forgotten”. So words and meanings are of a closely related nature. 3.2. Argumentation and inference The study of logical inference was the weak point in traditional Chinese philosophy. However, the Mohists did present some elementary forms of deduction and induction. Not interested in logical inferences as such, the Confucian school focused on the debating skills of moral discussions, which were qualified by analogical inferences in terms of metaphors and fables. The Neo-Confucian master Chu Hsi (1130-1200 A.D.) later raised a more epistemological Inference principle, namely that “Li” (‘the principle”) is single while things are multiple, but Li is known through examining things; truth is thus reached by understanding phenomena. A more subjective way of reasoning was maintained by another Neo Confucian master, Wang Yang Ming (1472-1528 A.D). He insisted that Li or the essence of things existed only in our mind; Li is expressed in millions of things but only contained in one’s mind. Thus one must “disclose one’s own mind to reach truth”, and the practical way to reach this aim is to cultivate one’s consciousness and to Increase one’s potential. 4. Philosophy The language of traditional Chinese philosophy abounds with symbolic expressions. Many important concepts are compounds of concrete images and abstract notions, which are liable to lead to logical ambiguities as well as to produce emotional and volitional effects. 4.1. Cosmological schematism 4.1.1. The conception of five elements As early as the 11th century B.C. there existed a primitive cosmological view that the universe or the world consisted of five basic elements(metal, wood, water, fire and earth).Parallel to these five elements, many other five-component orders were invented for, say, almanacs, medicine, astrology and ethics. The number 5 played a key role in the Chinese intellectual history of classification. During the Warring States period, Tsou Yan (305-240 B.C.) began to combine the five-element conception with the Yin-Yang notion, maintaining that the five elements produce each other and also overcome each other in a fixed sequence. Based on this theory, he built up a philosophy of history, claiming that there were five basic powers which determined the pattern of transformation of dynasties. 4.1.2. The Yin-Yang School and the system of divinatory symbols in the I King (Yi Jing) Recourse to bipolarity was a fundamental method of ancient Chinese reasoning. The two poles were regularly called “Yin” (as expressed by the female, the moon) and “Yang” (as expressed by the male, the sun).It was said that all things in the universe were produced or derived from a mixture or combination of the two origins. The I King for Book of Change) evolved from the primitive Yin-Yang notion and ancient divinatory practices. It contains a philosophical, cosmological and social schematism which was later extrapolated to almost all areas of human lire. Yin and Yang are represented by the lines “一” and “一一’’ respectively and called “yao” (‘change’). The two kinds of Yaos can form eight basic symbols called “trigrams”, signifying the change of things. For each trigram there are: a name, a picture (symbol), a basic property and many (up to over 1000) symbolic images (emblems) with corresponding connotations. Furthermore, by combining any two of these eight trigrams into diagrams consisting of Six (divided and undivided) lines, a total of sixty-four hexagrams (called “Da-Cheng diagrams”) can be obtained. Arranged in this way, the text of the Book of Change contains 64 hexagrams, 64 sentences of hexagrams and 384 sentences of yaos. Only later were some hermeneutical appendices added to the original text of the book with the aim of using it to interpret political and ethical phenomena. 4.1.3. The Diagram of the Supreme UItimate (Tai-Ji), emblemology and numerology The Neo-Confucians of the Northern Sung dynasty established other systematic cosmological doctrines based on the Book of Change, two chief scholars of which are Shao Yung(1011—1077) and Zhou Dun Yi (1017-1073).In The Diagram of What Antedates Heaven, Shao built up an emblemological and numerological system according to which all things are both produced and undergo change. He combined Yin-Yao and Yang-Yao according to a numerological scheme in order to form a complete emblemological system and consequently show the processes of change in things regardless of the specific meaning of the original emblems of hexagrams. Zhou also composed his own cosmic diagram called “the Supreme Uitimate” without the numerological explanations added. His cosmic evolution scheme follows this order: the Ultimateless - the Supreme Ultimate: *movement- Yang - heaven *auiescence- Yin - earth → the five elements → the four seasons. 4.2. Basic categories of cosmic ontology 4.2.1. “Tao” “Tao” as an ultimate ontological category has the literal meaning of ‘road toward the final truth’. It is also understood to be the source or origin of the universe and the law of cosmic circular change. Lao-Thu said that “Tao” implies two senses: ‘being’ and ‘non-being’. “Non” here means ‘namelessness’ and ‘shapelessness’ rather than ‘voidness’. It can also be understood as ‘unlimited and eternal motion’. However, the Neo-Taoist Wang Bi took “non-being” instead as ‘nothingness’, in which he saw the ultimate root of all beings. Tao as non-being cannot be described by any emblem - the word “road” included - because it is shapeless, nameless, uncertain, and equivalent to zero. Unlike his Taoist contemporaries, the Neo-Confucianist Chu Hsi had a more substantial conception of Tao, taking it as both the origin and the basis of cosmological and ethical laws. In his system, Tao is tantamount to Li (‘the principle’) and Tai-Ji as the final root of the universe and society. 4.2.2. “Li” (‘the principle’) and “Qi” (‘air’) Li and Qi are two central categories that were first raised by early Neo-Confucianism in the Sung dynasty, under the influence of Zen and Hua-Yan Buddhism, and were later systematically developed by Chu Hsi. For him Li is not much different from Tao as an abiding noumenon. Li as oneness antedates Qi as the root of things, while Li as plurality is reflected in everything, just as one moon can be reflected in thousands of rivers. Li was furthermore combined with heaven, and a new term “Heaven-Li” was coined with the stronger senses of ‘source’ and ‘supervision’. 4.3. Ethical noumenal categories 4.3.1. “Ren” (‘benevolence’) and “Yi” (‘righteousness’) These two basic concepts, introduced by Confucius and Mencius respectively, are the highest virtues of Confucian ethics, being more important and influential than all other ethical concepts. Their meanings have been greatly enriched by innumerable historical tales as moral types and models. 4.3.2. “Hsing” (‘human nature’) and the mind Another school of Neo-Confucianism was represented by Lu Jiu-Yun (1139-1193) and Wang Yang Ming, who considered the concepts of mind and human nature the highest ethical and cosmological categories. In fact, the mind was said to be the very source and origin of all natural and moral phenomena. Therefore cultivation of one’s mind was naturally a way to reach Li or truth. Wang further maintained that the mind is Li and action is knowledge; in the psychological world conduct and knowledge are united and become one. 4.4. The epistemology of Chinese Buddhism Indian Buddhism was first introduced into China under the Han dynasty, and manyChinese Buddhist schools were established after this period. Chinese Buddhism experienced its prime under the Tang dynasty. Among the many schools were several with philosophical contributions, such as the Tian-Tai sect, the San-Lun sect, the Wei-Shi sect, the Hua-Yan sect and Zen.Among them Tian-Tai, Hua-Yan and Zen are three Buddhist sects relatively native to China. 4.4.1. The Tian-Tai sect This sect was established by Chih-Kai (538-597) in the Tian-Tai mountains, maintaining two central doctrines: (1) One mind can see three genuine aspects of things (the void, the illusory and the neutral) at once. These three aspects are three truths merged together. (2) The whole universe exists in one mind and its intentional activity. The philosophical argumentation of this sect was full of analogies. 4.4.2. The Hua-Yan sect (‘flowery splendor’) Fa Zhang (643-712) established this sect, attempting to unify all Buddhist teachings into one theoretical and practical system. He raised the principle of unhindered interpenetration of the universal into the particular and of the particular into other particulars. These ideas were further developed by the followers of this sect, who thus produced the most elaborate doctrine in Chinese Buddhism. 4.4.2.1. The Treatise of the Golden Lion Fa Tsang summarized the Hua-Yan philosophy in his Treatise of the Golden Lion.Using the golden statue of a lion in a royal courtyard as a symbol, he expounds the relations between Li (universal principles and Shih (particular appearance), pointing out ten problems through analogical explanations and concluding that all phenomena, despite their diversity, interpenetrate each other. His approach can be briefly exemplified in terms of the image of a lion. 4. 4. 2. 2. The mirror as a metaphor for “Zhenru” (‘final truth’) The mirror was the Hua-Yan sect’s favorite metaphor for truth. A mirror is clean and immutable, so it can reflect the images of things. Because it can reflect the images of things, the mirror is clean and immutable. Similarly, Zhenru as substance is immutable, producing a variety of particular phenomena. And because it produces a variety of things, one can infer that Zhenru is clean and immutable. name of phrase meaning metaphor general totality golden lion particular parts eyes, ears common common things one lion made constituted by of different parts different parts of one body eye is different from are different from ear each other constituting all parts constitute parts constitute one totality one lion destructing each part keeps its ear is independent from eye own identity Meaning connected with the image of the Golden Lion according to Fa Zhang (643- 712) 4.4.2.3. The metaphor of dust and the pearl This is another of Hua-Yan’s famous metaphors for Buddhist truth. A particle of dust contains a great number of worlds which differ from each other in various ways. Analogically, in the Indian fable “Network of the Heaven-Empire” (the palace adorned with pearl nets) each pearl reflects all other pearls, and each image in a pearl again reflects all other pearls, so the resulting number of images of pearls is limitless. By extension, time is divided into its own past, present and future, and each of them is again divided into mutually interpenetrating phases finally form one general time phase. 4.4.3 Zen Buddhism “Zen”, or “Dhyana”, stands for calm meditation. The Northern and the Southern sects of Chinese Zen Buddhism were established by two famous disciples of the Indian Zen patriarch in China, Shen Hsiu (600—706) and Hui-Neng (638-710) respectively. And Zen with its various local sects became the most popular and characteristic Buddhist religion in China for more than one thousand years. Moreover, no other Chinese religion is of greater semiotic interest than Zen, due to the many illogical and seemingly absurd ways of reasoning and persuading of the latter. The first principle of the Southern sect is that of the inexpressibility of truth. Thus Buddhist masters gave up or even destroyed all reasonable communication with people. They also stressed the value of sudden enlightenment rather than the conscious self-cultivation taught by earlier masters. According to their fresh ideas, religious communication could only be reached through one’s daily deeds. Zen teaching was typically performed through a special dialogue between a master and his pupil without any normal semantic content. Irrelevant utterances, gestures (including the beating with a stick) and even silence became the means to help pupils grasp the “zen”. The reason was that masters tried to destroy the pupils’ natural belief in physical laws and their pretension of knowledge. Considered semiotically, Zen created many unusual ways of signification and communication. 5. Myths and religions 5.1. Myths, natural gods and worship The relics of primitive Chinese worship can be traced to the time of the Upper-Cave-Man living twenty or thirty thousand years ago. The oldest objects of worship were the sun and the moon, and many legends about them have been transmitted to modern times from remote antiquity. Other important natural gods were rain, wind and thunder; related legends have existed in all parts of China and worship based on them had become an important tradition until just decades ago. In the Jia-Gu-Wien material we find records of ceremonies for calling up rain storms and ways to offer sacrifices, including burning men alive and crying up to heaven. The worship of mountains and rivers was very popular, showing a strong practical concern about living conditions. The rites of offering sacrifices to rivers (mainly the Yellow River) in ancient times had been extremely solemn and serious, frequently with the planned sinking of a ship and drowning of girls. Worship of the gods of the mountains (mainly the Tai and the Sung) was, however, more popular. According to the records, many other objects like stars, tides, wood, storm, fire, earth, birds, wells and roads also had their own corresponding gods and were worshipped in less serious ways. In people’s daily life, the more popularly worshipped gods were those of heaven, earth, marriage, doors, ovens and work. 5.2. Totem worship Many records of totem worship have been attested in historical documents. There existed three categories of totems: (1) the earliest found totems, e.g., snakes, birds, bears and tigers; (2) the totems with half-man-half-animal images (those described in the earliest Chinese mythological classic, the Mount and Sea Classic); (3)many purely imaginative totems, such as the dragon, phoenix and the mixture of a dragon and a snake. The totems were worshipped and their names were taken as family names in the early times of China. 