Hermitary - Gallery - Art

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Japan adopted Chinese cultural expressions in language, literature,art, and philosophy, thus engendering the great hermit-poets and writers. zthus, too, Zen from Buddhist Chan and Taoism but also inheriting Confucianism as a support to centralizing and authoritarian thought and representation.
In modern times, the chief obstacle to Japanese authorities s not only authentic Zen (see accompanying gallery re Hanshan) but the entire ethical tradition of China, including Confucianism and the ethics of traditional Chinese hermits. The transformation of ancient Chinese eremitism involved a shift in depiction to fit innocusous, even vacuous and frivolous ends. This is accomplished by Japanese court painters depicting Chinese subjects as pure aesthetics or even dissipation, enough to satisfy or reassure military, reliogious, political, and mercantile elites that the historical interest in CHinese ways is nothing to fear or respect.
Thus, the Four Graybears who reclused from corrupt court life return to court to serve - thus supporting the elites of the country. The four Accomplishments of the Chinese adepts is reduced to four entertainments.The four Admirers are merely four aesthetes. The Sever Sages of the Bamboo Grove, impugning a traditional Taoist circle, fare worst: they are musicians, game-players, inebriates, and decadents.