Key Concepts in Chinese Thought and Culture

Moral Fulfillment Is Beauty Itself.

Moral fulfillment of one’s mind and heart means beauty in character. This term comes from the book Mencius. Mencius’ (372?-289 BC) understanding of beauty relates closely to Confucian morality. To his mind, beauty is one of the qualities on the rating scale for personality, which ranges from those of virtue, honorableness, beauty, magnanimity, sa…

Words Can Fully Express Thought.

Words can fully express the fundamental understanding of the universe. The relationship between language and thought was a prominent topic of debate in the Wei and Jin dynasties. Ouyang Jian (?-300) did not accept the view of Xun Can (209?-238) and Wang Bi (226-249), who alleged that “words cannot fully express thought.” Instead, he put forward…

Writing Ci Poems as Prose

This concept refers to writing ci poems in the same way as writing prose. This is manifest in the inclusion of arguments, narratives, allusions, and ancient syntax in ci poems, which deviates from the ci poems style of focusing on one’s emotions and mood and rhythmic harmony. Many of Su Shi’s (1037-1101) ci poems include titles and prefaces that h…

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: The purposes of the Project are to select the concepts in Chinese culture and thought that reflect the characteristics of the country's traditional culture and the Chinese people's way of thinking, and that embody the core values of China.
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