Past As Future: the Discourse of Chuantongin Twentieth

JCCA 6 (2+3) pp. 167–186 Intellect Limited 2019 Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art Volume 6 Numbers 2 & 3 © 2019 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/jcca_00002_1 Pi Li Sigg Senior Curator of M+, Hong Kong Past as future: The discourse of Chuantong in twentieth- century China1 AbsTrACT Keywords This article discusses the approaches of Chinese intellectuals and artists to tradi- t radition tion throughout the twentieth century. Tradition in China is understood, on the one Chinese intellectual hand, as a notion born in a framework constructed by twentieth-century Chinese history intellectuals and their realm of senses and concept of time, on the other hand as a contemporary Chinese notion driven by modernity and capitalism to anchor a work of art to a distinguish- art able point of time. Hence, the article will first review a series of debates on old and National Essence art new culture that have taken place since the May Fourth Movement. It will then theory move on to discuss how contemporary artists made peace with tradition since the twentieth-century ’85 New Wave, a new era when artists are also subject to market forces of supply China and demand. 1. Translated by Xin Wang. This article attempts to comb through the various discourses on chuantong (‘tradition’; ‘classics’) throughout the twentieth century in China, and to explore the formation and transformation of the concept due to shifting cultural and political demands. The concept of chuantong emerged time and again against the backdrop of nineteenth century’s colonialism, and the political conflicts and cultural collisions informed by it; as a result, the discourse on chuantong for the majority of the twentieth century revolved around Chinese 167 02_JCCA_6.2-3_Li_167-186.indd 167 27/11/19 10:05 AM Pi Li painting and literati art, and only expanded gradually towards contemporary art practice after the 1980s. This article, therefore, also attempts to showcase contemporary Chinese art under the multiple influences of globalized politics, economics and market, and the various manners in which tradition functions as symbol, material and methodology amidst the flux of conceptualism. A fine ArT revoLuTion: The reversAL of ‘Chonggu’ (‘veneration of The pasT’) Chuantong is a very familiar cultural term. According to Cihai (large-scale dictionary and encyclopaedia of Standard Mandarin Chinese), it is defined as ‘ideas, culture, morality, fashion, art, institutions, and behaviors that have been passed down through history. It is usually inherited as historical and cultural heritage, the most stable elements of which fixed and manifested in all aspects of social life’ (Cihai Dictionary 2009, Chuantong entry). The Cihai definition is a modern one, which closely relates to its western meaning. The Oxford English Dictionary, for instance, defines chuantong as ‘a belief, custom or way of doing something that has existed for a long time among a particular group of people; a set of these beliefs or customs’ (Oxford English Dictionary 2012, tradition entry). However, the ancient meaning of chuantong is very different from its modern one. A few examples from ancient texts illustrate this disparity: ‘Since the Wu Emperor of the Han Dynasty vanquished Joseon, more than thirty chiefdoms established diplomatic contacts with the Han empire; each chief- dom claim and pass down monarchical sovereignty’ (Fang 2018.: n.pag.). ‘The Confucian pedagogue passes down the classics, accompanied by teachings from luminant scholars’ (Hu 2009: n.pag.). What these texts demonstrate is the historical usage of chuantong as a verb, which denotes ‘inheritance and perpet- uation’ with references to power and the preservation of scholarship across generations. It approximates the Latin origin of the English term ‘Tradition’ – traditto, which implies inheritance. The transition of chuantong from a verb to a noun might be a result of imported wasei-kango terms. The modernization of its definition perhaps traced back to the May Fourth movements, no earlier than the early 1920s. Clear modern definitions of chuantong occurred in the 1930s. In 1936, Carson Chang writes in The Future of China’s Culture: The Chinese regard the classics of Confucius and Mencius as ideologi- cal principle, absolute monarchy as political principle, and folk creeds, such as veneration of ancestors and Taoism, and exotic religions, such as Buddhism from India, as religious principles. These principles can be termed as ‘traditions’. (2012: 5) In classical treatises on painting, the concept closer to the modern definition of chuantong is in fact the ‘classical spirit’. In the famous analysis by Zhao Mengfu (1254–1322), the classical spirit is essential to painting. Without it, skillful execution achieves little aesthetic value. Today’s painters consider themselves capable as they master the meticulous application of the brush and rich colors. However, what they fail to understand is that the lack of classical 168 Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art 02_JCCA_6.2-3_Li_167-186.indd 168 27/11/19 10:05 AM Past