Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.3, 2025

Qi and Artistic Originality

(Abstract)

Wang Huaiyi

Qi (extraordinary) is one of the crucial categories in traditional Chinese literary criticism. Usually, qi of artworks refers to creators’ unique composition, emotion and taste, or the artistic transcendence over routine life and concomitant distinct style. This may lead to a misconception that qi of artworks is equivalent to singularity or uniqueness, thus a form of aesthetic view centered on artists’ talent has taken shape. Qi actually is a terminology with a strong subjective nature. Regarding literary works, the presence of qi or not relies solely on the insights of creators and viewers. Since the Song and Yuan dynasties, conception of qi evolved to a proposal that artists should overcome the qiupheld mindset and abandon the pursuit for content and style featuring qi, yi (unusual), xian (adventurous) and guai (grotesque). Qi of artworks is bound to be artists’ complete reflection of realities embedded in nature and life through meticulous observation, immersive experience and heartfelt emotion. Daily routine is rather the ultimate source of qi of artworks, leading to the standard for art creation that qi should follow the common li (law). Specifically, li is a justification of qi while qi is a manifestation of li.