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somaesthetics drew on the classical idea of phi- Somaesthetics, Education, losophy as a meliorative art of living in which the soma again plays a formative role as the medium and Democracy: Between for all our experience, perception, and action. Pragmatism and Chinese Hence, the quest for self-knowledge and self-im- provement should involve somatic self-cultiva- Thought tion.1 Although Western philosophy provided my initial insights into these sources of somaesthet- Richard Shusterman ics, East Asian thought, and particularly classical Chinese philosophy, soon became a continuing Florida Atlantic University inspiration for my somaesthetic research. As tra- ditional East Asian aesthetics highlights the The project of somaesthetics—briefly defined value of somatic training for perfecting one’s art- as the critical study and meliorative cultivation of istry, so Chinese ethical theory insists that self- the experience and use of one’s body as a site of examination is both crucial for moral progress sensory appreciation and creative self-fashion- and is intrinsically somatic in character. ing—can be understood as fundamentally a phi- The Confucian Analects invokes the idea of 2 losophy of education. examining thrice daily one’s embodied self, Somaesthetics argues that the soma—the liv- while another Confucian classic, The Great Learn- ing, purposive, sentient body—is the medium or ing, highlights somatic self-cultivation, as the key tool through which all learning takes place. It fol- ethical foundation for harmoniously governing 3 lows that if we improve, by cultivating, the ca- self, family, and society. “Their persons [or bod- pacities of that medium or tool, we can therefore ies, shen] being cultivated, their families were reg- improve our capacities for learning. Moreover, ulated. Their families being regulated, their states the improved capacity of this medium of life and were rightly governed. Their states being rightly learning should make life and learning more governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil 4 pleasurable, and pleasure in learning will en- and happy.” hance our capacities to learn. In different ways, Daoism also emphasizes Somaesthetics emerged from two main phil- somatic cultivation, or xiu shen, which it often in- osophical roots. First, it built on pragmatist aes- terprets in terms of shou shen (protecting the thetics, which highlights the active, sentient body body). Zhuangzi, noting that the ancient sages or soma as the necessary energetic ground and who “clarified the great Way” made sure to “cul- skilled medium for our capacities of artistic cre- tivate their persons” urges us: “Diligently culti- ation and aesthetic appreciation. Second, vate your [own] person instead of paying

1 For an explanation of these roots of somaesthetics, see of Confucius: A Philosophical Translation (New York: Bal- Richard Shusterman, Body Consciousness (Cambridge: Cam- lantine, 1998). bridge University Press, 2008), ch. 1; and Thinking through 3 xiushen (修身, cultivation of one’s embodied person, or the Body: Essays in Somaesthetics (Cambridge: Cambridge shen) University Press, 2012), “Introduction.” 4 James Legge (trans.), Confucian Analects, The Great Learn- 2 san xing wu shen (三省吾身). Analects, 1:4. My citations ing, and The Doctrine of the Mean (Oxford: Clarendon Press, and references to the Analects are based on the translation 1893), 266. of Roger T. Ames and Henry Rosemont Jr., The Analects The Journal of School & Society 16 ISSN 2575-9922 6(2) 15–25 ©Author(s) 2019

attention to externals.”5 Shou shen and xiu shen Deweyan Pragmatism and are combined in the following Zhuangzi injunc- tion: “Carefully guard [shou shen] your body, and Chinese Thought leave other things to prosper themselves. I guard the one so as to dwell in harmony. Thus have I Deweyan pragmatism converges with Confucian cultivated my person (xiushen) for one thousand thought in celebrating art’s educational im- two hundred years and my physical form has still portance for ethics and politics. not decayed.”6 Although Dewey’s Art as Experience makes The classical Confucian Chinese tradition in- only a few passing references to Chinese aes- sists on the body’s crucial role in art and in the thetic thought (confined to Chinese painting), he ethical, meliorative art of living through self- did write the book after his extended stay in knowledge and self-cultivation. China from 1919 to 1921, an It moreover also distinctively Somaesthetics experience that had an enor- combines these themes in an argues that the mous influence on his thinking. extraordinarily productive way As his daughter Jane con- by making the practices of art soma—the living, firmed, this experience “was so making and art appreciation an purposive, sentient great as to act as a rebirth of integral part of one’s ethical body—is the [Dewey’s] intellectual enthusi- practices of self-examination asms,” and he henceforth held and self-refinement. medium or tool China as “the country nearest In contrast to the Western through which all his heart after his own.” 8 Platonic tradition of suspicion learning takes place. Dewey’s appreciation of China regarding the ethical and politi- was reciprocated warmly by the cal value of the arts, the Analects enthusiastic reception of his of Confucius emphasize the ethical and political lectures there, which were widely published and value of the arts of music and poetry along with influential in the New Culture movement of that ritual. The Confucian Xunzi builds on these in- time.9 There is, indeed, a great deal of promising sights to provide detailed argument for music’s overlap between the orientations of Deweyan (and ritual’s) capacities for providing personal pragmatism and classical Chinese philosophy, refinement as well as social attunement and har- and I shall now briefly outline some of those mony.7 converging themes that impact issues of ethics and politics. Among the many important themes that Chinese philosophy seems to share with pragma- tism, perhaps the most central and comprehen- sive could be called humanism. This is the term

5 I use here the translation by Victor Mair, Wandering on 8 See Jane Dewey, “Biography of John Dewey,” in P.A. the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu (Hon- Schilpp (ed.), The Philosophy of John Dewey, 2nd ed. (New olulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1994), 123, 321. York: Tudor, 1951), 42. 6 Mair, 96. 9 Dewey’s popularity in China was unfortunately short- 7 John Knoblock (trans.),”On Self-Cultivation,” “Dis- lived. By the time he wrote Art as Experience (1934), there course on Ritual Principles,” and “Discourse on Music,” was not sufficient interest in his work for the book to be in Xunzi, vol. 1 & 3 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, translated. A Chinese translation of it was eventually put 1988,1994). out by Dr. Jianping Gao in 2005. The Journal of School & Society 17 ISSN 2575-9922 6(2) 15–25 ©Author(s) 2019

used by the distinguished scholars Wing-tsit Philosophy, as James and Dewey always in- Chan and Tu Wei-Ming to define Chinese phi- sisted, deals with realms of experience, action, losophy, but also sometimes used by William and meaning that are wider than the realm of James, John Dewey, and especially their Oxford formulated truths. As James highlighted the im- ally, F.C.S. Schiller, to characterize or explain portance of nameless feelings that escape the pragmatism.10 web of discourse, so Dewey urged that philoso- Such humanism, which need not exclude a phy’s discursive truths find their true value in wider spiritual dimension, is not the hubristic promoting “concrete human experience and its view that ordinary human existence is the su- potentialities,” “to clarify, to liberate, and to ex- preme expression of the universe, and that hu- tend the goods” of our lives and practices.11 manity is defined by its oppositional contrast to The fixed formulations of discursive truth, the natural world. It is rather the insistence that though often useful in dealing with the experi- philosophy is inevitably shaped by the human enced world of continuous flux, cannot pretend condition and its purposes should be primarily to capture its essence or value. Ancient Chinese directed to the aims of preserving, cultivating, philosophers, similarly impressed by the world and perfecting human life. As knowledge and of change, were likewise more interested in per- value cannot be rigidly separated, and as human fecting our humanity than in providing a precise experience is essentially social experience, phi- linguistic representation of reality. In fact, as losophy has an ineliminable ethical and social Chad Hansen has argued, classical Chinese purpose. In other words, philosophy is princi- thinkers primarily regarded language not as a me- pally aimed at improving our humanism—not at dium for describing the world but, rather, more describing reality for the mere sake of producing pragmatically, as a means “of guiding behav- true sentences. ior.”12

10 See Wing-Tsit Chan, A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy 312-318; and William James, “Pragmatism and Human- (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963), 3: “If one ism” in Pragmatism and Other Essays (New York: Simon word could characterize the entire history of Chinese phi- and Schuster, 1963), and “Humanism and Truth,” “The losophy, that word would be humanism.” This opinion is Essence of Humanism”, and “Humanism and Truth endorsed by Tu Wei-Ming, “Self-cultivation in Chinese Once More” in William James: Writings 1902-1910 (New Philosophy,” The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Lon- York: Library of America, 1987). don: Routledge, 1998), vol. 8, 613-626, which describes 11 William James, The Principles of Psychology (Cambridge: Chinese humanism as tending “to incorporate the spir- Harvard University Press, 1983), 244-245. John Dewey, itual and naturalist dimensions in a comprehensive and Experience and Nature (Carbondale: Southern Illinois Uni- integrated vision of the nature and function of humanity versity Press,1988), 41, 305; hereafter EN. in the cosmos” (613). This description is also appropriate 12 Chad Hansen, A Daoist Theory of Chinese Thought: A Phil- to the pragmatist vision of James, Dewey, and Schiller, osophical Interpretation (New York: Oxford University though James tended to use the term “humanism” in a Press, 1992), 42. Hansen argues that the ways Chinese more limited, technical sense that focused on issues of language differs from Indo-European languages encour- epistemology and metaphysics; for example, the theses aged Chinese thinkers to theorize language differently that that philosophy cannot purport to provide a God’s- than in India and Europe, and thus to different views of eye view of the world; that its truths are not absolute and philosophy and its problems. Some of these differences fixed but pluralistic and changing; and that such fallibil- resemble ways that pragmatism also differs from the ism and pluralism reflect the changing nature of reality mainstream Western philosophical tradition. For in- and our plural, changing human interests. See F.C.S. stance, “Chinese thinkers don’t get caught up in the fa- Schiller, Humanism: Philosophical Essays (London: Macmil- miliar problems of meaning. They do not start with a lan, 1903); Dewey’s review of it in John Dewey: The Middle conception of philosophy as a search for definitions” Works, vol. 3 (Southern Illinois University Press, 1977), (40). While “Western language ideology . . . treats the key The Journal of School & Society 18 ISSN 2575-9922 6(2) 15–25 ©Author(s) 2019

