caa a22 4500 388109726 CHVBK 20180307125350.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130s1999 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0307883300020800 doi S0307883300020800 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0307883300020800 Li Ruru Ruru Li is Senior Lecturer in the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Leeds. ‘False but True, Empty but Full, Few but Many'—The Dialectic Concepts in Traditional Chinese Performance Art and Painting [Elektronische Daten] [Ruru Li] In 1986, an international symposium on Chinese theatre was held in Beijing, and for the first time the process of aesthetics in the theatrical form was debated among scholars, critics and practitioners on an international scale. Among the discussion, the three dialectic concepts of ‘false but true, empty but full and few but many' were often referred to and applied. What are they and why are they so important that they are regarded as the guiding principles that make Chinese theatre different from its western counterparts? Mu Gong, a theatre historian from Jiangxi province, offers the following explanation: [On the Chinese stage] a horse whip, or an oar, is merely a piece of property if it is seen on its own. But when it is seen through the performers' acting combined with the story, it not only represents the form of ‘a horse' or ‘a boat' on the stage, but also transforms the flat stage into a three-dimensional mountain, battlefield or river. In addition, the character's action, feelings and desires are therefore underscored. ... If a real horse or a boat is used on the stage, the object itself is true, but the character and its circumstances will become false. Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1999 Theatre Research International Cambridge University Press 24/2(1999), 179-187 0307-8833 24:2<179 1999 24 TRI https://doi.org/10.1017/S0307883300020800 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0307883300020800 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Li Ruru Ruru Li is Senior Lecturer in the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Leeds NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Theatre Research International Cambridge University Press 24/2(1999), 179-187 0307-8833 24:2<179 1999 24 TRI CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge