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Access Type
Open Access
Document Type
thesis
Degree Program
Chinese
Degree Type
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Year Degree Awarded
2012
Month Degree Awarded
May
Keywords
Du Fu, Aesthetics, Classical Chinese Poetry, Painting
Abstract
Du Fu is one of China's most celebrated and influential poets. His poems about paintings are a highly innovative subset of poems rich with imagery and emotion. Received ideas about these poems fail to account for any role played in them by Du's aesthetic ideas. This study analyses Du's poems about paintings in order to bring to light Du's theory of art. Du's theory of art combines ancient Chinese ideas about aesthetics, literature and the nature of humanity's relationship to the universe. These traditional ideas serve as the foundation for a unique theory. Du's theory of art posits the painter as a higher being whose paintings have magical qualities as a result of his mastery of the craft of painting and the richness of his inner world.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/2761285
First Advisor
David K. Schneider
Second Advisor
Amanda C. Seaman