To the general thesis that philosophy’s job is Aesthetics will give.” In short, the real value of to improve our lives rather than to compile true aesthetic discourse, including definitions, is of propositions, there is a clear aesthetic corollary: pragmatic guiding toward an improved experi- that the highest function of aesthetics is to en- ence of art; hence Dewey rightly claims that “a hance our experience of art and beauty, rather definition is good when it points in the direction than to produce accurate verbal definitions of in which we can move expeditiously” to having these concepts, which has been a major goal of such an experience.13 analytic aesthetics. Confucian aesthetics seem similarly prag- matic. While Confucius speaks often and pas- Philosophy is principally sionately about music (noting its varieties, uses, aimed at improving our and values), he does not try to offer a formal def- inition of this art. Suspicious of mere verbal so- humanism—not at describing lutions (and more generally wary of linguistic reality for the mere sake of glibness), Confucius instead provides guidance producing true sentences. of how to realize musical value in experience by noting examples of musical excellence (and fail- In Pragmatist Aesthetics, I criticize such defini- ure), by offering brief but illuminating critical tions as “wrapper theories,” since they aim at commentary, and by proposing exemplary meth- perfectly covering the logical extension of these ods of musical practice: concepts rather than at illuminating the im- portance and enhancing the value of what is de- The Master said of the shao music that it is both fined. In aesthetic matters, as Dewey recognized, superbly beautiful and superbly effective. Of the such “formal definitions leave us cold.” And wu music he said that it is superbly beautiful but William James, whose keen aesthetic sense in- not superbly efficacious. spired his early ambition for a painting career, was equally critical: “no good will ever come to The Master said “The Cry of the Osprey” is Art . . . from the analytic study of Aesthetics,” pleasing without being excessive, is mournful since the key things in art “escape verbal defini- without being injurious. tion, yet verbal definitions are all that [such]

role of language as conveying ideas, facts and descriptive AE; and William James, The Correspondence of William content,” Chinese thought basically “portrays language as James, vol. 8 (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, a way people interact with and influence each other.” 2000), 475. This is why I argue that Dewey was basically Hence “the Chinese theory of language starts from prag- right to define art as experience even though that defini- matics—the relation of language and user; Western the- tion, by logical-extensional criteria, is clearly inadequate. ory focuses first on semantics—the relation of language For my argument, which includes some critique of and the world” (41-2). Chinese theory “deals with assert- Dewey’s definition, see Pragmatist Aesthetics: Living Beauty, ability more than truth”, and the kind of knowledge that Rethinking Art (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), ch. 2. For a de- classical Chinese thought is essentially concerned with is fense of Dewey’s theory against my critique, see Tom not “propositional knowledge” (since “classical Chinese Leddy, “Shusterman’s Pragmatist Aesthetics,” Journal of Spec- has no grammatically parallel verb for propositional be- ulative Philosophy 16 (2002), 10-16; and Paul Taylor, “The lief”) but a more pragmatic notion of knowledge: “know- Two-Dewey Thesis, Continued: Shusterman’s Pragmatist ing-how to do something, knowing-to-do something, or Aesthetics,” Journal of Speculative Philosophy 16 (2002), 17-25. knowing-of (about) something” (44). I respond to their critique in “Pragmatism and Criti- 13 See John Dewey, Art as Experience (Carbondale: South- cism,” in Journal of Speculative Philosophy 16 (2002), 26-38. ern Illinois University Press, 1987), 155, 220; hereafter The Journal of School & Society 19 ISSN 2575-9922 6(2) 15–25 ©Author(s) 2019

