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The term has four meanings. First, it indicates a deity in a personified sense, possessing superhuman capabilities. Natural things, such as heaven and earth, mountains and rivers, sun and moon, and stars, have their deity. A human soul may also become a deity after death. Second, it indicates the human spirit and mind. Daoism considers “spirit” to be the dominating factor in human life. Therefore, maintaining and refining the spirit is most important to prolong life. Third, it indicates the subtle and unfathomable changing of all things as well as heaven and earth occurring under the interaction of yin and yang. In this sense the term is often used together with hua (化 change), the combination being called “divine change.” Fourth, it indicates a marvelous and unfathomable realm in life attained by a person.
The term refers to vim and vigor found in a great work of art. It first emerged among comments on famed persons in the Wei and Jin period. Later, it was brought into the field of artistic criticism. The Tang Dynasty’s theory on calligraphy adopted the term to describe the artistic features of a calligraphic work. In his essay titled “Subsequent Commentaries on Calligraphy,” Jiang Kui (1155?-1209) of the Song Dynasty further argued, on the basis of the concept of “vim and vigor,” that the merit of a calligraphic work is jointly determined by the calligrapher’s moral character, origin of his style, skill, innovation and the kind of brush and paper he uses. The term gained its popularity when Ming Dynasty’s Mao Kun (1512-1601) used it in his critical essays. He praised Records of the Historian as its classic example and spoke highly of Ouyang Xiu’s (1007-1072) essays for their vim and vigor. His criterion was to see whether a smooth flow of narration was ensured and complicated nuances of feeling admirably expressed in an essay.
The term refers to a state of mind in the process of literary and artistic creation. It suggests that the author, fully inspired by emotions, transcends the constraint of time and space, and enters into a state of free imagination or a special mood for literary and artistic creation, before producing a natural and beautiful work of literature or art, either in language or in imagery. This term was popularly used in literary and artistic theories of the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern dynasties. Liu Xie （465？-520）of the Southern Dynasties devoted one chapter especially to this term in The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons. Imaginative contemplation is the unique mental activity in literary and artistic creation, different from other cognitive activities.
This term refers to the subtle elegance of literary and artistic works. It was originally used to depict a person’s mien and manner. During the Wei and Jin dynasties, the propriety inherent in a person was valued, whereas during the previous Han Dynasty, a person’s external appearance was stressed. Later on, this concept was incorporated into the theory of calligraphy and painting to refer to the elegant subtlety of a work. In the Ming Dynasty, the concept was extended to the theory of poetry, and elegant subtlety became a requirement for composing poetry. Later, Wang Shizhen（1634—1711） of the Qing Dynasty further developed the theory of elegant subtlety. In compiling The Elegant Subtlety of the Tang Poetry, he elaborated on his aesthetic views. In his writings on poetry theory, Wang Shizhen championed these views and created his own unique poetical aesthetics, enriching the theory of elegant subtlety, and making it a major school of the Qing-dynasty poetics.
The term describes a state of mind one achieves when appreciating an artwork, in which process one’s inner feelings interact freely and joyfully with nature. In particular, it describes one’s aesthetic experience of appreciating landscape paintings and landscape poems, when one feels absorbed with the natural scenes and images depicted. In his “On the Creation of Landscape Painting,” Zong Bing (375-443), painter of the Southern Dynasties, pointed out that by watching landscape paintings, one can appreciate the philosophy and pleasure which sages of past times drew from landscape. When doing so, one becomes oblivious to the external world and is totally free from worldly considerations, thus achieving full satisfaction of both body and mind. This term not only reveals the unique aesthetic function of landscape paintings, landscape poems, and natural beauty, but also demonstrates traditional literature and arts’ pursuit of harmony between nature and man and between mind and heart.
This term refers to literary descriptions of characters which are accurate both in form and in spirit. Chuanshen (传神), to “convey the spirit,” is to fully express the spiritual world within the character, so that he comes to life; xiezhao (写照), to “capture the person,” is to create a vivid physical depiction of him. These expressions were originally used in discussions of art but were later introduced into literature. They represent an artistic state which artists and writers try to achieve as they create images of people as well as all artistic images.
This term refers to the creative process through which a writer interacts with subject matter and gives free rein to his imagination. During the process, he projects onto real objects his mental sensations and imaginings, and endows them with an aesthetic tone. Conversely, his imaginary sensations and imaginings are given concrete expression by real objects. The free interaction between mind and subject matter, transcending the limitations of space and time, creates a superb artistic work depicted in language. The term originated in the words of “taking advantage of the circumstances to let your mind wander freely” in Zhuangzi. Later, this idea was systematically developed by Liu Xie（465？—520） in The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons during the Southern Dynasties to describe imaginative contemplation. The term stresses the importance of interaction between the mind and the poetic subject matter as well as free imagination in the process of artistic creation. It demonstrates the process of thinking in artistic creation and succinctly summarizes the underlying features of aesthetic appreciation and freedom in artistic creation.
When a person’s physical form has fully developed, he will develop spiritual activity accordingly. Here “form” refers to the physical form of a human being, and “spiritual” refers to various mental activities, including emotions and consciousness. Xunzi (313-238 BC) pointed out that a person’s physical form and spirit, just like everything else, develop naturally in the course of the movement of the way of heaven. Spirit is born in the wake of physical formation of a human being. Full physical form is a prerequisite to the birth of spirit. A person’s spirit exists within his physical form.
Painters depict physical appearances to reveal the essence. Gu Kaizhi(345?-409), a painter of the Eastern Jin dynasty, lays great emphasis on the correspondence between the essence and physical forms: He depicts the appearance of objects in great detail, which embodies their spiritual disposition. He believes this is the highest requirement of painting. He urges painters to capture those outward features that best reveal the spiritual attributes of the objects depicted. This view has exerted a great influence on later artistic endeavors.
The term refers to the highest realm of human integrity and morality, hence one who has reached this state is a sage. It is often used in relation to “intelligence,” since an intelligent man understands the way of man, while a sage understands the way of heaven. Thus a sage with knowledge of the way of heaven will interact successfully with other people.
The term has two meanings. One is the supreme ruler of the universe, also known as the Ruler of Heaven. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, wizards were the intermediaries between humans and the supreme ruler. They asked for his orders by means of divination and conveyed them to humans. The other meaning is the supreme ruler of an empire or dynasty, that is, the emperor or monarch, including those of remote antiquity and those who had died; each was referred to as Son of Heaven. After Christianity was introduced to China, missionaries used this term as a translation of the word “God.”
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