In a hierarchical organization of individual, the political shih’s definitional form is in the arrangement of political hierarchy with its internal working produce the gradient of power relation that individuals are subjected to. The propensity to be obeyed is power, and power inherent in position in a natural product of hierarchical political structure. As such, position can automatically explain the totally external nature of the determining factor in any situation (Jullien PT p. 41). The power of a position functions both autonomously and automatically independent from the qualities of the person using it (Julien PT p. 50). The key is to make them work spontaneously upon the configuration is such a way that the external power may shed its physical pressure (Jullien PT p. 56). Therefore, positional Shih is the determining factor in politics.
The concept of Shih is also applied in the analysis political communication. The strategic generation of shih in political rhetoric is studied by Isaacson and Chung; they developed a Ch’i-Shih interaction model to analyze political rhetoric. The Chi-Shih model parallel closely with Jullien’s analysis of shih in politics and in warfare—a potential energy in the configuration—but is applied entirely different reality—in the message and position in communication. Ch’i is defined as the maneuverable energy flow or perceived vitality in a person or message, which interacts with shih, strategic configuration of a potential and power of a circumstance (Issacson and Chung p. 5). Ch’i may create or enhance shih, and vice versa. In communication, one can boost the “message shih” by identifying with a value system or a favorable position to enhance the ch’i of the communicator or the message. Isaacson and Chung use their fourfold model of shih to analyzed political rhetoric strategies employed by George W. Bush and Albert A. Gore in the 2000 presidential election stalemate. They find that in communication, rhetoric can be used to manipulating external favorable shih to boost Ch’i, rhetorics can be used to taking advantage of one’s own favorable situation or shih to enhance Ch’i, rhetorics can be used to going against the unfavorable strong position or shih to spark Ch’i, or to creating favorable shih to boost Ch’i.
Isaacson and Chung’s application of the concept of shih to analyze political rhetoric parallels the concept of shih in Sun-tzu’s warfare and Jullien’s analysis of shih in politics—they demonstrate that applying the concept of shih’s to understand, to perceive, and to manage reality of a situation is both instrumental and decisive in achieving the desired effect.
PART II: Concept of Shih as applied in Chinese Aesthetics
Concept of Shih in Chinese Aesthetics
The concept of Shih also served as the basis for Chinese aesthetic theory. The idea of an energy both fundamental and universal and based on a binary principle, yin and yang, with seamless interaction between the terms, which according to Julien, give rise to the ultimate meaning of Shih used as an aesthetic term—the power to promote the continuity of dynamism, rendering it perceptible through that energy and the semiotic of arts (Jullien PT p. 131-132). In another words, Shih in the Chinese aesthetic is the form to the disposition of reality that actualizes the universal dynamism embedded in the potentiality of configuration (ibid p. 260, p. 75-76). As a result, Chinese art is conceived as a process of actualization with the goal to produce a configuration of the dynamism inherent in reality (ibid p. 75). The three jewels of Chinese aesthetics—calligraphy, painting, and poem—all strive to achieve this goal—full expression of the “unfathomable vitality of the invisible through actualization of a perceptible configuration (ibid p. 152).”
Concept of Shih in the Chinese art of Calligraphy
The concept of Shih is an important basis for the aesthetic theory of Calligraphy because calligraphy rest on the configuration of ideograms—if calligraphic art is conceived as a process of actualization with the goal to produce a configuration of the dynamism inherent in reality, then Chinese aesthetic calligraphy is prime example of this process.
Calligraphic shih is the force that runs through the form of the written character and animates it aesthetically—it gives dynamism and depth to the static form and exceed its concrete limitation by revealing the actualized static form (Jullien PT p. 76). In creating calligraphic shih, the cursive calligraphy is the key—it’s single continuous uninterrupted stroke with controlled but impulse-deployed surplus movement—from the beginning to the end in one breath—gives rise to the propensity of the impulse of energy that impart dynamism. As such, one sees not simply the static form of character, but a continuing transforming process of the stroke—one sees the force of form. Two calligraphy example (please see Appendix A) demonstrates how the cursive calligraphy’s continuous surplus movement achieve the flow and continuity of the dynamism—compare to the stable, discrete, discontinuous structure of regular writing.
Shih of calligraphy is the backbone of an ideogram—when the Shih is harmonious, the body will be balanced. Structural consistency and harmony of the elements is achieved because each character has one and the same calligraphic shih. A prime example of a harmonious shih achieving balance of heterogeneous body is a famous calligraphy work of Su Shi (蘇軾) or Su Dongpo (蘇東坡) of the Song dynasty (please see Appendix B). Su Dongpo’s calligraphy excelled in the achieving Shih. The calligraphy demonstrates Su’s mastery of the achieving Shih—and the actualization reality of dynamism in static form and maintaining structural consistency of the form with dynamism. Therefore, Shih is beyond a rhetorical ornamentation in calligraphy, it is actual process of producing a configuration of the dynamism inherent in reality.
