On Ji Kang's "Aestheticist" Aesthetic Thought

Abstract

Ji Kang (223-262 A.D.) was a noted thinker, man of letters, and musician of the period of the Three Kingdoms and of the state of Cao-Wei. His thought possessed very salient characteristics of the spirit of those times. Since the decline of the Han dynasty, owing to the turmoil of the society and internal developments within Chinese thought, the classical scholarship [jing xue] of the earlier and latter Han dynasties had gradually but steadily begun to lose its role and ability to maintain orthodox dominance over thought. In the period after the Eastern Han, some keen-thinking people started afresh and began to explore once again and reevaluate the real value and meaning of humanity (or being a human being) and that of the world as a whole. This kind of exploration led to an intellectual return to the world itself (including a return to humanity in itself), or, a return to "nature." One might say that the exaltation of "nature" was the spirit of the age for the Wei-Jin period—its zeitgeist, if you will. On...