5.3. Sorcery and divination The divination arts in ancient China had a name consisting of the two characters “bu” and “zhan”, meaning ‘reading the omens through burning tortoise bones’ and then ‘watching the emblems of the omens’, respectively. There were six ways to foretell good and ill: astrology, almanac, the Five Hsing, playing with a specific herb and observing burnt tortoise bones. The above arts of sorcery and divination were a very influential profession in ancient times with close connections to performing symbolic semioses of various types. 5.4. Some social effects of the native religions In ancient times there had been many native and local religions with less elaborate doctrines and numerous superstitious elements. The most widespread of these was Taoism to be distinguished from Taoism as a philosophy), which exercised strong social (if not religious) effects. Its classical base was the Tai-Ping Classic (in the Eastern Han dynasty) consisting of Taoist philosophy, sorcery and necromancy. The Taoist religion and its many local sects had two considerable social effects: it nourished belief in immortality and was the spiritual source of rebellions. With respect to the former, even ancient emperors indulged in Taoist cultivations, such as taking special pills and performing religious rites. As for the latter, the famous farmer rebellions towards the close of the Eastern Han dynasty became the archetype of the rebellious farmer armies to follow, with religion as the driving force. On the other hand, culturally the Taoist efforts contributed much to literary, artistic and primitive scientific and even tourist achievements. Like Chinese Buddhism, the Taoist religion had its special type of temples, called “Guan”, which were maintained by Taoist priests who practised rites and chanted scriptures there every day. 6. Society and politics After the Ch’in and Han dynasties, China became more totalitarian in her social and political constitution. The difference between various estates was not only shown in many social and family systems but also embodied in relations between men, norms of conduct as well as a great number of rites and rules of courtesy. Yet the strict systems of protocol, morality and politics had been established much earlier. Confucians compiled the moral classic Book of Rites, which became the basic code to be respected by following generations. Accordingly, a great number of literary expressions were produced to form the corresponding systems of signification. In this way, China developed into a country full of ritual sign systems. 6.1. The significance of appellatives 6.1.1. Family names In ancient China, family names were the signs of a clan and after the Warrior period, the titles of fiefs, living places, positions and the names of ancestors could be used as family names. Beside the family name, a person could also have two possible surnames, called “zi” and “hap”. Surnames were the designations of a definite person. “Zi” is given by parents to show one’s seniority among his (her) brothers and sisters, while “hap” is to express one’s own aspirations and style. In the social etiquette, the three kinds of names are used in different situations demonstrating people’s relations and positions in the social hierarchy. 6.1.2. Names of emperors Since Ch’in Shih Huang-Ti (259-210 B.C.), “Huang-Ti”(emperor) became the title of all top rulers of the following Chinese dynasties. Many other titles with laudatory meaning could be added. Among them the most important is the title of ‘reigning’, which can intensify the impression of the monarch’s legitimacy. The complicated title system of the Chinese royal family shows a delicate political-psychological implication. According to this system, when an emperor died he would be given two further titles: “shi-hao” in connection with his deeds and contributions and “ming-hao” in connection with his ritual position in the royal family. “Shi-hao” can mean praise, criticism or moral neutrality. It is tantamount to a procedure of changing names: replacing the old (valid when he lived) with the new (when he died).There was a strict taboo forcing to avoid the names of emperors and of certain of their relatives in ancient China。When writing, people had to avoid using characters which happened to occur as constituents of emperors’ names. This taboo (called “bihui”) forced people to change those characters or at least to leave out some strokes of them; transgressions were severely punished. 6.2. Political effects of auspicious symbols 6.2.1. Regimes and names In ancient China, people thought regimes and rites had a close tie with natural gods and their names. Under the Han dynasty, a systematic theory about the problem was raised by the great Confucian scholar Dong Zhong Shu (175-105 B.C.), who declared that a mutual correspondence existed between the will of heaven and the fortune of a regime. This correspondence relation could be disclosed by some specific natural signs. This doctrine was based on the prevailing metaphysical principles of “the Five Xing” (‘five elements’) and the Yin-Yang. He suggested that we “always carefully examine the problems of names and titles”, for they were prescribed by the sages and reflect the will of heaven, signifying what is right. 6.2.2. Regimes and symbolic figures Under the Eastern Han dynasty, a special augury called “Chen-wei” prevailed, which studied the relations of symbolic texts to political faith. The instrument of the augury was a “chen”, which was a green text decorated with figures. It was said to have come from heaven and could be used to foretell the fortune of states and persons. When Wang Mang, an official under the late Western Han dynasty, seized power, he declared he had been offered a “chen” from heaven. He was then defeated by Liu Xiou who claimed the same and handled political affairs according to the play of “chen” augury. 6.2.3. The role of names in rebellions In Chinese history, a dynasty was often replaced by another through rebellious activities organized by generals originally belonging to the former dynasty, or by oppressed farmers and formerly subordinated minorities. The rebellious armies always took a careful account of the names and related symbols representing their powers in order to prove their activities had been motivated by the will of heaven. For example, Zhang Jao, the leader of the rebellious army in the final years of the Eastern Han dynasty, used the following slogan to encourage his people at each battle: “the old Heaven died. The new yellow Heaven has been ascending” (his soldiers wore yellow scarfs). The intertwining relations between political powers, religious faith and names and symbols can be most clearly shown by the history of the rebellion of Tai-Ping-Tian-Guo in the last century. Its initiator Hong Xio-Quan (1813-1864) took Jehovah as the Father of the Heaven and claimed to be his envoy in this world. In their military activities —which were quite successful —, Hong Xio-Quan and his followers made frequent use of symbolic articles, political names and religious rites. 