L’Inachevé et le devenir : L’esthétique du temps chez François Cheng

1 Cet article s’inscrit dans un projet de recherche : “Étude sur l’interprétation interculturelle de l’esthétique chinoise classique selon François Cheng’ (2021EWY003) soutenu par Shanghai Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science.

Abstract

François Cheng studied the issue of time in Chinese painting with a particular interest in the notions of the unfinished and becoming. The two notions are understood as the essence of Chinese artists’ distinctive conception of time and influence later Cheng’s literary works. Through combining classical Chinese painting theories with his novel, this article investigates the notions of the unfinished and becoming embodied in Cheng’s Le Dit de Tianyi, and the Taoist aesthetics in his conception of space-time. In the first part, I examine the notion of the unfinished which is reflected in Tianyi’s fresco of Yumei, and which allows the fresco to develop and to participate in the rhythm of the universe. In the second part, I discover that the boundaries between past, present, and future are conflated in the novel, like a scroll which contains at the same time the déjà-vu and the unknown. Finally, I discuss the notion of becoming by analyzing Tianyi’s comments on Proust’s lost and regained time, and I argue that his life experience also contributes to the forming and establishment of his time cycle which is both recognized and unexpected.

Keywords:

• François Cheng
• Le Dit de Tianyi
• unfinished
• becoming
• space-time
• Taoist aesthetics

Notes

1 Cet article s’inscrit dans un projet de recherche : “Étude sur l’interprétation interculturelle de l’esthétique chinoise classique selon François Cheng’ (2021EWY003) soutenu par Shanghai Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jing Chen

Jing Chen has a Ph.D. from Shanghai International Studies University and Sorbonne University. She is now a lecturer of French language and literature at Shanghai University. Her research areas include francophone literature and comparative literature. She is currently interested in the relationship between French writers and Chinese arts, her recent work focuses on François Cheng: Sonorité et couleur: l’infime et la nuance chez François Cheng.

Dominique Millet-Gérard is a Professor of Comparative literature at Sorbonne-Université. She is the author of Études d’esthétique théologique et comparée sur la littérature européenne (2020), Le Verbe et la Voix. Vingt-cinq études en hommage à Paul Claudel (2018), Le Tigre et le Chat gris. Vingt études sur Léon Bloy et Joris-Karl Huysmans (2017). Dominique Millet-Gérard is also the editor of La Cathédrale (2017) and Correspondance Paul Claudel – Louis Massignon (1908-1953) (2012).