Zen Aesthetics Research Articles

The Aesthetics of Temple Gardens: Research on the Application of Zen Philosophical Principles in the Design of Zen-inspired Landscapes

The study of Zen aesthetics within temple garden design initiates with an exploration of the spatial configurations of traditional Chinese temple gardens. It delves into the origins and concepts of Zen-inspired landscapes, summarizing the elements and techniques of landscape design drawn from real-world temple examples and historical texts. Furthermore, the integration of Zen philosophical thoughts and aesthetics into these landscapes is examined, with a particular focus on the strategic placement of plants and the employment of core aesthetic principles. This analysis sheds light on the embedded Buddhist cultural themes, offering practical recommendations for crafting Zen-inspired landscapes.

The Fusion of Japanese Zen Aesthetics and the Image of Machi-Man (Townspeople) – Reflections in Ukiyo-e and 19th Century Paris Montmartre Art

The three core elements of Japanese Zen art aesthetics are mono no aware, yugen, and wabi-sabi, but these are only modern research interpretations of Zen art aesthetics. By tracing the roots of Rinzai Zen Buddhism from China, free from the written word, this paper finds that Zen Buddhism has influenced Japanese culture in both thought and life and has fused the cultural practices of the Japanese townspeople's society over time. Therefore, the article analyzes the connection between the Japanese Zen aesthetics and the culture of the Machi-man (townspeople). At the same time, the paper also argues that the relationship between Zen art aesthetics and the townspeople spread worldwide with the spread of ukiyo-e as an art form. This relationship is visualized in the form of case studies, including but not limited to the use of ukiyo-e artworks to substantiate this relationship and the analysis of the works of Toulouse-Lautrec to decipher how this relationship between aesthetics and townspeople has been learned in foreign lands.

The Role Played by Zen “Kong” in Japanese Aesthetics

Japanese Zen Buddhism has led the way for Japanese aesthetics and has continued to bring this aesthetic to the public, most notably in the form of ukiyo-e. Zen Buddhism is a branch of Buddhism with the core principle of "no thought, no appearance, no dwelling," and "Katsu" as its practice from Linji School. As Zen became integrated into Japanese life, meditation was likewise manifested in social life, most notably in the Edo period. As a declining, last feudal period in Japanese history, the Edo Shogunate was flawed in terms of notification. The samurai class, which was attached to the Shogunate, was fundamentally lacking in subject matter, and the Tokugawa family gave them the idea of Bushido but not its inner pillar. Japanese merchants, who had no status, spent their money recklessly but gained confusion and emptiness. Bijinga-e, who specializes in painting Japanese geisha in Ukiyo-e, shows all the meanings of "Kong" through the composition, white space, and the form of people in the painting. Most impressionists in the nineteenth century expressed their emotions and imitated East Asian style artworks, and only "had the form but not the spirit." This paper thus concludes that the status of "Kong" in Japanese Zen aesthetics is like a butterfly in an invisible net, out of control and out of sight.

An Analysis of the Status of Japanese Zen Art Aesthetics in Ukiyo-e from Katsushika Hokusai to Van Gogh

Japanese Zen aesthetics extends empty aesthetics to non-literature and art, using painting as an art form to express the unique Japanese aesthetics and the embodiment of Japanese Zen aesthetics in the artist's life experience. By combining traditional Japanese aesthetics with Zen aesthetics, the creators of Ukiyo-e have a god-like perspective that allows them to see everything in the world. The integration of Japanese Zen culture with Chinese Zen, history, and art directly influenced the development of Japanese Ukiyo-e art. This influence, and even a deep monopoly, has influenced the work of two hundred and sixty years of Ukiyo-e artists, from content to effects. These even affected the western art field across the ocean; for example, Van Gogh was keen on such an expression with the concepts of "mono no aware", "wabi-sabi", and "yugen". Through the development history of Ukiyo-e and the specific analysis of Katsushika Hokusai's Ukiyo-e paintings and his influences on Van Gogh, this paper has a detailed understanding, that is to say, all signs indicate the inestimable role of Japanese Zen aesthetics. In Ukiyo-e, the art of the Japanese Zen aesthetic appears in front of the world, along the following path: half-awake self-discipline, as in China's Song dynasty, painting white space aesthetics, thinking of extremely pure appeal, and harmony between man and nature, man and man, and nature and nature.