In contrast, Confucius claimed, “the Zheng mu- education that can refine both the individual and sic is lewd.”14 society by cultivating our sense of good order Besides these evaluative examples, he sug- and propriety while instilling an enjoyably shared gests some concrete methods to heighten the experience of harmony and meaning. quality of our musical experience. The Confucian insistence on the importance of music and ritual (li) as key elements in both The Master talked to the Grand Music master of cultivating the self and civilizing society makes Lu about music, and said: “Much can be realized this aesthetic model of education very clear. with music if one begins by playing in unison, These aesthetic practices are more than merely and then goes on to improvise with purity of aesthetic: they concern the formation of proper tone and distinctness and flow [or sincerity], order and good government in the character of thereby bringing all to completion.” the individual and of society as a whole.

When the Master was with others who were sing- As Confucius stressed, “in referring time and ing and they sang well, he would invariably ask again to observing ritual propriety (li) how could them to sing the piece again before joining the I just be talking about gifts of jade and silk? And harmony.”15 in referring time and again to making music (yue), how could I just be talking about bells and Though these pragmatic ways of improving our drums?”16 He thus urged his disciples: understanding of music may seem rather frag- mentary, thin, or partial, we must not forget that [My] young friends, why don’t you study the they are meant to be filled in by the rich concrete Songs? Reciting the Songs can arouse your sensi- context of experience, whose enhancement in bilities, strengthen your powers of observation, practice is also the purpose of musical theory. enhance your ability to get on with others, and sharpen your critical skills. Close at hand it ena- If pragmatist and Confucian aesthetics aim bles you to serve your father, and away at court not at elegantly precise verbal definition, but at it enables you to serve your lord.17 improving our experience of art, this does not simply mean increasing our personal enjoyment Confucius likewise urged the study of ritual, and understanding of artworks. For art is not without which one would not know “where to only a source of inner pleasure (important a stand” or how to behave.18 But the broader goal value as that is); it is also a practical way of giving of “achieving harmony,” in both self and society, grace and beauty to the social functions of eve- “is the most valuable function of observing rit- ryday life. Art is also a crucial means of ethical ual.”19

14 Analects, 3.25; 3.20; 15.11. what is too short, eliminate excess, remedy deficiency, 15 Analects, 3.23;7.32. and extend cultivated forms that express love and respect 16 Analects, 17.11. so that they increase and complete the beauty of conduct 17 Analects, 17.9. according to one’s duty.” “Rites are the highest expres- 18 Analects, 17.9. sion of order and discrimination, the root of strength in 19 Analects, 1.12. The Confucian Xunzi explains ritual’s the state.” The quotations are from “Discourse on Ritual capacity to harmonize in terms of its nurturing our hu- Principles” in Xunzi, trans. John Knoblock (Stanford: man senses, emotions, and desires while informing them Stanford University Press, 1980), vol. 3, 57, 60, 62, 65. with a sense of order and distinction so that they will not Xunzi likewise praises the power of music for harmoniz- run wildly astray but will issue in “pleasure and beauty.” ing and ordering both individual and society. As “the A key to ritual’s power of refinement is by providing the guiding line of the mean and harmony, and a necessary proper “mean.” “Rites trim what is too long, stretch out and inescapable expression of man’s emotional nature,” The Journal of School & Society 20 ISSN 2575-9922 6(2) 15–25 ©Author(s) 2019

The aesthetic model of good government “demeanor,” and “expression.” Virtue should be through good character and harmony is a model somatically displayed as it contributes to social that works by exemplary attraction and emula- harmony and good government.23 tion rather than by commandments, threats, and Pragmatism affirms this progressive role for punishments. “The exemplary person attracts aesthetics in ethical and political education. Art friends through refinement is more than a private affair of (wen), and thereby promotes Art is also a crucial personal taste; and taste itself is virtuous conduct (ren).” At- means of ethical always more than personal, since tracted to such people, we want it is socially formed. As an essen- “to stand shoulder to shoulder education that can tially communicative and social with them” by emulating their refine both the practice, art is “the incomparable virtue.20 individual and organ of instruction”—with a So, “if people are proper in harmonizing function. 24 In personal conduct, others will society. Dewey’s words, art is “a remak- follow suit without need of command. But if ing of the experience of the community in the they are not proper, even when they command, direction of greater order and unity,” and he cites others will not obey.”21 Moreover, in the Confu- “the power of music in particular to merge dif- cian tradition, the propriety of good conduct or ferent individualities in a common surrender, character is understood aesthetically; it is not a loyalty and inspiration.”25 matter of mere mechanical or grudging compli- If this sounds too close to a fascist demand ance to fixed rules, but, rather, requires main- for conformity to a fixed social order and vi- taining the proper appearances that expresses sion,26 Dewey counters by insisting that “art is the proper feelings.22 Hence the Confucian em- more moral than moralities” because it imagina- phasis on “the proper countenance,” tively offers new visions of better orders than the

