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The body concept intelligentsia of the Wei-Jin Dynasty

Through the triple changes which include the variation in society, time and space, the intelligentsia in Wei and Jin Dynasties came to a realization that life is capricious. They combined the thought of Tze-Shi (carefree and footloose) and Gui-wuo (emphasize the unique value of oneself) together with the tolerance of physical desire and worship of nature to develop two theories: Zhong-shen (consider body as the foundation of all) and Le Sheng (carpe diem/seize the day), which remain the keynote of the viewpoint towards body in Wei and Jin Dynasties.
Wei and Jin Dynasties followed the theory of Chi-transformation in Han Dynasty, as well as the idea that form and spirit are one, and develop a complete viewpoint towards body which interprets body and mind as one unity. The Chi flows in the body and becomes the medium of body and mind, then goes outward to the relation between body and nature; human body itself forms a complete micro system, which, through the flow of emotion and Chi, echoes or responds with the macro system of nature.
The intelligentsia in Wei and Jin Dynasties considered etiquette and music as the embodiment of nature and human body as the territory where culture and nature are embodied. Kuo-Shian interpreted the relation between body, etiquette and music with the theory of Shi-Jai-Ti-Chung (ease and comfort within the body). Etiquette and music was made in a situation in which ¡§ease and comfort¡¨ are in harmony with body and also communicate with the heaven, earth and man in a way that ¡§ease and comfort¡¨ harmonize with the nature, and brings heaven, earth and man in concordance. When etiquette fails to bring ¡§ease and comfort¡¨ to the body, the intelligentsia used body as a tool to fight against the rigid etiquette, in order to arouse introspection over Li-Yuan-Zen-Ching (etiquette should be made with human beings as the first consideration, and eschews rigidity or affectation), and at the meantime brings reformation and feedback to the society. The intelligentsia¡¦s rising consciousness of selfhood and body makes the relation between body and society an active instead of a passive one.
The intelligentsia, while perceiving the change of society and understanding the fact that human nature is unalterable, were contented to remain the status as Chung-Zen (mediocrity, people who are between genius and fools), and pursuit the fulfillment of their dreams as well as the feeling of carefree. Those intelligentsia emphasized the value of themselves and preferred to be themselves while understanding completely the truth and limitation of life, and they responded changes of the society and time with the idea of Shi-Shin-An-Min (follow and accept your own nature, be contented).

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0814106-225344
Date14 August 2006
CreatorsWang, Hsiu-Lin
Contributorsnone, none, Chien¡ÐChun Chiang, none, none
PublisherNSYSU
Source SetsNSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive
LanguageCholon
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0814106-225344
Rightsunrestricted, Copyright information available at source archive

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