Borges, Buddhism and World Literature: A Morphology of Renunciation Tales

Within the revival of World Literature Studies, the oeuvre of the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges has performed a variety of roles. In his seminal essay, “The Argentinian Writer and the Tradition,” Borges can be seen as a Latin American cornerstone in the defense of the periphery's equality to the center; in “The Translators of The 1001 Nights,” Borges acts as a precursor to the cultural turn in translation studies and to the notion that world literature is one that gains in translation; in a plethora of other works, Borges intertextualizes world literature, whether through his interpretation of Kafka's works, his essays on Dante's Commedia, or his interest in the Kabbalah.In her fascinating new study, Borges, Buddhism and World Literature: A Morphology of Renunciation Tales, Dominique Jullien, who is professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Santa Barbara, convincingly makes the case for yet another role that Borges is perfectly fit to play within World Literature Studies: that of continuator and further disseminator of the Buddhist Renunciation Tale as a morphological archetype in fictional literature. Jullien considers the aesthetic and political implications that the renunciation tale has on his work, first by reading Borges's own interest in the archetype against the background of the rise of Peron's left-wing populism in Argentina during the 1950s—the decade that Jullien sees as Borges's Buddhist decade—and then by proceeding to tease out the implications that the renunciation tale has on Borges's own philosophy of literature as seen in multiple examples of his vast oeuvre.Thus, Jullien's book reframes Borges as a significant node in the propagation and creation of a literary intertextuality that has its origin in the story of the historical/fictional Buddha—a story Borges detailed in the cowritten book What Is Buddhism? (1976). Jullien argues that the renunciation archetype extends down history and is present in the renunciation parables found in the work of modern and contemporary authors from around the globe.The book's introduction provides one of the most concise and yet rigorous compilations of past scholarship on Borges's relationship with Buddhism. As multiple scholars have argued, what for Borges started as an early interest in East Asian literature and philosophy developed during the 1950s into an ultimately lifelong fascination with Buddhism and Zen aesthetics that became increasingly prominent in his texts written during the 1970s and 1980s. Jullien's objective in the chapter is not to trace the origins, acuity, or fidelity of Borges's knowledge regarding Buddhism and its many schools. Rather, as is the point of the whole book, the goal is to shed light on the “ways in which the Buddha triangle, pulling together Buddhism, Schopenhauer, and Idealism in a shared negation of the individual self, yielded a serviceable pattern to decades of Borgesian stories, poems, and essays” (xviii).Chapter 1 traces Borges's essays on Buddhism and their relationship to Borges's cosmopolitan ideal. The end goal is the outlining of a “Borgesian Weltliteratur” that Jullien relates to Goethe's idea of world literature as a morphological phenomenon and to Vladimir Propp's notion of folktale morphology. A Buddhist tale of a king who renounces his kingdom in order to live as a hermit reappears in different literary iterations around the world, a fact which, Jullien argues, dovetails with Borges's own “view of literature as transmigration and circulation of fables and metaphors across time and space” (20).Chapter 2 focuses on the morphology of the renunciation tale in its political dimension. Jullien contextualizes the possible didactic and prescriptive readings that such a philological unit can possess. After an exploration of the historical background out of which such stories emerged, Jullien explores how the tensions between the worldly-political and the ascetic-spiritual dyads contained within this archetype emerge in what she terms the Borgesian hypertext, that is, the ever-reemerging texts of world literature to which Borges frequently alludes to in his writing. These encompass works that range from his beloved 1001 Nights to Oscar Wilde's “The Happy Prince.

Jazz, zen, event as bordering phenomena modern culture

The purpose of the article is a culturological and philosophical understanding of the borderline phenomena of modern culture that arise on the border of different traditions, life strategies, cultural and artistic spheres. The relevance of the study is associated with the methodological and existential need to comprehend some phenomena on the border in the conditions of postmodern culture (intercultural inter-borrowing, ideological crisis, methodological pluralism, consumer society, ethical and aesthetic disorientation, scientism and non-scientific practice of knowledge and experience, etc.), which can be extrapolated to other similar trends, and practically-existential significance associated with the real need to search for and create a compromise and creative platform for the "dialogue of cultures", cultivating and feeling the unity of man and the world, man and man, implementing balanced and holistic strategies of life in society and an individual. The nature of jazz as a cultural phenomenon, which embodies the freedom of musical thinking, spontaneous improvisation, imaginative dynamics, a special receptive environment and an atmosphere of openness, changeability, acceptance, capable of generating new (other) musical and cultural phenomena, is analyzed. The features of Zen as a spiritual and aesthetic practice in the West, the reasons for its spread and the specifics of the sympathetic audience are revealed. It was found that Zen Buddhism became a worldview platform for a significant jazz and subcultural environment, especially in the 60s of the XX century - the era of great objection and great refusal, the search for spiritual self-identity, the true sources of human transcendence, personal creative self-realization and ethical self-improvement. Passion for Zen, its meditative simplicity and routine of life has become a saving strategy for many representatives of creative and protest youth movements, an alternative spiritual resource for the intellectual elite of the West. It has been determined that these processes and phenomena have a specific borderline nature, which makes it possible, on the one hand, to organically and dynamically combine different characteristics and functions, on the other, to form new perspectives in the cultural environment. The simulative and technological nature of modern event industries and creative management in the context of new media, social networks, advertising business is outlined. An integrated approach in modern event technologies is presented: Tao-and-Zen-presentations based on restrained minimalist Zen aesthetics and Taoist principles of perception of life and the world. The openness, sincerity, and originality of these event actions are a potential prospect for the newest cultural industries and event management.

