Main Ideas of Classical Chinese Aesthetics

The theory of classical Chinese aesthetics was established on the basis of a wide range of links with the superstructure and other social ideological fields. In addition to art, philosophy, religion, ethics and politics all gave it great influence. Among the many schools of thought, Confucianism, represented by Confucius and Mencius, Taoism, represented by Laozi and Zhuangzi, Chusao, represented by Qu Yuan, and Buddhism, represented by Zen Buddhism, have had the most tremendous influence on classical Chinese aesthetics. They themselves have become the four major trends or schools of thought that constitute classical Chinese aesthetics. Confucianism constitutes the ethical foundation of classical Chinese aesthetics. It always observes the issue of beauty and art without detaching from the relationship between human beings and society, and attaches great importance to the beauty of the moral spirit and the significant role of aesthetics and art in cultivating people's moral sentiments and realizing social harmony. Taoist thought constitutes the worldview and methodological foundation of classical Chinese aesthetics. It links beauty and art with the realm of super-utilitarian freedom in human life, and observes the issue of beauty and art from the unity of necessity and freedom. Taoism's reverence for nature, its advocacy of spiritual observation, inaction and simplicity, and its dialectical thinking have a profound impact on aesthetic and artistic practice. Chusuo aesthetics perfectly united the deep, passionate, and noble social and moral sentiments with the individual's unrestrained and free imagination, emotions, and the bold pursuit of the beauty of sound and color that gives pleasure to the senses. After the Tang Dynasty, Buddhism (mainly Zen) also penetrated into aesthetics, and its whole set of introspective and experiential cognitive methods had a profound impact on classical Chinese aesthetics. The basic characteristic of classical Chinese aesthetics is that it emphasizes subjective spiritual feeling and expression of interest, seeks to write, emotional support, dissolves rationality, utilitarianism, ethics and morality into aesthetic intuition, and does not advocate mechanical and detailed imitation of the appearance of reality or abstract metaphysical ideas. The above characteristics of Chinese aesthetics are fully utilized in the field of art, and it is believed that the most fundamental aesthetic attribute of art is the expression of human emotions; the basic characteristic of the aesthetic relationship between human beings and reality is that the feelings are based on the things, and the things are based on the feelings, and in the relationship of this kind of feelings, God and the things, the subject and the object reach the harmony and the harmony and produce the performance of art; the creation of art should be based on the external teacher of the creation of the world and the source of the heart; the human being is sent by the feelings of the reality of life, and the feelings are moved in the middle. People are inspired by the real life and are moved by their emotions, and with the help of various means to express their feelings and wills to form various kinds of art. But also that human emotions must be compatible with certain social principles, the beauty of art should be happy but not obscene, sad but not hurt, and seek to be neutral and innocent. This connects art with life and serious life issues. In terms of artistic expression, classical Chinese aesthetics does not pursue mere resemblance, but rather divine resemblance, and the spiritual quality that external objects are compatible with subjective aesthetic ideals. It emphasizes the meaning of the meaning to, respect for the virtual and real, get outside the image, no trace can be sought, without a word and get all the style. On the issue of formal beauty, often the formal factors with the subjective mood associated with the form, that is, not as an isolated form of pure ornamentation, but as the author of the mood, interest, the embodiment of the temperament. It attaches great importance to the cultivation of the artist's moral and aesthetic interests, i.e., to the "cultivation of qi". It provides for the special social function of art in terms of satire and edification, that is, to appeal to human emotions, to move and influence the admirers with its moving power of beauty.