Who Were the Literati - Essay Example

The literati were learned scholars in Imperial China, who occupied official posts in the government after they had taken and passed the civil service examination. These examinations were comprised of a battery of tests that were administered at the various local levels, and successful examinees were tightly limited in number. It was not unusual for a student to take the examination several times before earning his degree. The examination included Chinese literature and philosophy. Passing the examination, however, did not guarantee a government position, but it made attaining one considerably easier. Those who finally do attain a post are called the mandarins.

Literati scholars were schooled in a particular form of Confucianism known as the School of Literati. There are four arts of the Chinese scholar: qin, qi, shu (calligraphy), and Hua (painting). Qin, or more precisely guqin, is the literati’s musical instrument meaning old (gu) musical instrument (qin). It is a seven-stringed zither that is plucked to produce sound. Invented some 3,000 years ago, the quaint maintains its relevance into the space age; when the unmanned spacecraft Voyager was launched in 1977, it contained a recording of a guqin piece.
The second art, qi, is a chess-like board game now called weiqi (‘surrounding game’) in Chinese, and go in Japan and in the Western countries. Various speculations exist regarding the origins of the game; one is that it is a fortune-telling tool employed by ancient Chinese astronomers who discern the influence exerted by the universe on an individual. In this game, black and white stones are placed on a 19 by 19 line grid. The stones are placed on the intersections of the lines; when a stone is surrounded on all four sides by an opposing color, then the stone is captured and removed from play; the game ends when there are no more possible moves.
The third art is shu (Chinese calligraphy). This is the source of all calligraphic traditions in East Asia, including Japan, Korea and Vietnam. These are distinctive because they emphasize motion and “sheer life experience,” with “time and rhythm in shifting space” (Stanley-Baker, 2010).
The fourth art of the literati is Hua (Chinese painting). Literati paintings were prized above all academic paintings by educated people because of the painting’s goal of revealing the inner character of the painter and how he depicts sensitivity towards the conditions of human life.
The video chosen is centered on the design and creation of Beijing opera masks. The topic is of great interest because this is one of the time-honored traditions which may soon be lost to obscurity. Mask-making begins with the casting of the overall shape of the mask; the facial form is impressed in clay from the basic mold, a plaster cast is made, and after hardening, the mask base is painted over with intricate and stylized designs depicting specific heroes and characters in Chinese theater. The painting stage is the most difficult. As with face painting, masks are employed to initially emphasize faces that may not readily be visible to audiences sitting farther out. The expression on the mask must immediately convey to the audience the character being played, and colors have a distinctive symbolism. Blue symbolizes courage and resolve; red symbolizes loyalty, utter devotion, and righteousness; purple symbolizes wisdom, justice, and resourcefulness; black represents loyalty and uprightness; yellow stands for cruelty and ferocity, and green is for chivalry. Gold and silver symbolize the gods, Buddha, ghosts, and monsters.
Opera itself is an art that is slowly being forgotten wherever it existed around the world. This is the lamentable fact that while other forms of art endure throughout the centuries, the performing arts, such as dance, stage plays, and opera, are perishable because in their pure forms they exist only for the duration that they are executed. However, tangible remnants associated with them – such as costumes, masks, and recordings – stand testament to their actual beauty and glory. Read More