선종 문예 심미와 인성 교육에 관한 소고

The exponential progress of modern technology benefits our contemporaries on economic prosperity and, at the same time, throws questions regarding true human nature and its recovery. In order to answer those questions, this paper examined Zen Aesthetic Non-Duality in Korean and Chinese Zen Poetry to review its implications for Moral Education. The study explored underlying relations between Zen Aesthetics and Moral Education and analyzed Zen Aesthetic Non-Duality in three aspects : Material/Spiritual, Human/Nature, and Individual/Society. Based on the analysis, the study further reviewed value and meaning of Zen Aesthetic Non-Duality in respect of educational materials for Aesthetic and Moral Education. This paper examined Zen Aesthetic Non-Duality and anticipates Non-Duality Aesthetic would be used as educational material and help younger generation to achieve harmony with nature and all-beings in the world, while having healthy mind and relaxed and contemplative view on life.

Zen and the Art of Living Mindfully: The Health-Enhancing Potential of Zen Aesthetics

Amidst the burgeoning enthusiasm for mindfulness in the West, there is a concern that the largely secular 'de-contextualized' way in which it is being harnessed is denuding it of its potential to improve health and well-being. As such, efforts are underway to 're-contextualize' mindfulness, explicitly drawing on the wider framework of Buddhist ideas and practices in which it was initially developed. This paper aims to contribute to this, doing so by focusing on Zen Buddhism, and in particular on Zen aesthetic principles. The article concentrates on the seven principles identified by Hisamatsu (1971) in his classic text Zen and the Fine Arts: kanso (simplicity); fukinsei (asymmetry); koko (austere sublimity); shizen (naturalness); daisuzoku (freedom from routine); sei-jaku (tranquillity); and yūgen (profound grace). The presence of these principles in works of art is seen as reflecting and communicating insights that are central to Buddhism, such as non-attachment. Moreover, these principles do not only apply to the creation and appreciation of art, but have clear applications for treating health-related issues, and improving quality of life more generally. This paper makes the case that embodying these principles in their lives can help people enhance their psychosomatic well-being, and come to a truer understanding of the essence of mindful living.

Renga: A European Poem and its Japanese Model

Abstract Renga (1971) is a book-length chain of linked poems written in four European languages by four leading twentieth-century poets: Octavio Paz, Edoardo Sanguineti, Charles Tomlinson, and Jacques Roubaud. Because this pioneering multiauthored, multilingual, and multicultural work is based on the medieval Japanese poetic genre of “linked verse” (renga), the question arises: what is the exact nature of the relation between the modern Western poem and its Japanese model? This article argues that, far from being a merely superficial imitation of certain formal elements of the Japanese poetic practice of group composition, Renga is remarkably faithful to the spirit of the original genre, especially its underlying Zen aesthetics, philosophy, and psychology of muga (no-self). At the same time, the poem's embodiment of a “negative poetic self” does not alienate it from its own Western tradition. On the contrary, in this respect it also faithfully reflects both the Zeitgeist of the postwar period when it was written and, more generally, the post-Romantic, modernist concept of the poetic self. Much of the credit for this remarkable achievement and for the continuing seminal influence of this unique work is due to the profound cross-cultural insight of the project's leading poet, Paz.

The art of second wave positive psychology: Harnessing Zen aesthetics to explore the dialectics of flourishing

In recent years, a “second wave” of positive psychology has been emerging, characterised, above all, by an awareness and appreciation of the dialectical nature of flourishing. This paper offers a philosophical foundation for this second wave, based on Eastern philosophy, and, in particular, Zen aesthetics. Part one introduces Zen, including its key philosophical ideas and practices, as well as two antecedent traditions that helped to form it, namely, Buddhism and Taoism. Part two then elucidates three aesthetic principles that are integral to Zen: mono no aware (pathos of life), wabi-sabi (desolate beauty), and yūgen (profound grace). The paper discusses how these principles could be of value to positive psychology in fostering dialectical understanding and appreciation, thus highlighting future directions for the field.

