Pustka jako kategoria estetyczna. W kręgu tuszowego malarstwa buddyzmu chan

EMPTINESS AS AN AESTHETIC CATEGORY. IN THE SPHERE OF THE BUDDHIST CHAN INK PAINTINGThe author of the article outlines a new interpretation of the Chinese monochromatic painting which had gained considerable fame and almost religious significance, within the sphere of meditative Buddhism of the Chan school. This type of painting was associated in the Chan school with the practical method leading to the attainment of enlightenment and a liberation from the Spinning Wheel of Incarnations. In the above interpretation, the author tries to justify the hypothesis which holds forth that the new techniques introduced into Mahayana Buddhism by the masters of Chan, among which one finds landscape ink painting, should be researched and understood in the context of aesthetic conceptions which originated in the ontologically interpreted Taoist philosophy. Such concepts as: wang (oblivion), wu (non-existence), kong (emptiness), xu (wilderness), xiaoyao you (carefree wanderings), in combination with the ancient, pragmatic theory of names and “signs without an echo”, allow one to interpret correctly the so called science of “direct instruction”, which this painting was to become for the students of the Chan theories