“music is the most perfect method of bringing order to Confucius (New York: Random House, 1938), 232. The men” (ibid. 81, 84). He also suggests how music and rit- validity of both translations is evidence of the great over- ual complement each other in the work of ordering: lap of ethics and aesthetics in Chinese thought, which “Music joins together what is common to all; ritual sepa- was also common in ancient Greek philosophy as the rates what is different” (ibid. 84). popular expression of kalon-kai-agathon (“the beautiful 20 Analects, 12.24; 4.1; 4.17. and good”) makes clear. The drawing of a sharp opposi- 21 Analects, 13.6. tion between ethics and aesthetics is an aberration of the 22 When “asked about filial conduct”, the Master replied: compartmentalizing logic of intellectualism that pragma- “It all lies in showing the proper countenance. As for the tist aesthetics seeks to overcome. young contributing their energies when there is work to 24 AE, 349. be done, and deferring to their elders when there is wine 25 AE, 87, 338. and food to be had—how can merely doing this be con- 26 Dewey himself later notes (in Freedom and Culture, 1939) sidered being filial?” Analects, 2.8. the use of art and other aesthetic practices to support to- 23 Analects, 8.4. When asked what kind of person is fit to talitarian regimes by making dictatorship seem more at- govern, Confucius replies “a person who honors the five tractive than “repressive,” and likewise mentions the beauties (mei) and rejects the four ugly things (e),” and Church’s use of aesthetic power to sustain its influence then he goes on to explain what these things are in such on “the masses.” Dewey also cites the saying, “that if one saliently ethical language that leads Ames and Rosemont could control the songs of a nation, one need not care to translate these terms as “the five virtues” and “the who made its laws.” See John Dewey: The Later Works, vol. four vices.” See Analects, 20.2. In the Waley translation, 13 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1988), the terms are translated as “the Five Lovely Things” and 69-70. “the Four Ugly Things.” See Arthur Waley, The Analects of The Journal of School & Society 21 ISSN 2575-9922 6(2) 15–25 ©Author(s) 2019

community’s status quo. Explicitly linking aes- There is an aspect of philosophy as a life practice thetics to democratic theory, Dewey claims that that my version of pragmatism emphasizes more just as significant aesthetic wholes “must be con- than most Western philosophies—cultivation of stituted by parts that are themselves significant the sentient body as a central tool of self-perfec- apart from the whole to which they belong . . . tion, a key to better perception, action, virtue, no significant community can exist save as it is and happiness. composed of individuals who are significant.”27 I return, then, to somaesthetics, which is an I have argued, however, that we need to go interdisciplinary field of, not only theory, but beyond the Confucian and Deweyan apprecia- concrete somatic practice that aims to promote tion of harmony and organic unities in art and some of philosophy’s oldest and most central society. Art can divide as well as unify, as we see goals: knowledge, self-knowledge, virtue, happi- in the conflict of different taste groups, and such ness, and justice. When challenged by my West- conflict can be a competitive spur to creativity. ern philosophical colleagues for paying so much Besides the satisfactions of unity, there can also attention to the body—which is seen as a neces- be aesthetic, educational, and even social value sarily narrow and narcissistic interest that inter- in artistic experiences of heightened fragmenta- feres with the wider and nobler concerns of eth- tion, dissonance, and disruptive difference. ics and politics—I find support from Asian phi- That is one reason why I devoted considera- losophers’ wise respect for the body. They real- ble attention to rap music and why much con- ize that virtue, care for others, and even the po- temporary visual art is concerned with images of litical practice of good government cannot be rupture and disharmony. Moreover, we need to achieved without bodily means. remember more clearly that the aesthetic dimen- As Mencius says, sion—in both the creative and appreciative pro- cess—involves a crucial critical moment: one I have heard of those who, having kept their where the artist or observer critically assesses the bodies inviolate, could serve their parents, but values and limitations of what is being expressed not of those who failing to do so, still served so that she can go on to produce or demand their parents. Whichever duty I fail to perform, something better. it must not be my duty to my parents, for that is the duty from which all others spring. Whichever This means that an aesthetic appreciation of trust I fail to fulfill, it must not be that of keeping social harmonies should always be alert to dis- my body inviolate, for that is the trust from cordant voices that are being muffled or ex- which all others arise. cluded from the mix. He later claims, “the functions of the body are Somaesthetics and Chinese the endowment of Heaven. But it is only a Sage who can properly manipulate them.”28 Thought Moreover, how can one properly govern a state, if one cannot properly care for oneself by