Looking at Art Teaching Through Zen Aesthetics

Research Article| July 01 2014 Looking at Art Teaching Through Zen Aesthetics Sheng Kuan Chung Sheng Kuan Chung Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Visual Arts Research (2014) 40 (1): 14–16. https://doi.org/10.5406/visuartsrese.40.1.0014 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Sheng Kuan Chung; Looking at Art Teaching Through Zen Aesthetics. Visual Arts Research 1 January 2014; 40 (1): 14–16. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/visuartsrese.40.1.0014 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressVisual Arts Research Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2014 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois2014 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

현대패션에 나타난 빈곤미의 조형적 특성에 관한 연구

Modern fashion industry creates complex and multiple fashion by amalgamating and mixing all elements that emerged in fashion without limiting them to a specific genre. The results of study are as follows: First, with regard to the conceptual differences among poor look, anti-fashion, and resistance fashion and the background. second, As aesthetic categories of poor beauty, its image with the feeling of poorness, beggar-likeness, worthlessness, poorness, and uncleanness is divided into the beauty of moderation, deconstruction, unfinished beauty, natural beauty, and ostentatious poor beauty based on the formative characteristics and poor look. Third, Oriental and Western poor images are comparatively analyzed. The poor beauty found in Oriental fashion, which is based on Zen aesthetics, seeks loneliness, poorness, and simplicity as an empty origin and features internal meaning that expresses the purity of poor beauty itself and external form that is visualized through no decoration, no color, and asymmetry in material and composition. The poor beauty in the West features non-form of no shape, asymmetry and disharmony and the characteristic in its contents is "distortion", and the characteristic in its expression features external form of "incorrectness" and internal meaning implying modem humans' frustration, resistance to materialism, and skepticism about mechanicalism.

Modernity in East-West literary criticism: new readings

This collection of eleven essays concerns the movement of modernity in East-West literary criicism. Most of the contributions address particular cross-cultural relationships such as W.B. Yeat's interest in the 'noh' play, Ezra Pound's imagism, and the influence of Zen aesthetics on Western poetry. The Western writers discussed range from Americans, including Emerson, Thoreau, Faulkner, Wright, and Snyder, to Europeans, such as Marcel Proust. The Eastern writers include Basho, Tanizaki, Lao Tzu, Wan Wei, Tagore, and Yone Noguchi.

Zen Aesthetics

Zen Aesthetics

An Artless Art: The Zen Aesthetics of Shiga Naoya

An Artless Art: The Zen Aesthetics of Shiga Naoya

Gerald Vizenor: Writing in the Oral Tradition

Gerald Vizenor, the most prolific Native American writer of this century, has produced more than twenty-five books in genres as varied as fiction, journalism, haiku, and literary theory. The first book-length study devoted to this important author, Gerald Vizenor: Writing in the Oral Tradition lays the groundwork essential for understanding his complex work. Kimberly M. Blaeser begins with an examination of Vizenor's concept of Native American oral culture and his unique incorporation of oral tradition in the written word. She then explicates Vizenor's method of linking the traditional oral aesthetic with reader-response theories and details Vizenor's efforts to produce a form of writing that resists static meaning, involves the writer in the creation of the literary moment, and invites political action. She also explores the place of Vizenor's work within the larger contexts of contemporary tribal literature, Native American scholarship, and critical theory. Individual chapters examine Vizenor's renditions of the Native American trickster figure in his fiction; analyze his employment of a network of critical, social, and literary subtexts within the larger text; and explain the sometimes difficult Vizenorese, a complex of terms that characterize people and ideas. Blaeser offers explanations of the origins, meanings, and dialogic purposes of a variety of terms, such as manifest manners, dead voices, word cinemas, terminal creeds, and socioacupuncture. Blaeser's is the first study to reveal the full importance of haiku in Vizenor's work. His poetry, which draws equally from Zen aesthetics and Ojibway dream songs, contains concise, economical descriptions, made up equally of absence and presence-a style characterictic of Vizenor's writing in other genres as well. Based upon scholarship, close reading, and interviews with Vizenor himself, and written by a Native scholar of Vizenor's own tribe, this book explicates Vizenor's ideas, methods, and forms, making even his most sophisticated arguments accessible to the general reader.