Self-Cultivation Through the Art of Calligraphy: From Past to the Future

Abstract

Abstract Aesthetic education plays an important role for the cultivation of self in Chinese tradition. In Chinese tradition, philosophy, education, ethics, and metaphysics are closely interwoven. Confucius takes the educated person as one who develops and optimises her potential in every aspect of life including knowledge, skills, habits of mind, manners and dispositions, and artistic taste. The aim of Confucian education is to ‘develop a whole person’ – chéngrén (成人 or 成為全人). There are many different approaches to the cultivation of the whole human person such as the study of classics, moral refinement, spiritual practice, and artistic education. Among the various different art media, calligraphy in Chinese tradition occupies a special and irreplaceable status. However, in the modern times the most radical changes of calligraphy have taken place in the content and artistic expression, the way of writing, the materials, the utensils, and the cultural form. The avant-garde art of calligraphy brings a novel perspective of self-cultivation. This article will take the modern artist XU Bing(徐冰, 1955 -)’s work as the example to examine the meaning of self-cultivation. Overall, this article explores how calligraphy as art is taken as an important means of self-cultivation from the perspectives of tradition and avant-garde. Through history, calligraphy plays a vital role in art and education not only in Chinese culture but also in the global context.