27 AE, 207-8. sharing . . . the core idea of articulated form” and the 28 See Mencius, trans. W.A.C.H. Dobson (Oxford: Oxford common character 豊 as one of the two characters that University Press, 1969), 138, 144 (4A.20; 6A.14). Proper make up each word. See Hall and Ames, Thinking from the bodily comportment and skills are, of course, crucial to Han: Self, Truth, and Transcendence in Chinese and Western the key Confucian idea of ritual. It is thus not surprising Culture (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1997), 32. that “the terms for body (ti) and ritual (li) are cognate, The Journal of School & Society 22 ISSN 2575-9922 6(2) 15–25 ©Author(s) 2019

properly caring for one’s body? As Laozi says, * * * “he who loves his body more than the empire can be given the custody of the empire.”29 Chi- Asian culture has thus coupled the theoretical af- nese philosophy further realizes that the most firmation of the body with the development of persuasive lessons in the art of living can be con- practical somatic disciplines of meditation and veyed without theoretical texts, but through the martial arts that improve our powers of move- wordless power of bodily bearing and graceful ment and mental concentration, while giving action of teachers, who instruct by the exem- greater grace to our actions and greater pleasure plarity of their persons that complement and in- and acuteness to our consciousness. My efforts terpret the words of their teaching. to establish the field of somaesthetics as a disci- As Mencius says, “his every limb bears word- pline of theory and practice have been greatly en- less testimony.” 30 Consider the exemplarity of couraged by the insights of Chinese and other wordless teaching exhibited in the bodily behav- ancient Asian philosophies. ior of Confucius as recorded in Analects: One of the most pervasively influential and painfully stubborn Western dualisms is that of On passing through the entrance way to the body and mind. As I remark in Body Consciousness, Duke’s court, he would bow forward from the Dewey sought to overcome the dualism histori- waist, as though the gateway were not high cally inscribed in these terms by affirming their enough. While in attendance, he would not stand essential union through linguistic invention—by in the middle of the entranceway; in passing employing the term, “body-mind,” using the hy- through, he would not step on the raised thresh- old. On passing by the empty throne, his coun- phen (which the French call a trait d’union) to tenance would change visibly, his legs would bridge the twain. bend, and in his speech he would seem to be Yet, the hyphen, in joining the two, also breathless. He would lift the hem of his skirts in graphically underlines their separation, just as ascending the hall, bow forward from the waist, Benedetto Croce’s notion of art as “intuition-ex- and hold in his breath as though ceasing to pression” unintentionally highlighted the gap be- breathe. On leaving and descending the first tween an artist’s inner vision and its concrete steps, he would relax his expression and regain manifestation in external form. Running to- his composure. He would glide briskly from the gether the terms without the hyphen as bottom of the steps, and returning to his place, “bodymind” is no less problematic—for the two 31 he would resume a reverent posture. terms remain, and the effort to unite them seem clumsily forced and ungrammatical. Moreover,

29 See Tao Te Ching, trans. D.C. Lau (Baltimore: Penguin, the idea of the dance? I say the eyes do not see it and the 1963), 69. ears do not hear it. Rather, it happens only when the or- 30 Mencius, 181 (7A.21) der of every episode of gazing down and lifting up the 31 Analects, 10:4. Book 10 of the Analects is full of such de- face, of bending and straightening, of advancing and re- scriptions of Confucius’s instructive bodily comport- treating, and of retardation and acceleration is executed ment, including matters of dress, posture, the taking of with proper, restrained control; when the strength of food, drink, and medicine, table manners, style of sitting, bone and flesh has been so thoroughly trained that every resting, sleeping, and riding in a carriage. An important movement is in such agreement with the rhythm of the counterpart of wordless teaching is wordless understand- drums, bells, and ensemble that there is never an awk- ing. Xunzi explains that a proper understanding of dance ward or wayward motion; and when these, through con- cannot be conveyed in mere words or even in visual or stant practice, are combined into an ideal that is realized auditory representations; it requires fully embodied enact- again and again.” See Knoblock (trans.), “Discourse on ment and funded muscle-memory. “How can we know Music,” in Xunzi, 85. The Journal of School & Society 23 ISSN 2575-9922 6(2) 15–25 ©Author(s) 2019

