We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 November 2010
We have seen Juan Chi in politics and in society. It is time now to look at him at home, to study his mystical tendencies, religious aspirations and his attitude towards Taoist immortality.
In the Chin shu 49, unfortunately the only source to record it, we read the following:
Juan Chi was an excellent performer on the zither. When he was satisfied [with what he had played] he would suddenly forget his physical being. Many of his contemporaries called him stupid, but his elder cousin, Juan Wen-yen, constantly admired him, thinking Juan Chi surpassed him. Thereafter all thought Juan Chi exceptional.
Although, in the original Chinese, the relation between Juan Chi's zither and his ‘forgetting his physical being’ is not made explicit, the relation between mystical rapture and zither (ch'in) playing is well attested, and, as we will see in a moment, Juan Chi himself has a semi-mystical view of music as something ‘beyond sound’. But, whether or not his ‘forgetting his physical being’ is the result of his music, it is highly significant. It can only be interpreted, in this context, as some kind of mystical experience, and the ‘stupidity’ Juan Chi was accused of may very well be some sort of docta ignorantia familiar to mystics from Lao-tzu 20 to Nicholas of Cusa.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