6.3. Social strata and symbols In ancient China there had been strictly organized bureaucratic hierarchies consisting of dozens of administrative and aristocratic ranks. Corresponding to their respective ranks, the officials and nobles had to wear prescribed clothes with different colors, figures and qualities. The codes for clothing were highly significant phenomena. For example, under the Tang dynasty, the fifth ranked official used purple, the sixth red, the seventh green and the ninth black. In the Ming and Ching dynasties, the embroidered designs and the animal figures on the official dress were more strictly stipulated. The same is the case for the material, pearls on hats, shoes and other pieces of clothing. 6.3.1. Standards of burial and guards of honor These are two very crucial symbolic systems in ancient China. The standards of the burial system recorded in the Chou dynasty reflected the hierarchical ranks of the living. The difference of status was first shown through the number of inner and outer coffins, burial articles and the shape of the grave. Before the Ch’in and the Han dynasties, for example, the shape of graves of emperors and loyal family members was square while that of premiers and generals was round. In addition, the difference was also shown in the size of tombs and number of stone steps in front of mausoleums as well as in the quality of wood, color and paint of coffins. The same was the case with the guards of honor. The processional activities of guards of honor were very significant in the political and social life of ancient China, and there were strict specifications as to the number 0f guards and to the symbolic decoration of their uniforms, in accordance with the political status of the officials involved. 6.3.2. The Feng-Chen ritual and the worship of ancestors The “Feng-Chen” was a symbolic ritual to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth, showing the emperor’s gratitude for his regime’s earthly success, and appealing for further divine blessing. This was typically done by holding a solemn and grandiose ceremony on the top of the Tai Mountain, with detailed stipulations as to the color of the participants’ clothing, the sacrificial articles and the way to kneel during the whole process. The dramatic performance was also a demonstration that a new dynasty had been firmly established under heaven’s authorization. The worship of ancestors had a close link with the functioning of the social system, too. The elaborate rites involving a memorial ceremony to ancestors can be traced to the Shang dynasty. The further-developed models formed under the Chou dynasty were f0llowed for the next three millennia, and their complex rules were similarly determined by the ranks of both the deceased and the living. 6.3.3. Forms of Official documents The earliest well-developed systems of official documentation can be traced to the Yin or the Shang dynasties. The Book of History stipulated six different genres of official correspondence with regard to regulations, projects, instructions, notices, oaths and orders. Under the Tang and the Sung dynasties, the systems of official documents underwent considerable development. There were around eight types of documents used among the various institutions. The elaborate classification system of official documents in China reflected and maintained the hierarchical relations and grades of power. The specifications concerned touch upon the literary style, forms, specific appelatives, the size of the stationery paper, signatures, seals, and even the serial numbers of documents. 〔此词无误，意思是“称呼”〕 6.4. Rituals and customs in daily life Ancient China abounded with intricate rituals and over-elaborate formalities, all reflecting Chinese beliefs, social stratifications and a great number of symbolizations. Thousands of symbolic systems involving ornaments, actions, gestures and customs have existed in the various domains. The following are some examples. 6.4.1. The ritual of birth and the hat-wearing ceremony The ritual of birth was a grand ceremony with different standards in line with the social grades of the participants, and exhibited through the degree of intricacy the total number of participants and the value of the ceremonial utensils. The hat ceremony was held on the day when a son reached l 9 years of age. It was performed in the ancestral temples or halls, under the direction of his father. It contains a 15 step process in which, for example, the boy is offered the choice from three kinds of hats. 6.4.2. Marriage systems and the wedding ceremony In ancient China a man could have one legal wife and several concubines, constituting, in other words, patriarchal monogamy combined with sexual polygamy. In fact, women belonged to three levels: that of a wife, that of a “ying” (often the wife’s sister or maid) or that of a concubine (bought). Since the Chou dynasty, a system called “the six rites” was stipulated for the wedding ceremony. The standards of the wedding ceremony were furthermore determined according to the social position of the fiancé. The process was, however, simplified gradually after the Chou dynasty, particularly among the wider populace. 6.4.3. Etiquette of social intercourse Very complicated specifications of etiquette were given for when people were to meet each other, in line with their status, relations and situation. There were over nine types of meeting etiquette, and several ways of squatting, kneeling and sitting. The seating order around a banquet table was also strictly stipulated. The order of superiority around the table was east, south, north and west in turn. Furthermore, the specifications for the sequence of serving dishes, making toasts and the content of the drinker’s wager game also reflected the relations between the superior and the inferior, older and younger, male and female. The forms of address in various situations were sophisticatedly fixed to maintain the social superiority of officials over common people. 7. Literature and historiography 7.1. Literature China is a country whose unparalleled written literature stretches continuously over three thousand years. In ancient China, literary activities were performed in almost every aspect of intellectual and social lire. Before the end of the Ching dynasty, every intellectual was more or less a poet, and almost all written documents of various types contained some literary traits. China was also a country ceaselessly and strenuously ensuring the writing of its own history (in an unmatched abundance of historical documents) and also laying high emphasis on the political role of historical writings. Furthermore, literature and historiography have always been regarded as two closely connected fields. 7.1.1. The literary functions of Chinese characters Chinese characters have pictographical origins and still retain their pictographical elements in their structure. The graphical parts of characters can help arouse emotional, volitional and intellectual associations through the directly visual stimulus, thus producing rich denotations and connotations. In addition, the characters have multiple phonetical structures consisting of phoneme, sound and tones, producing a special musical dimension in literary communication. Moreover, because different characters share the same size, the shapes and forms of sequences of characters are conducive to the rhythmic beauty of regularity in poetic texts, being suited to the arrangements of“duizhang”(matching of sounds and senses in a couple of sentencesl and reiterative locutions. 