these ways of orthographically synthesizing body notion of the soma corresponds so beautifully and mind have the further difficulty of prioritiz- with the notion of shenti in rejecting the dualism ing one of the terms in some way: why “body- of mind and body, along with related divisions mind,” and not “mind-body”? Does being ante- between thinking and feeling, knowing and act- cedent mean being more basic or essential? Such ing, inner character and outer expression.33 terminological issues (along with others) led me If contemporary thinkers in the People’s Re- to introduce the term “somaesthet ics” for the public of China have been extremely receptive to research field in which I worked. somaesthetics, this is not only because of its link The term “soma” (de- to classical Confucianism, rived from the Greek An aesthetic appreciation of but also because of its word for “body”) was un- convergence with Marx- familiar enough to be social harmonies should ian ideas.34 Chinese theo- used to capture the self’s always be alert to discordant rists appreciate somaes- purposive unity of em- voices that are being thetics as a naturalistic, bodied mind and mindful materialist, action-ori- body without the dualistic muffled or excluded from ented philosophy of hu- connotations of body and the mix. man nature (like Marx- mind, or the negative ism), in contrast to the connotations of “flesh,” or the limiting sense of dominant idealist tradition of Western philoso- subjective interiority of the German philosophi- phy. They likewise appreciate somaesthetics’ em- cal notion of Leib.32 phasis on (pragmatist-inspired) meliorism and Having embraced the term “soma” to de- transformative praxis, along with its appreciation velop the idea of somaesthetics, I was happy to of popular culture. Though I initially was sur- find that contemporary Chinese had a similar prised to see my aesthetic theories connected non-dualistic expression of sentient embodi- with Marx’s philosophy, I immediately realized ment, 身体 (shenti), whose initial character, in that this reflects a broader convergence between classical times, indicated embodied self and was Dewey’s democratic, socially-sensitive pragma- employed in key moral concepts such as self-cul- tism and some of Marx’s philosophical perspec- tivation (修身 xiu shen), implying cultured self- tives and democratic ideals. hood requires also somatic practices and somatic In recent years, however, several Chinese expression of refinement. If somaesthetics has scholars have also remarked that the spirit of my been so successful in China, it is because its somaesthetic thinking is perhaps just as close, if

32 For the diverse reasons I chose the term “soma” over deriving from the Greek word for sensory perception other terms, see Richard Shusterman, Thinking through the (aisthesis). Body: Essays in Somaesthetics (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni- 34 See, for instance, the symposium on “Richard Shuster- versity Press, 2012), 5-8. For my detailed views on the re- man’s Somaesthetics” in Frontiers of Philosophy in China 10, lationship between somaesthetics and the complex Ger- no 2 (2015): 163-211, and Zhang Baogui, “The Possibility man notion of Leib, see Richard Shusterman, “Soma and of Life as Art : A Comparative Study between Marx and Psyche,” Journal of Speculative Philosophy 24, no. 3 (2011): Shusterman,” in International Aesthetics, 29 (2018). 205-223. 张宝贵, 生活成为艺术的可能性——马克思与舒斯 33 This remarkable affinity compensates for the problem that the Chinese term for “aesthetics” (美学 meixue) liter- 特曼⽣活美学思想之⽐照, 《外国美学》第 29 辑, ally denotes the study (or science) of beauty rather than 2018. the broader domain conveyed by the word “aesthetic” as The Journal of School & Society 24 ISSN 2575-9922 6(2) 15–25 ©Author(s) 2019

