Abstract

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Title:: Aesthetics of Chinese Characters：Focusing on Characters IndicatingSome Key Notions in Studies on Ci Poetry

Keywords:: aesthetics of Chinese characters; interdisciplinary study; studies on Chinese characters; literaryaesthetics; literary discourse; studies on ci poetry

Abstract:: Aesthetics of Chinese characters is an interdisciplinary endeavor to bridge the gap betweenaesthetics and studies on Chinese characters. The proposal of this concept is intended to break the boundariesbetween different disciplines and to restore the tradition of Chinese academic studies characterized by theintegration of literature，history and philosophy at a higher level. This interdisciplinary attempt tries to put theChinese characters into the perspective of aesthetics and the literary discourse into the perspective of Chinesephilology in general and the studies on Chinese characters in particular. The research consists of theoreticalconstruction and applications. The former mainly includes such aspects as the theoretical premise，contextualclarification，system of conceptual categories，logical source，and theoretical views；the latter includesgenealogical，graphological，and narratological studies on Chinese characters and the exploration of theemotions embodied in the Chinese characters and their effects on human senses. Such characters indicating thecore concepts in the studies on ci poetry as ya 雅，wan 婉，and yue 约 constitute good cases in point for theaesthetics of Chinese characters.