A Thematic Analysis of Guya in Chinese Connoisseurship Literature from the Ming Dynasty

This study examines the aesthetic terminology used in placing judgment in Chinese connoisseurship literature from the late Ming dynasty (1368–1644). This literary genre constitutes a collection of texts that served as guides for literati antiquarians, instructing them on how to consume material culture in a way fit for a true connoisseur. In providing instruction, the texts place judgment, both positive and negative, on certain objects and behaviours. While most of the judgment terms employed in the texts have clear, explicit meanings, other terms require further analysis to determine their implicit semantic values. In particular, this study focuses on the use of the erudite term guya 古雅 ([exhibiting] ancient elegance), which occurs 16 times across two late Ming texts: the Qing mi cang 清秘藏 (QMC; The Pure and Secret Collection) and the Zhangwu zhi 長物志 (ZWZ: Treatise on Superfluous Things). In introducing the Chinese connoisseurship genre and one of its predecessors from the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), the article explores the changing socioeconomic backdrop of the Ming dynasty onto which the texts were created. With dissolving societal boundaries between the roles of the literati and merchant classes, the texts served an order-making role, in terms of restoring both a schematic of aesthetic preference and the traditional social hierarchy. Subsequently, the article examines the ways in which judgment is passed onto objects and behaviours in the genre’s texts. Particular attention is paid to how approaches to judgment placing changed over time, echoing the growing need for distinction in the late Ming period. The study then examines the aesthetic term guya, considering historical contexts and implicit meanings that it accrued over time. To elucidate the implicit meaning of the term in the QMC and ZWZ, a thematic analysis is conducted. In the analysis, a reading of the passages results in a first phase of coding, whereby semantic associations are tabulated based upon the surrounding context of each of the term’s instances. The codes are then refined into essence-encompassing themes. Overall, the analysis yields four themes: restraint, craftsmanship, usefulness, and value. Further analysis is then provided of the two most prevalent themes (i.e., restraint and craftsmanship), considering both the socioeconomic context of the late Ming era and the guya aesthetic theory of the well-known scholar and poet Wang Guowei 王国维 (1877–1927).