Concept of Shih in the Chinese art of Painting
The concept of Shih is fundamental to how the Chinese vision the world; Shih is the naturalistic picture of action in the world (lecture). As such, the concept of Shih is the basis of aesthetic theory in painting because the reality of things only exist, and thus only manifest itself in its totality through the force of propensity that links its various elements as a whole (Julien PT p. 99)
Shih is the tension generated in the contest between surplus and deficiency that becomes the "force of the circumstances" (Young p. 5). The creation of tension is central to achieving shih in the Chinese aesthetics of landscape painting. The central element in the Chinese landscape painting—the mountain, by virtue of its configuration, offer the greatest possibility for tension creation (Julien PT p. 80). For example, in painting a mountain, a trail of cloud of mist confer the effect of measureless and blurring the lines impart greater distance—both impart shih on the mountain. The primacy of shih is given to contour lines or lifeline in a landscape, which creates the dynamic configuration that create the desired effect of shih. The lifeline also provide the general structure of the painting, it is called lifeline as it constitutes the framework indispensable for the form, it constituted both the skeleton of the landscape and the overall movement of the landscape (ibid p.98).
Sheng Maoye’s (1610-1640) Autumn Landscape, a permanent collection at the Johnson museum, is a prime example of the painter’s masterful use of principles of shih to achieve dynamism in Chinese landscape painting (Appendix C). In this ink and slightly colored painting, Sheng Maoye achieved Shih of the landscape is created through tension, contrast, and atmosphere. In the distance, the tension created by the correlation between the lines and the washes, the visible and the invisible, fullness and emptiness, endows the landscape with a power to suggest more than the merely visible and opens it up to the life of the spirits (Julien PT p. 98, p. 136-7, p.174). Sheng’s treatment of atmosphere—the enveloping mist gently obscures the distant mountains, and the muted autumnal colors—confer Shih on the mountain. In particular, Sheng’s rendering of the mountains, the tension in the contours line emanates the vital energy of the stones, the ‘lifeline’ of the landscapes. Most importantly, Sheng’s landscape set up contrast the opposite of emptiness and fullness to achieved great Shih. As a result, the overall movement of the painting constituted by the Shih of the landscape corresponds to the internal coherence of reality and produce its idiosyncratic logic of arrangement individual element that are connected in unity by Shih—the source of dynamism for perceiving the overall movement of the landscape. Sheng’s Autumn landscape fully demonstrates the principle of Shih that is central to aesthetic configuration of Chinese painting.
Concept of Shih in the Chinese art of Poems
In the domain of literary composition, the poetic shih is in the use of disposition to impart the maximum energy and dynamism to the flow of the text (Julien PT p. 129). Su Dongpo’s notable poems the First and Second Chibifu (赤壁賦 The Red Cliffs), which combined spontaneity, objectivity and vivid descriptions of natural phenomena, is a good example of use of poetic/literary Shih. Zheng (1999)’s literary analysis of the Red Cliff is be used to demonstrate how literary composition techniques of contrast and correlation produce the type of potentiality that stem as a literary effect from the particular form of the composition. In particular, several excerpts from The Red Cliffs demonstrate this. The tension created by the interaction that is taking place between landscape and individual is a method of creating Shih that is fully developed by Su in the Red Cliff. In this excerpt (please see Appendix D Line A and B), in response to the landscape, the emotions of rush and blitheness contrast the individual’s state of separation and loneliness in the world, where as the four sounds of emotion「怨、慕、泣、訴」is a sharp contrast to the vast and liberating depiction of the landscape—as a result, shih is fully developed (Zheng 1999). Configuration of long and short rhythms, as well as of verticality of the mountain, achieve dynamism is demonstrated in Line C. The use of contrast and correlation, and configuration of a couplet, renews vitality fueled by the interaction of polar opposites (Julien PT p. 140). Line D is an example of contrast and correlation create Shih of landscape is the couplet—the wind and water waves are contrast with their respective motions. Poetic shih is therefore the dispositional propensity born of that emotion, articulate meaning with dynamism, it is this shih that succeed at creating the literary effect in this inspiring work.
REFERENCE:
Frederick Isaacson and Jensen Chung, The Bush vs. Gore rhetoric after the 2000 electoral impasse: A Ch’i-Shih analysis, , San Francisco State University, Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education, Volume 4, Issue 2 (May 2004), University of Toronto Press, Article number: 47
John E. Young , An Assessment of Strategic Prevalence in Ancient China and Applications for Modern Entrepreneurial Strategy* Robert O. Anderson Schools of Management, University of New Mexico
Jullien, Francois (2004), The Propensity of Things: Toward a History of Efficacy in China, University of Hawaii Press (denoted PT)
Jullien, Francois (1995), A Treatise on Efficacy: Between Western and Chinese Thinking,Zone Books. (denoted TE)
Sawyer, D. Ralph (1993), The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China, including The Art of War, Westview Press (Chapter 5, Sun Tzu)
Zheng 鄭芳祥 (1999) “前後〈赤壁賦〉的修辭及其比較,” 傳統中國文學電子報 第二十四期: http://www.literature.idv.tw/news/n-24.htm#_ftn2
Appendix B Appendix C
Appendix A
《赤壁賦》與《寒食帖》——蘇東坡
Appendix D:
Excerpts from《赤壁賦》
Lines A:
「浩浩乎如馮虛御風，而不知其所止；飄飄乎如遺世獨立，羽化而登仙」
Line B:
「客有吹洞簫者，倚歌而和之，其聲嗚嗚然，如怨如慕，如泣如訴，餘音嫋嫋，不絕如縷。舞幽壑之潛較，泣孤舟之嫠婦」
Line C:
「出于東山之上，徘徊于斗、牛之間」
Line D:
「清風徐來，水波不興」
