Geste cosmologique et "phénoménologie" du réel. "Naturel", "spontanéité", "ainséité" ('ziran' 自然) dans la théorie de l'art chinois et chez Guo Xiang

Abstract

The Chinese word ziran 自然 can either refers to “nature”, this ontological realm which emerges and works regardless of human will and action, or to a certain kind of human action. The artist’s perfectly skilled gesture is the most excellent illustration of such action. Far from breaking its conceptual coherence, the fact for “ziran” to be used in aesthetics as well as in the discourses about nature highlight an organic link between those domains in Chinese thought. The present article aims at drawing the outlines of a philosophical reading of ziran. To do so, I explore the implications of ziran in Cai Yong 蔡邕 (133-192)’s aesthetics works and in Guo Xiang 郭象 († 312)’s thought.