Between Vocality and Textuality: The Concept of Qi 氣 in Chinese Literary Criticism

Abstract This article revisits the meaning of qi 氣 in classical Chinese literary theory by focusing on the historical process of its application to written texts. When it first appeared in the literary criticism of the Han and Wei dynasties, the term qi was applied to vocal forms such as eloquent speech and oral recitation. From the Southern and Northern dynasties to the Tang and Song periods, as Chinese literature transitioned from oral tradition to written form, the two originally unified kinds of qi, the qi of speech (ciqi 辭氣, produced through vocal activities) and bodily qi (airflow in respiration), began to separate. Bodily qi was further associated with literary creation to refer to the physiological and spiritual forces that drive writing. With the rise of examination-based education, the connotation of textual qi as a critical term expanded to include aspects of formalist criticism, such as diction, syntax, and rhetoric, and consequently evolved into a metaphorical concept in formalist criticism that compared the flow of energy within the human body to the coherence and emotional expression of a text. Ming and Qing scholars inherited Tang and Song traditions of using qi to inject vitality and further explored qi's significance on the level of words and sentences. The Tongcheng school in the Qing dynasty highlighted recitation, thereby reintroducing the phonological aspect of the concept.