7.1.2. The typology of writing Generally, the traditional Chinese typology of writing is practical in character. The Book of History as the earliest compilation of official documents contains various types of writing but its principle of classification is not concerned with rhetoric and functional problems. Instead, it tries to distinguish between the grades of relations of superiority and intimacy between addressers and addressees. Later in the Han dynasty a new classification of writings, covering 12 types, appeared in the History of the Han: Records of Literature and Arts, and accepted the principle of uses and practical functions. The first literary typology appeared in the Anthology of Zhao-Ming Prince (in the Liang), in which the demarcation lines between the categories of literature, scholarship and documents were drawn up and the entire writing material was divided into 39 types accordingly. In the meantime the first book of Chinese criticism appeared; this work, Dragon Carvings of a Literary Mind , presented a theory to further divide Chinese writing into 33 types. Until quite recently, the widely accepted classical typology was that compiled by Yao Nai (1731-1815), which included only 13 categories of functions: debate, preface, memorial to the throne, correspondence, taking leave, orders by emperors, biography, inscriptions on a tablet, miscellaneous admonition, eulogy, poetical prose and funeral orations. The modern classification of classical Chinese rhythmic writing covers four major sections: Shi (poem), Ci (lyric metres), Qu (dramatic verse) and Fu (rhythmic exposition), each of which has differently stipulated forms and rules. 7.1.3. Stylistics Classical stylistics played an important role in traditional Chinese criticism. Stylistic classification was also the first consideration which actually combined literary, philosophical and religious aspects together with Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism as the main theoretical foundations. Such basic notions as “will and spirit”, “spiritual flavor”, “imposing manners”, “implicit poetic domains”, “spiritual void”, originating in Taoism and Buddhism, had become the major aesthetic concepts since the Wei and the Chin (Jin) dynasties.All of these concepts put emphasis on the impressiveness of the subjective mind, emotional upheaval and connotative implications, rather than on the exterior shapes and images of objects depicted. Obviously disregarding advice to be realistic, men of letters preferred the following form of expression: the part signifies the whole, the explicit signifies the implicit and the cause signifies the effect. In short, indirect ways of expression were more highly valued than direct ones. Moreover, in the Chinese aesthetic tradition the following axiological order of artistic beauty was generally recognized: the fixed image- its denotation - its connotation - the corresponding spiritual beauty of voidness - the untouchable charms of spirit; the disclosure of the last was taken as the highest artistic domain. Later, under the influence of Buddhism, stylistic aesthetics was elaborated even further. The poet Wang Chang-Ling (died 755 A.D.) in his Patterns of Verse raised a “three domain theory” of the material, the emotional and the spiritual, and his follower Jiao Ran(also in the Tang dynasty) developed this theory in The Forms of Verse. In the Ming and the Ching dynasties, due to the furthering of comparative studies between verse and painting, the notion of the spiritual domain attained its apex. Apart from this, one of the well known classifications of stylistic expressions was raised by Si-Kung Tu under the Tang dynasty. He described 24 poetic qualities representative of different poetic tastes and imaginary ambiances in Chinese poetry, showing a sophisticated insight into stylistic differentiation. 7.1.4. Poetical structure Chinese verse in a broad sense covers all kinds of rhythmic writings, while in 8 narrow sense it merely covers the special forms referring to two general categories: the ancient style of poetry (poems having five or seven characters for each line but without definite length or strict constraints in tonal patterns and rhymes) and the modern style of poetry (poems having a definite number of lines, namely four or eight lines for two different subclasses, with strict tonal patterns and rhyming schemes). The Chinese poetry in the latter form attained its artistic peak under the Tang dynasty. This structurally more regular poetry, which consists of two sub-classes called “lu” (literally ‘regulated’) and “jue iu” (a kind of ‘four-sentence poem’), was partly based on the classical phonology of the Four Tone Scheme by Shen Yue (441-513). Shen divided the four tones into two classes: the light and the heavy, creating a scheme of strictly matching tones. 7.1.5. The typology of “Ci” Poetry (lyrical verse) “Ci”as a late form of poetry has a closer link with music than “shi”. The apparent discrepancy between Ci, as a typical form of poetry of Sung times, and Shi, as a typical form of poetry of the Tang period, lies in that the latter has a definite number of lines for a piece and of characters for a line, while for the former the related numbers are varied but no less regular. In contrast to Shi, which covers merely a few types, Ci has over 1000 types (originating from melodies), several hundred of which were frequently used. Generally, each type of Ci with its special name is structurally suitable to express a corresponding emotional tone. The possible number of characters in a Ci poem ranges from 14 to 240. 7.2. Historiography 7.2.1. The typology of historiographical writings The officials specializing in keeping written historical records first appeared in the Chou period. The first Chinese historical classic, Spring and Autumn, was written by Confucius. Historiographical activities were further developed in the Han dynasty with many important publications, and in Tang and Sung times the activities were more steadily institutionalized. Only since the Sung dynasty did the typology of historical writings become more diversified, including the annals type, the biographical type, the event, recording type, the “Qi—Jii—Zhu” (records of emperors’ deeds and speeches), the “Shi-Lu” (actual documents of emperors’political activities), “Ri-Li”, documents made on a day-to-day basis), the “Yu-Die” (chronology of emperors’ families), the “Hui-Dian” (documents of institutions) and the “Fang-Zhi” (documents of local governments). Other branches of studies to emerge since the Sung dynasty deal with bronze and stone scripts, stone tablets, money coins, jade articles and tablet scripts in general. 