not even closer, to Daoism than it is to Confu- Like Confucianism, then, Daoism, emphasizes cianism or Marxism. My style, they say, displays somatic cultivation, or xiu shen, even if it inter- much more freedom, wandering, and noncon- prets it largely in terms of shou shen (protecting formity than is expected from a Confucian the body), yang sheng (nurturing life), and of re- thinker. I have been labelled a “nomadic philos- lated disciplines of somaesthetic training that are opher” because my philosophical trajectory has more ascetic than artistic. wandered from analytic philosophy to French In Thinking through the Body I go more deeply and German philosophy to pragmatism and into classical Daoist philosophy and other Dao- East-Asian thought, as my academic life has led ist-inspired texts to develop two important me to experience those different cultures.35 themes of my current research, which I mention Such wandering—which implies a breaking but cannot discuss here. One theme is the com- free from local ties and conventional social du- plex relationship between spontaneous action ties—is reminiscent of a Daoist spirit. Moreover, and reflective consciousness in skilled, success- rather than concentrating on the high Confucian ful performance. Daoist texts emphasize sponta- arts (especially music and poetry), my somaes- neity (ziran), but a close examination of the thetics strongly advocates the practice of non-ar- Zhuangzi and the Liezi will reveal that critical or tistic bodily training disciplines very much the reflective body awareness is also sometimes nec- way Daoism emphasizes non-artistic somatic essary for successful action and does not always techniques such as deep breathing exercises, va- and necessarily inhibit smooth performance.37 rieties of calisthenics, and even special sexual The second important Daoist theme in my techniques. current research concerns the somaesthetics of Finally, if my faith in the spiritual power of lovemaking. Here the Daoist-inspired texts that somaesthetics was nurtured by my experience in constitute the genre of fang-zhong shu offer many Japan of Zen seated meditation (zazen), then interesting insights, but are easily misunder- Daoism insists on the similar seated meditative stood. Michel Foucault gravely misinterpreted technique of zuo wang (坐忘), whose somatic di- them as aiming primarily at pleasure rather than mension is underlined by its alteration of the health.38 body’s normal functions. Consider its descrip- The Daoist current in somaesthetics finds tion in the Zhuangzi, chapter 6: perhaps its most distinctive expression in my re- cent book, The Adventures of the Man in Gold, not I let organs and members drop away, dismiss only through its fictional narrative form, its mys- eyesight and hearing, part from the body and ex- terious protagonist, ethereal atmosphere, and pel knowledge, and go along with the universal Daoist themes, but also through its frequent thoroughfare. This is what I mean by “just sit quotations from the Dao de Jing, the only philo- and forget.”36 sophical work cited in the text. The book, as an

35 See, for example, Roger-Pol Droit’s article in France’s Reflection: The Dao of Somaesthetics,” in Ming Dong weekly newsmagazine Le Point: “Richard Shusterman: Gu (ed.), Why Traditional Chinese Philosophy Still Matters Philosophe Nomade,” Le Point 1839 (13 December (London: Routledge, 2018), 133-144. 2007): 88-89. 38 Besides Thinking Through the Body, see Richard Shuster- 36 A.C. Graham, Chuang-tzu, The Seven Inner Chapters and man, “Sex and Somaesthetics: Appreciating the Chinese other writings from the book Chuang-tzu (London: George Al- Difference,” in James Behuniak (ed.), Appreciating the Chi- len and Unwin, 1981), 92. nese Difference: Engaging Roger T. Ames on Methods, Issues, and 37 Apart from Thinking through the Body, this theme is Roles (Albany: SUNY Press,2018), 91-110. treated in Richard Shusterman, “Spontaneity and The Journal of School & Society 25 ISSN 2575-9922 6(2) 15–25 ©Author(s) 2019

illustrated work of philosophical fiction, has the educational goal of making somaesthetic ideas more accessible by packaging them in a form that will attract readers outside the academy— without precluding a useful academic recep- tion.39

Richard Shusterman is the Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Humanities at Florida Atlantic Univer- sity. Educated at Jerusalem and Oxford, he was chair of the Temple University Philosophy Department before coming to FAU in 2005. He has held academic appoint- ments in Paris, Berlin, and Hiroshima and was awarded senior research Fulbright and NEH fellowships. His widely translated research covers many topics in the hu- man and social sciences with particular emphasis on ques- tions of philosophy, aesthetics, culture, language, identity, and embodiment. Authored books include T.S. Eliot and the Philosophy of Criticism (Columbia), Practicing Philosophy (Routledge), Performing Live (Cornell), Sur- face and Depth (Cornell), Pragmatist Aesthetics (Black- well, 2nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield, and translated into 12 languages), and most recently Body Conscious- ness (Cambridge). His non-technical essays have been published in the Nation and the Chronicle of Higher Education and in various art reviews and catalogues, such as artpress and Dokumenta. He directs the FAU Center for Body, Mind, and Culture.

39 Richard Shusterman, The Adventures of the Man in published. For philosophical discussions of the book, see Gold/Les Aventures de l’homme en or (New York: Hachette, http://www.fau.edu/artsandletters/humani- 2017). The book’s Chinese translation, translated by Pro- tieschair/books/man-in-gold/man-in-gold-reviews/. fessor Lu Yang of Fudan University, will soon be