47. Ibid., 141–165. Nylan challenges this interpretation of the “growth of individualism” during the Wei-Jin period and explains “individualistic expressions” as “masquerade” and “extremely conventionalized class markers for an elite steeped in Confucian values.” (“Confucian Piety and Individualism in Han China,” 23–27), objecting that: (1) many of the patterns of behavior (e.g., eccentricity, disengagement from social and political life, propensity to “go beyond the ritual”) associated with Wei-Jin “individualism” were already extant in the Han period; (2) anti-ritual posture itself quickly became a hallowed ritual; (3) the value of reputation (ming 名) turned into eccentricity and extraordinariness (yi 異); (4) the phenomenon was limited to part of the aristocracy. A progressive ritualization of Pure Conversation has been noted by scholars; moreover, the search for freedom from aristocratic moralists’ interference did not mean that privacy was considered a right to be institutionally protected (Munro, “Introduction,” 9). Nonetheless, these objections do not weaken the impression of a strong intellectual current aiming at the enhancement of the individual against social conventions.

48. Exemplary is the life of a non-radical scholar such as Chen Jiru 陳繼儒 and the way he presented himself: “Chen presented himself as a man of discriminating aesthetic sensibility: ‘Whenever I want to hide away a myriad of unusual volumes I first wrap them in incomparable covers, then scent them with rare incense. In a thatched hut with curtains made of reeds, paper windows, and earthen walls, I could spend the rest of my life singing, without a government position. When I said this to a guest, the guest laughed and said: ‘You truly are an exceptional man!’”(Chen Jiru, Taiping Qinghua 太平清話” [Clear words from a peaceful world] 2:9b. 38, quoted by Greenbaum, Chen Jiru, 150).

49. “知者樂水，仁者樂山,” Lunyu, Yong Ye 雍也, 23, Legge’s translation. Yuan Hongdao’s passage is also quoted in Zhang, “Mingdai Wenxue Ganwulun de Lishi Bianqian,” 157, and Qiu, “Pishi Wenhua,” 94.

50. The so-called theories of ganwu (感物, lit. emotional reaction to a certain thing) aesthetics explain the process of artistic creation in terms of aesthetic experience. They evolved during the Ming period through the following three stages: (1) at the very beginning, they were greatly influenced by the School of Principle; (2) by the middle period of the dynasty, the growing opposition to this school pushed for a return to antiquity (fugu 復古) and toward a more voluntary approach to reality; (3) by the late Ming, the influence of the School of Mind over these theories