7.2.2. Appreciative historiography Traditional Chinese historiography is stylistically literary in nature and functionally political, with an evident intention to help strengthen the regimes or dynasties of the time. The historical language was therefore full of terms of praise and criticism. The texts of the millions of historical works contain intricate mixtures of factual records and expressions of values. For example, a great number of key words like “war”, “regime”, “death”, etc. have many alternatives with different positive or negative overtones. The multiple moral implications of Chinese historical discourse make the scientific descriptions of modern historical research all the more difficult. At the same time, however, these very traits considerably enrich their literary attraction for scholars. 7.2.3. Traditional textual criticism During the past two thousand years there have been two general scholarly tendencies concerning the investigation of classics, both literary and historical: the philosophical orientation and the philological orientation. If the former was representative of Sung times, then the latter was typical of the Ching dynasty. In fact, under the Ching the latter reached its apex with a well, established discipline called “textual criticism”, which showed more of a philologically technical rather than a hermeneutical character. The later development of this philological technique was in part due to the terror of suppression of free thinking during the Ching period. 8. The fine arts 8.1. Painting The fine arts play one of the most important parts in Chinese cultural history. As early as six or seven thousand years ago painted pottery appeared. During the Warring States period, silk painting became the main form of Chinese art; this was in turn followed by fresco painting in the Han and Buddhist fresco painting in the Wei and Jin periods, while the Tang dynasty saw the refinement of painting on drawing paper, which was to become the most exquisite Chinese art form. 8.1.1. The typology of paintings The scholars of ancient China had only a fairly weak conception of the typology of paintings. Paintings were in fact classified merely according to the categories of objects depicted. A Ming scholar Tao Zong Yi in his Notes after the Ploughing (1366) classified all paintings into 13 types, including “the person”, “the house”, “the scene”, “the flower and bird” and others. Ancient Chinese painters tended not to depict many kinds of objects, as their interest did not lie in an exhaustive description of the world. Instead, the emphasis was laid on stylistic arrangement within a confined space and under strict constraints, showing a strong structural interest as determined by artistic heritage and traditional models. Therefore Chinese painting is weak in its representation but rich in its purely spiritual expression. Another kind of classification is based on the media, e.g., a wall surface, screen, scroll, a fan or an album of paper. 8.1.2. Stylistics In ancient China the critics always were painters themselves, whose main critical interest was to judge the quality of paintings and explain the technique and skill involved, thus showing an obvious practical interest. A crucial development of Chinese painting in the Chin dynasty was due to the emergence of a new category,” the mountain and water” (landscape), which was quite different in purpose from the earlier more practical as well as religious arts. A famous painting critic, Xie He (479-502), raised a theory called “the six methods”, advocating that the loftiest objective of a painter is to express the spirit through depicting images and shapes. Another critic, Lu Ji, at the same time inquired about the difference between the literary and the drawing media, while Zhu Jing-Xuan in the Tang dynasty presented the “four basic criteria”: spiritual charms, wonderfulness, potentiality and natural grace. During the same period, Zhang Yan-Yuan more evidently maintained the principle that the spirit is always prior to drawing and explored the relations between skill (density of ink) and style. In the Five dynasties, Jing Hao further studied the skills of implementing ink and brush, summarizing “four drives” in brush strokes. But aesthetically speaking, a step forward in the history of Chinese painting was concluded by Guo Xuan in the Sung period in his Meditations by a Brook in the Woods, He declared that genuine art could only be made in the category of what he called “the literary man’s paintings”. Beyond the traditional technical analysis he even discussed problems of artistic signification, presenting a theory called “three different feelings of remoteness”: high-remoteness (looking at the top of a mountain from its foot), deep-remoteness (looking at the utmost inside of a mountain from outside) and obscure-remoteness (images disappearing on the horizon), consequently refining the aesthetic subtleties of feeling landscape. Viewed historically, Chinese landscape painting was at its most developed in Yuan times. The painters successfully escaped from the period of Mongolian occupation into the spiritual domain of drawing. 8.1.3. Landscape painting and poetical meditation The aesthetics of classical Chinese landscape painting was more Taoist than Confucian. The painters preferred black and white to the old rich colors, with a view to more effectively expressing spatial as well as spiritual remoteness. They also took more freedom in arranging the composition of figures and blanks, making the latter play the same important and complementary role as the former. The key figure of this genre is the mountain as a special signifying complex which had constantly and strongly drawn the attention of painters and poets alike. In fact, the ancient painters and poets in their respective media of representation viewed the depicted mountains of their imagination as their eternal dreamlands. 8.1.4. Symbolic functions of depicted objects Due to the emphasis on the freehand sketching skill and style, interest in representative details was further reduced to a minimum. The painters were content with a limited number of image types fixed on their drawing paper. The traditionally most favored images were the plum blossom, cymbidium, chrysanthemum and bamboo in the “still lire” category. These four plants were considered symbols of a fine personality. Within these figures, painters could search for abstract beauty by means of a formalist treatment of lines and curves. Of these four, the one with the greatest potential for abstraction was bamboo, its plain form (consisting of stems, twigs, leaves and joints) being considered the purest. The Yuan period is famous for its numerous bamboo painters. The contemporary painter Li Heng in his Models of Bamboo Paintings described various rules and norms concerning the proper ways of drawing bamboo joints and leaves. The Ching is another dynasty noted for bamboo painting; the most well known painter of the period, Zheng Ban-Qiao (1693-1765), liked to depict the bamboo images in combination with stones, which also belonged to the plainest category of objects. 