Theory of Art Creation

Author: Yu Qiuyu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: This book is part of Yu Qiuyu's academic monograph series. The author, Yu Qiuyu, boldly analyzes the creation of art from perspectives such as the nature of art, the artistic eye, and the awareness of life. The book is beautifully printed, and those who enjoy Yu Qiuyu's works might find it worthwhile to read. The original title of this book is The Engineering of Artistic Creation, which was a lecture manuscript completed by the author in 1987. It was published by Shanghai Literature and Art Press in the same year and later reprinted twice by Taiwan's Yunchen Cultural Company in the 1990s. For this edition, the author himself edited and revised it as the first volume of the "Yu Qiuyu Academic Monograph Series."
The original title of this book is The Engineering of Artistic Creation, and it was a lecture manuscript completed 18 years ago. It was published by Shanghai Literature and Art Press in 1987 and reprinted twice by Taiwan's Yunchen Cultural Company in the 1990s. Many readers have written to express their desire for a new edition in mainland China. I always felt that theoretical works do not age as quickly as literary works, and I was too busy to revise it myself, so I declined. However, later, an event changed my mind. On October 1, 2002, during Beijing's long holiday, the China Modern Literature Museum invited me to be a guest speaker for the citizens. Due to the sudden notice, I couldn't prepare in time and spoke about a portion of Chapter 5, Unknown and Dilemma, from memory. This speech was broadcast on CCTV's The Forum program and was replayed so many times based on audience demand that it broke the program's record. This was a bit strange, but at the time, I could already feel it on stage. So many Beijing citizens came to listen to my speech, and a significant portion wanted to understand my attitude in the face of the wave after wave of slander over the years and to offer me public support. But when I spoke about the deeper mysteries of artistic creation, they were immediately surprised and silent, and I, too, felt that such a precious artistic atmosphere had become somewhat unfamiliar. For this reason, after the speech, I expressed a sentiment, hoping that the vibrant cultural and artistic circles could have more people turn back to doing something truly meaningful in the realm of culture and art.
It was in this context that I quickly reread this old manuscript and was unexpectedly restored to some confidence, so I edited and revised it as the first volume of the "Yu Qiuyu Academic Monograph Series."
Regarding this book, there are a few points I need to clarify to today's readers.
Before writing this book, I had long immersed myself in the spiritual systems of Aristotle to Hegel, deeply understanding how the art theory textbooks that dominated China at the time were radically left-wing and impoverished. Therefore, I deliberately opposed that framework, relying only on international aesthetic thinking and my own aesthetic experience to construct my own principles. Once you've seen the ocean, it's hard to be satisfied with anything else. My self-constructed principles strive for simplicity, lightness, texture, and clarity, completely abandoning any pretentious theoretical posturing.
Second, I hope this book can directly benefit art practitioners, especially students preparing to create narrative works, so I made an effort to increase the interpretive analysis. This was difficult because, in art, sensibility is the ultimate goal, and even if reason is exhausted, it cannot be fully reached. Moreover, the more sensibility is emphasized, the more the true aesthetic level of the interpreter is revealed. Theorists hate examples, and even Hegel often showed weakness in Aesthetics. Therefore, the explorations in this book are somewhat daring. The theories I selected lean toward France because I felt that French artistic thinking is closer to sensibility. The examples I chose lean toward film because its synthesis, spatial efficiency, and audience reception are more analyzable than other arts. I prefer analyzing works that had just been released at the time because this allows readers to have a direct and personal experience. While writing this book, I was serving as the chair of the academic committee for China's first International Shakespeare Festival, so I took the opportunity to analyze several Shakespearean plays as well.
Third, I hope that art practitioners, when facing art theory, are not intimidated by the academic divisions, so this book explores a "universal principle" structure that fits both ancient and modern works. I gathered artistic experiences from different times and spaces, melting them together to show the "commonality within diversity" of human understanding of art. Since I had already systematically organized the "diversity within commonality" in my previous works, I had the confidence to make this cross-temporal selection.
Fourth, writing this book required another kind of courage. Because while I was writing it, China experienced several more radical left-wing political movements. Not only was foreign modernist literature fiercely suppressed, but anyone who deviated slightly from the early artistic demands of the proletarian revolutionary leaders would face severe criticism. Some of the big critics from the Cultural Revolution period were still at it, targeting people under assumed names. This situation was called the "late spring cold." Writing this book under such circumstances meant that almost every page carried the risk of being labeled "bourgeois liberalization." However, I was relatively brave, and there were still many brave people in the cultural circles at the time. Therefore, reprinting this book serves another purpose for me: it allows me to look at the busy big critics of today and say, "We have crossed paths many times, and we're still in good health?"
Fifth, I hope today's readers will pay attention to the concept of "creation" that I prominently raised 18 years ago and understand its absolute significance to art and the absolute significance to the decline and rebirth of Chinese culture. Although I did not expect that we would later face such a long period of cultural conservatism and artistic conservatism, I had a vague sense of it. For this reason, when discussing this concept, I was deeply moved, and after writing the first ten chapters, I added a chapter with a rather unique writing style. This last chapter had a significant impact when it was first published due to its broad relevance. The content of this book was also invited to be presented in many provinces in China. Those were events from 17 or 18 years ago, and even my students and audience have gradually aged, let alone myself. It doesn't matter. In this life, I have had the great fortune of thoroughly studying art.
July 2004, at Ta'er Temple in Qinghai