Over the centuries, the criteria and concepts of beauty have been repeatedly questioned, and its definition has undergone continuous change. But has one also considered the prerequisite anchored in language, namely the ability to articulate beauty at all? As a focal point of our metaphysics, beauty teaches us to relinquish the diversity of the sensual in favor of the unity of an idea. Beauty astonishes and moves us by breaking into the visible as the Absolute; at the same time, it is the last path to redemption that remains for us after the death of the gods. Chinese thought, however, has never abstracted and isolated beauty. In highlighting this difference, François Jullien seeks to uncover possibilities that do not submit to the monopoly of beauty; contemporary art, engaged in a struggle with beauty, finds new and fruitful avenues.