8.2. Calligraphy Chinese calligraphy is a special synthetic art form, incorporating both painting and literary aspects. The earliest calligraphical examples with some aesthetic effects appeared on the oracle bone scripts. The artistic elements of calligraphy manifested themselves through graphic structures caused by particular brush strokes. Calligraphy emerged as an artistic discipline in Han times, when there were about five alternative systems of graphic scripts available for drawing. Since the Wei and Chin dynasties, this half-painting - half-poem genre had been further developed in combination with the main schools of painting and accepted the same principle as the latter. Wang Xi-Zhi (307—365) was called the sage of Chinese calligraphy, but its heyday came during the Tang period, when this art became a part of “state learning”. In ancient China, every writer was also a calligraphist, and this art has survived to the present. Its aesthetic signifiers consist in the structure of the stroke lines within individual characters and their combinations in short texts, expressing proportional rhythm and inner drive at once. Although the contents of calligraphical works must be poetical, the literary part is in fact only secondary in its aesthetic function. As a formalist or abstract form of art, calligraphy had often been regarded as similar to and comparable with dance and music in terms of dynamic structure, for in all three arts, rhythmic movement is an element of the work. By replacing the brush with a knife and paper with stone, calligraphy is turned into the arts of signet and stone script, another popular genre. 8. 3. The theory of homological relations between poetry and painting Following the rise of the “literary painting” school, comparative studies between poetry and painting were established, emphasizing the similarity in spirit and objective of the two arts. Firstly, the sentences of landscape poems then contained more words for concrete objects and images which have their obvious parallels in paintings, i.e. the visual media. At the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of the Sung dynasty, poetical sentences were often used as titles for the subjects of paintings. It was widely accepted that poetry and painting were directly communicable to each other. This implies that the two sign systems are equivalent in their signification function. Secondly, in the corner of the paper used for painting poetic sentences were be inscribed, the content of which was complementary to the theme of the painting, enriching the poetical associations of the pictures concerned. In fact, an individual painting was a combination of picture, poem, calligraphy and signet. 8.4. Sculpture and frescos In Chou times the materials used for sculpture were bronze, stone, jade and wood. The arts of sculpture were further developed in Ch’in and Han times but remained practical in character, and only during the Wei-Chin period were the Buddhist cave stone sculpture and fresco developed to the highest level of this art. Classical Chinese sculpture and fresco are two art forms of a representative nature and full of historical and religious references. 9. Architecture and gardens 9.1. The typology of Chinese architecture Traditional Chinese architecture has had a long and continuous history and retained a coherent stylistics. Under the Shang dynasty, houses were built with an earthen and wooden stucture. The main body of a building was its wooden skeleton, surrounded by upright walls and sloped roofs. The types of buildings ranged over palaces, civil houses, street networks, city walls, tombs, temples, gardens, towers, pavilions and bridges. Compared with other cultural manifestations, Chinese architecture more apparently exhibits a symbolic character reflecting political, social, ethical and religious hierarchies. 9.2. Buildings as symbols of social hierarchies Following the totalitarianization of the Ch’in and Han dynasties, the patterns of architecture changed. Palaces, for example, more flauntingly displayed worldly dignity. The stipulations of design and techniques of palace building put forward in the ancient technical classic Kao-Gong-Ji (it was said to appear in the fifth century B.C.) were followed in the successive dynasties. The palace was sited in the center of the northern part of the center) of the capital city; it was square in form and surrounded by city walls with three gates for each point of the compass. All buildings stood in symmetry and the street network resembled a large chessboard. A substantial private house could consist of several connected courtyards enclosed by walls. This structure made each house look like a secluded molecular family world. Inside the courtyards stood the main houses and the side buildings in their ordained positions. Difference concerning the size, direction and height of rooms obviously reflected the positions the various residents had in the family hierarchy. 9.3. Temples as synthetical symbolic systems The Chinese Buddhist temples first appeared at the end of the East Han dynasty and were built on a large scale since the Wei and Chin dynasties. The temples accepting the traditional Chinese architectural traditions also consisted of several courtyards. Each yard with a main hall and side halls contained Buddhist figures. Most temples were built at the foot of a mountain or on its slope and afforded spectacular views. Beside religious functions, temples also became socially important, providing visitors with various kinds of symbolism, such as scenic beauty. Buddhist buildings and figures, paintings and calligraphical works made by earlier men of letters and the living symbols of monks and nuns connected with the beyond. Many old temples have indeed become religious and artistic sign systems of their own, with rich cultural and historical dimensions. 9.4. Artistic gardens Chinese gardens appeared as early as the 12th century B.C. In Han times the number of gardens of emperors and officials was already over 300.The Wei dynasty saw a rapid increase in garden building due in part to the flourishing construction of temples. Later, under the influence of the idea of “literary painting”, the architectural aesthetics of Chinese gardens became more sophisticated and independent. During Ming and Ching times private gardens appeared everywhere, constituting a significant part of a literary mad’s daily lire. In practical terms, the gardens in towns helped the official scholars harmonize the tension between their Confucian and Taoist philosophies, being capable of enjoying political as well as natural lire at the same time. The so-called “spiritual-taste garden” is a symbolic whole, consisting of surrounding walls (which make the garden an autonomous spot), rooms, pavilions, bridges, corridors, ponds, rockeries, flowers and trees as well as paintings and calligraphical works inside the rooms. The garden designers tried to give the impression and feeling of remoteness, depth and continuity of the scenes within a narrow space. Flowers, trees, rockeries and walls were specially arranged in order to “obstruct” the visitor’s view; zig-zag corridors, paths, bridges and net-shaped windows were designed to make visitors only see part of the scenes, and accordingly to create false impressions of space. They also made contrast between brightness and darkness and between emptiness and fullness in garden designs. Finally, a special skill was called “borrowing scenes” from natural scenes (such as mountains) outside garden walls. The garden aesthetics of China manifested a keen knowledge of artistic modes of signifying. 