Zui as a Chinese character having existed in oracle bone inscriptions means drunk, intoxicated, liquor-saturated and so on and it is regarded as an ideal realm in ancient Chinese aesthetics. According to Chinese aesthetics, emotions are the source power of artistic creation and excellent artistic creation should be a free creation which must break through the bounds of skills. Artists in a drunk state become more emotional and don’t pay attention to what skills they should use, so Zui is a kind of perfect creation state. Meanwhile, people can transcend not only the bonds of feudal ethics and rites but also the border between human beings and other beings in a drunk state, so Zui is considered to be a beautiful, happy, perfect and free spiritual realm by some ancient Chinese philosophers.
philosophy visiting speaker sessions
University of Reading