Neo-Confucianism

Examples of Neo-Confucianism in the following topics:

• The Song Dynasty

  • The Song Dynasty was highly influenced by Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism, which were reflected in their art.
  • Buddhism also had a profound influence upon the budding movement of Neo-Confucianism, led by Cheng Yi (1033–1107) and Zhu Xi (1130–1200).
  • Neo-Confucianism was an attempt to create a more rationalist and secular form of Confucianism by rejecting superstitious and mystical elements of Taoism and Buddhism that had influenced Confucianism during and after the Han Dynasty.
  • Although his contemporary peers did not accept his writings, Zhu's commentary and emphasis upon the Confucian classics of the Four Books as an introductory corpus to Confucian learning formed the basis of the Neo-Confucian doctrine.
  • Discuss the significance of Neo-Confucianism and literature on the art of the Song dynasty.

• Religion Under the Tang Dynasty

  • In an age before Neo-Confucianism and figures such as Zhu Xi (1130–1200), Buddhism began to flourish in China during the Northern and Southern dynasties, and became the dominant ideology during the prosperous Tang.
  • This situation also came about through a revival of interest in native Chinese philosophies, such as Confucianism and Taoism.
  • Although his contemporaries found him crude and obnoxious, he foreshadowed the later persecution of Buddhism in the Tang, as well as the revival of Confucian theory with the rise of Neo-Confucianism of the Song dynasty.

• Rise of the Ming Dynasty

  • Widely seen as a defender of Confucianism and neo-Confucianism among the predominant Han Chinese population in China, Zhu emerged as a leader of the rebels that were struggling to overthrow the Yuan dynasty.
  • Also included was the distribution of Neo-Confucian ritual manuals and a new civil service examination system for recruitment into the bureaucracy.

• Painting under the Song Dynasty

  • The emphasis laid upon landscape painting in the Song period was grounded in Chinese philosophy: Taoism stressed that humans were but tiny specks among vast and greater cosmos, while Neo-Confucianist writers often pursued the discovery of patterns and principles that they believed caused all social and natural phenomena.
  • This change in attitude from one era to the next stemmed largely from the rising influence of Neo-Confucian philosophy.
  • Adherents to Neo-Confucianism focused on reforming society from the bottom up, not the top down, which can be seen in their efforts to promote small private academies during the Southern Song instead of the large state-controlled academies seen in the Northern Song era.

• Ceramics under the Song Dynasty

  • Trends in illustration styles among the gentry notably shifted from the Northern (960–1127) to Southern Song (1127–1279) periods, influenced in part by the gradual embrace of the Neo-Confucian political ideology at court.

• Chinese Philosophy

  • Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism, and Mohism all began during the Zhou Dynasty in the 6th century BCE, and had very strong influences on Chinese civilization.
  • Being a good and virtuous human in every ordinary situation was the goal of Confucianism.
  • Confucianism remained prevalent in China from the Han Dynasty in 202 BCE to the end of dynastic rule in 1911.
  • It was reformulated during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) as Neo-Confucianism, and became the basis of imperial exams.
  • This opposed the ideas of Confucianism, which said that love should be greater for close relationships.

• Origins of the Song Dynasty

  • Philosophers such as Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi reinvigorated Confucianism with new commentary infused with Buddhist ideals, and emphasized a new organization of classic texts that brought out the core doctrine of Neo-Confucianism.

• Culture Under the Song Dynasty

  • Although women were on a lower social tier than men (according to Confucian ethics), they enjoyed many social and legal privileges and wielded considerable power at home and in their own small businesses.
  • Song intellectuals sought answers to all philosophical and political questions in the Confucian Classics.
  • This renewed interest in the Confucian ideals and society of ancient times coincided with the decline of Buddhism, which was then largely regarded as foreign, and as offering few solutions for practical problems.
  • However, Buddhism in this period continued as a cultural underlay to the more accepted Confucianism and even Taoism, both seen as native and pure by conservative Neo-Confucians.
  • The emphasis laid upon landscape painting in the Song period was grounded in Chinese philosophy; Taoism stressed that humans were but tiny specks amongst vast and greater cosmos, while Neo-Confucianist writers often pursued the discovery of patterns and principles that they believed caused all social and natural phenomena.

• Neo-Expressionism

  • Neo-Expressionists sought to portray recognizable subjects in rough and violently emotional ways using vivid colors and color schemes.
  • Neo-Expressionism is a style of modern painting and sculpture that emerged in the late 1970s and dominated the art market until the mid-1980s.
  • Baselitz's style is interpreted as Neo-Expressionist, but from a European perspective it is seen as postmodern.
  • Elizabeth Murray is an example of a Neo-Expressionist painter who was marginalized in the movement due to her gender.
  • Critique the controversies around Neo-Expressionism related to marketability, celebrity, feminism, and intellectualism.

• Modern Korean Art

  • Modern Korean art is influenced by its historical roots (including early Korean shamanist art, Korean Buddhist art, and Korean Confucian art) and its recent tumultuous history, as well as various forms of Western art in the 20th century.
  • This is particularly seen in the patriotic films that dominated the culture from 1949 to 1994, as well as the reawakened architecture, calligraphy, fabric work, and neo-traditional painting from 1994 to today.