Purity and Color: On Wang Guowei’s Theory of Jìngjiè 境界

Michael Dufresne will be giving a brown bag lunch talk for the Philosophy department. 

This lecture offers a theoretical analysis of the concept of jìngjiè 境界 (lit. “realm” or
“world”) as it appears in Remarks on Lyrics from the Human World (Rénjiān cíhuà 人間詞話), a
work of poetic criticism by the late Qing/early Republican scholar Wang Guowei 王國維
(1877–1927). Compared to his other theories, a fair amount of research has been done on Wang’s
concept of jìngjiè, especially in Chinese, but also in English. That said, my aim is not to reiterate
what has already been said, but to offer a novel understanding of this theory based on Wang’s
own writings, as well as those of the theorists who inspired him. Specifically, I argue that jìngjiè
should be understood as a concept in the lineage of Chinese poetics, which expands the theories
of traditional critics like Shao Yong, Yan Yu and Wang Shizhen by making space for subjectivity
to stand alongside objectivity (i.e., detachment and disinterest) as a legitimate poetic/aesthetic
value. Given Wang’s earlier interactions with Western aesthetics, jìngjiè can also be understood
as an attempt to reconcile the Kantian-Schopenhauerian emphasis on disinterested contemplation
with Nietzsche’s celebration of unbridled passion. Although Wang considers objectivity and
subjectivity to be equally valid as aesthetic values, he doubtlessly prioritizes the latter in his
Remark on Lyrics, allying it with the titular genre of traditional lyric poetry (cí 詞). In this
respect, jìngjiè may be said to add to add “color” (cǎi 彩) to poetic/aesthetic traditions otherwise
dominated by “purity” (qīng 清).

If you have any questions about this event, please contact the Program Assistant of the Philosophy department, Brandon Marsh at bmarsh@usfca.edu.