逸: 禪宗의 미학적 유산

Abstract

The aesthetic concept of yi (逸, unconventional naturalness) as a indicator of Confucianism-oriented Chanzong or Chanzong-oriented Confucianism symbolically shows Chinese literati’s mind-set in which Confucianism and Chanzong are integrated since the Song dynasty. Why yi became the highest concept in Chinese aesthetics since the Song dynasty is related to the fact that Chanzong gained influence. The fact that yi became the most important ideal in literati’s view of art also results from the point that the doctrine of Chanzong deeply influenced literati’s xinxing principle. We can make sure of this point by the fact that such many means for expressing the stage of yi as the aesthetic concepts of “chou (醜, ugliness), zhuo (拙, clumsiness), dan (淡, plainness), yuan (遠, farness), and jian (簡, simpleness)” used as the expressive technique in literati art. In the works of yi, the artistic rules on the familiar edge are dissolved; instead, there appear humor, jokes, weirdness, nympholepsy, illusion, absurdity, etc. This is because the distortion away from the established rules is more effective to express the deepest inner world of self or self-transcendence.