9.5. The symbolism of old city walls City walls have long been an important cultural phenomenon in Chinese history. Beside their architectural function, city walls, especially broken ones, were one of the favorite objects to be depicted by poets. The desolate aspects of old city walls became strong, historical signifiers. For example, the city walls of Nanking, which was once the capital city of six successive dynasties, serves to the present day as a poetic and historical reminder of vanished glories and sorrows. The “Great Wall” of China, a state rather than a city wall, became the traditional symbol of China proper, physically signifying the rise and the fall of past dynasties. As the unique physical signifier of a historical and geographical body, it has been used to refer to the survival and failure of a nation, strong will and cruel slavery, glory and shamelessness in numerous ancient Chinese literary works. 10. The performing arts 10.1. Music Chinese music was remarkably developed as early as in Chou times, and was called one of the six great teachings by Confucius, who advocated that music play a great role in both education and enjoyment alike. Musical instruments belonged to four categories: wind, percussion, string and pluck instruments, with over 70 and 300 kinds of instruments existing in the Chou and Tang periods respectively. Music was generally divided into courtly and folk music. In the Tang court, music covered 10 classes. Since remote antiquity there had existed a five-tone scale consisting of the tones called “gong”, “shang”, “jiao”, ‘‘zhi”, “yu”, which are equivalent to 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 in numbered musical notation. Around the 2nd century B.C. this scale evolved into a seven-tone scale with the name “Ya-Yue”. All semi-tones in the scale formed a system 0f 12 pitch-pipes, each of which has a proper name. But Chinese music notation was never fully developed. In early times there was a “finger score” which indicated the pitches according to the positions in the hole-order of a wind instrument. Later, scores marked with the strokes of some characters appeared. And a standard “Gon-Che” score was formed under the Sung dynasty, using ten characters to indicate 12 pitches. It is noteworthy that compared with the Western music of modern times, music as an independent art form has not been highly developed in China. Since the Tang dynasty musical activities have mostly been connected with dance and later with opera. 10.2. Dance In ancient China, dance stemmed from witchcraft. In the legendary Hsia times dancing girls called “nu-yue” appeared who danced at banquets and ceremonies. The art of Chinese dance reached its peak in Tang times with the appearance of a special type of courtly dance. The Tang dance was developed further in combination with musical and dramatical elements, and gained more stylization and fixed patterns. This synthetic tendency of dance was strengthened under the Sung dynasty, until the times of opera. Recording of methods and skills of dancing was initially made through figures and special written dance scores in Wei times. In these brief scores each movement was indicated by one character, and so it could be only used by contemporary performers. In Sung times the much improved “dance score of De-Shaou Palace” appeared, which could describe movements of hands, eyes, and body in more detail, presenting 36 types of gestures belonging to 9 classes. In particular the description of hand movement was more detailed than in any other system. After Yuan times, dance as an independent art was on the wane, but it did develop further in connection with opera. 10.3. Martial arts The Chinese martial arts were in part formed after dance models. In antiquity the two arts were in fact combined. Since the Tang dynasty, many sets of stylized movements have been developed. Apart from being an exercise for self defense, the martial arts were also regarded as a way of cultivating the sell of striving for an ideal personality. Some famous cycles in boxing like “Xing-Yi”, “Tai-Ji” and “Eight Trigrams” were partly based on conceptions in the Book of Changes. Performing with weapons was the most important part of martial arts. The codes of Chinese martial arts became a body language with several practical and symbolic functions. 10.4. Traditional Chinese Opera Traditional Chinese Opera represents the highest achievement in the history of Chinese art. It is a synthetic art consisting of various elements from music, dance, martial arts, dramatic plots, poetry and acrobatics. The history of traditional opera can be traced back to early ancient times, but it was formally established as late as Yuan and Ming times. Among a variety of traditional operas, “Kunque” and “Peking Opera” are the most developed. 10.4.1. Opera as a synthetic sign system Traditional opera of various types can be regarded as a three-dimensional dynamic sign system including three categories of signs: (1) the spatial-static elements fall visual images on the stage); (2) the temporal-dynamic elements (musical and vocal parts); (3) the spatio-temporal dynamic elements (processes for performing within the elements from category 1). Each element in the above categories has its signifying functions, and the “role” undertaken by the actor realizes those functions. 10.4.2. Stylization as a typical way of performing All patterns of signifying performances are completely prescribed, showing a strong structural character. The creativity of the actors is limited to how they follow this strictly formed syntax of performance. 10.4.3. Sign sub-systems in opera An operatic work as a synthetic dynamic system consists of many constitutive sub-systems, such as the types of facial make-up, the dramatic costumes, the stage props, the forms of movement, etc. The make-up stylized to represent the background, character, sex, age, moral state, rank and biographical story of a particular role. All other sub-systems have their own strictly prescribed repertoire of elements and grammar. This indicates that traditional Chinese Opera as a language of performance does indeed have its own vocabulary and syntax. 10.4.4. “Qu-Pai” or aria-types The most important sign sub-system is that of the melody-patterns called “Qu-Pai”, which is similar to “Ci-Pai” in poetry. One aria-type is a pattern of musical sequences to be filled in with lyrics when used in an opera piece. A piece consists of hundreds of word-filled aria types which are arranged in a special combination. The aria types in all pieces stay unchanged while the words used and the arrangement of connected aria-types may differ for each piece. The reservoir of aria-types numbered several thousand in total, although only a few hundred have been used frequently from generation to generation. Chinese opera, particularly Kunqu Opera, is typical of the structure-oriented art in Chinese cultural history. Selected references (excluded in this website text; please refer to the original) (责任编辑：李幼蒸) |