ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

This study reinterprets the paintings of Yun Shouping (惲壽平, 1633–1690), a leading literati painter of the late Ming and early Qing periods, through the Daoist philosophical framework of Dao (道), Qi (氣), and Transformation (化). It aims to demonstrate that Yun’s art is not merely a matter of natural depiction or technical refinement, but a philosophical practice in which mind-cultivation (心法), ontology, and formal aesthetics are organically integrated. While previous scholarship has frequently linked Yun’s oeuvre to Lao-Zhuang Daoism or Chan Buddhism, most studies have remained at the level of general conceptual associations and have not sufficiently explained how Yun’s mind-practice is transformed into an ontological experience, or how this experience is concretely expressed in his formal innovations such as molgol (沒骨) technique, the aesthetics of desolate coldness (荒寒美), and subtle lightness (幽淡美). This study first analyzes the Daoist practices of loss of ego (吾喪我), xinzhai (心齋), and zuowang (坐忘) in the Zhuangzi, demonstrating that they constitute a structure of “eliminating theconditioned mind (去成心).” By connecting this structure with Yun Shouping’s concept of clarifying the mind and contemplating Dao (澄懷觀道), the paper clarifies how his inner cultivation leads to wandering in primal transformation (與元化遊)—a state of resonance with the generative movement of Dao. Furthermore, Daoist ontology of qi-transformation (氣化)—in which all beings continually arise and perish through spontaneous transformation—is applied to Yun’s painting process to construct a threefold transformation model in which the artist, objects, and the painting itself all undergo changes within the same qi-dynamic field. Finally, through close readings of Yun’s representative works—Fusang (扶桑圖), Spring Grasses: Poetic Inspiration (春草詩意圖), and Landscape Album (山水冊)—the study demonstrates how the aesthetics of subtle lightness, desolate coldness, and skill-less skill (無技巧之技巧) arise as necessary outcomes of both mind-cultivation and the experience of primal transformation.By interpreting Yun’s paintings as “the process through which nature paints itself” (自然之自畫), this study argues that his art manifests the generative principles of Dao beyond personal emotion, technique, or representational intent. Yun Shouping’s oeuvre thereby emerges as a form of ontological painting, in which the rhythms of life and existence are directly revealed through the interplay of Dao, qi, and the purified mind.

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