A Journey Through the Beauty of Art: Revised Illustrated Edition

Author: Li Zehou
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-03-01
Features: This book is a classic work of Chinese aesthetics. It embodies the years of research by the author, Li Zehou, who vividly presents the Chinese people's perception of beauty throughout history. It is as (sensitive) and as (intimate) as it gets. Now paired with exquisite illustrations, the book more vividly reveals the tumultuous journey of beauty in China. The Journey of Beauty offers a macroscopic perspective on Chinese art and literature over thousands of years, providing a comprehensive description and aesthetic grasp. It introduces important concepts such as the "Dragon and Phoenix Dance" of primitive and ancient art, the "fierce beauty" of Shang and Zhou bronze art, the "Confucianism-Taoism complementarity" of the pre-Qin rational spirit, the "romanticism" of Chu Ci, Han Fu, and Han stone reliefs, the "awakening of humanity" in the Wei and Jin style, the Buddhist sculptures of the Six Dynasties, Tang, and Song periods, as well as the distinct aesthetic categories of Song and Yuan landscape paintings, poetry, ci, and qu. It also explores the evolution of novels and opera from romanticism to melancholy to realism during the Ming and Qing dynasties. These ideas often present new perspectives that were previously unexplored. The book was first published in 1981 and has been reprinted dozens of times, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. It has been translated into multiple languages, including English, German, and Korean.