as future spirit only leads to decadence, which plagues the work to the extent of unworthiness. My paintings appear simple and straightforward, but those who appreciate it understand its proximity to classical ideals, thus hold them in high regard. This principle can be shared among those in the know, and will fail to reach those without such an understanding. (Bian 1958.: n.pag.). Zhao Mengfu’s ‘classical spirit’ refers to the philosophical taste or style charac- teristic of earlier masters, specifically those exemplified in pre-Song paintings. In Zhao Mengfu’s view, Song painting, particularly as a practice backed by the Imperial Painting Academy, places too much emphasis on technical skills; he hopes that landscape painters shall follow the idioms of Dong Yuan and Juran, and figuration informed by the Tang Dynasty style Zhao Mengfu, Dong Qichang and the four Wangs (of the Qing dynasty) all advocated for the classical spirit, making only nuanced distinctions between the various degrees to which they revive, imitate, study and transform these classical models. They share the ideology of elevating the classical tradition as the ultimate paradigm, which illustrates an important tenet in classical painting theory: the ancient masters set the supreme standards for cultural practice and lifestyle alike. Outside the realm of art, we find ample evidence for this veneration of the classics in political and cultural practices as well (such as the idiom that considers ancient periods superior in moral conduct). In general, throughout Chinese history it is often believed that olden times are golden, and the ‘Three Dynasties’ (Xia, Shang and Zhou) in particular are widely heralded as the ideal social and political paradigm. Reforms are therefore oriented towards the idealized past, frequently citing classics for moral justification. This view of history has established a unique temporality that always places the past above the present, and hence imbues chuantong with connotations of loftiness/ sublime. The past-oriented, classics-venerating perspective on history began to change in the nineteenth century. The collapse of the Ming dynasty and the takeover of the Manchus (rulers of the Qing dynasty) profoundly impacted the Han intellectuals. Through reflections on the painful and traumatic transformation, Qing scholars opposed the empty discourse of spiritual Confucianism and pursued instead classical studies and practical learning. Within the context of Confucian philosophy, the spiritual debates escalated to such an extreme that only classical texts proved reliable sources of jurisdiction. This sense of rationalism led to a heavy archaic focus in Qing scholarship, which attempted to reconstruct classical antiquity as the exemplary paradigm. However, Qing scholars, through their rigorous research, realized that the idealization of the Three Dynasties was simply a result of compounded historical projections that were poorly justified. Accompanying this revelation was the onset of colonialism and a series of devastating failures beginning in the Qing dynasty. This reality dealt the first blow to the philosophy of revering the past. By 1873, the Jiangnan Arsenal’s department of translation had already intro- duced Darwin’s theories of evolution to China, but initial interest was sparse. It was not until 1898, when Yan Fu translated Evolution and Ethics to great acclaim, did Darwin’s theory of evolution become fully explicated in its humanitarian and political implications. Another reason for the wide reception of Evolution and Ethics was the exacerbating colonial condition in which Chinese intellectuals found themselves. In particular, the failures of the First Sino-Japanese War and the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki deeply wounded the Chinese, as www.intellectbooks.com 169 02_JCCA_6.2-3_Li_167-186.indd 169 27/11/19 10:05 AM Pi Li Japan had long been regarded as a small, weak neighbour. Against this backdrop, the theory of evolution was combined with and magnified by the salva- tion quest of the nation. One of its influences was the adoption among Chinese intellectuals of the evolutionary view of ‘the survival of the fittest’. According to the analysis in Evolution and Ethics, life, society and even politics are prod- ucts of constant evolutions. Therefore, following the argument of evolutionism, ‘past’ and ‘classical times’ connoted crudeness and ignorance, and ‘future’ began to signify infinite possibilities and came to symbolize a positive imaginary. As ‘future’ gained traction and the ‘classics’ waned in comparison, the idea of ‘revolution’ was born. The October Revolution in 1917 allowed the Chinese intellectuals to imagine a sudden leap forward to the future as a viable option and the idea of ‘revolution’ began to take hold (Wang 2018: 220). We can thus further understand the arguments from Kang Youwei, Lv Cheng and Chen Duxiu regarding the decline of Chinese painting and artistic revolution in 1918: Chinese painting has declined to the extreme by our time. Not only has it declined, the genre of figuration has virtually gone extinct.

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