Requesting an. Essay on the foundations of aesthetics. There is no limit to what content and no limit to what topic.

Aristotle initially explained tragedy by pointing out that: tragedy is a serious thing in life, it is not synonymous with sorrow, misery, grief, pessimism, or death, misfortune, and it is not exactly the same as the meaning of the word "tragedy" in everyday language. Tragedy as an aesthetic object must be able to make people rise up, improve the spiritual realm, and produce aesthetic pleasure. Tragedy, through the temporary suppression of beauty by ugliness, strongly demonstrates the ultimate and inevitable triumph of beauty. So in fact, the aesthetic characteristics of tragic beauty inevitably reflect a sublime beauty, more shocking power. For example, known as the tragedy of the ancient Greek tragedy "Prometheus bound", the works of Prometheus for justice and willing to suffer the indomitable spirit of torture, showing a kind of sad and sublime beauty.

As early as the fifth century B.C., Ancient Greece has left the brilliant achievements of tragedy creation, the emergence of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides and other famous great tragedians. Most of the tragedies at this time were based on myths, legends and epics. Prometheus in Bondage is a famous masterpiece. By the Renaissance, Shakespeare had developed the art of tragedy to unprecedented proportions, and most of the tragedies at this time proclaimed the political ideals and aspirations of the emerging bourgeoisie from a humanist point of view. Its content has left the myths and legends, and more historical stories as a genre, such as "Hamlet", "Othello", etc. In the 19th century in Europe, in the Romanticism and critical realism of the tide of thought, the emergence of Hugo's "Oenina", Dumas's "The Lady of the Camellias", Ostrovsky's "The Great Thunderstorm", and so on a number of excellent tragedy.

In the history of Chinese theater development, Wang Guowei used the term tragedy only in 1921. But this is not the same as saying that tragedy was created in China only from that time. For example, Guan Hanqing's Dou'e Grievance and John Doe's Southeast Flight of the Peacock are among the earlier tragedies that have been popularized around the world.

In the traditional Greek tragedy, the fate of the characters as the most important factor in the tragedy, that is, the hero's powerlessness in front of the fate of the embodiment, and the audience can also be from this unspeakable power to get a kind of destiny of the impermanence of the sense of oppression. The first thing to recognize is that this most original of creations often represents a fundamental longing of the people. Later, in Aristotle's theory of tragedy, the mode of tragedy and the psychology of people's appreciation of tragedy are related. Two important theories of Aristotle are: Firstly, the protagonists of tragedy are people similar to us, who are not morally perfect, and therefore they have faults, and in the tragedy, people see the great tragedy caused by their small faults, which leads to the effect of the tragedy. In tragedy, people see the great tragedy caused by their small faults, thus causing the effect of tragedy. Secondly, when people appreciate tragedy, it arouses pity and fear, which leads to the purification of these emotions, and the catharsis of such overpowering emotions makes it possible to restore peace of mind and thus maintain mental health. It is clear that Aristotle reduced the formation and psychological effects of tragedy to the level of ordinary people, and a kind of mutual pity for the fate of human beings was then embodied in the aesthetic activity of tragedy. After that, Lessing expanded the theory of tragedy, he believed that the pity and fear shown by the audience when enjoying tragedy is not on themselves or the characters in the tragedy, but combines their own fate and the fate of mankind, and believes that such a tragedy can happen to any person, and this is the most tragic thing of all.

There was no special theory of tragedy in ancient China, but in terms of the effect of the psychology that produces human tragedy, Chinese tragedy has been developing. In the twenties, Mr. Lu Xun also put forward a famous proposition of tragedy: "Tragedy destroys the valuable things in life for people to see." The characteristic of the art of tragedy revealed here is "the valuable things in life", not the general sorrow, grief and misery in life. The aesthetic value of tragedy is based on the social value of life, and the means of its expression is "to destroy for people to see", and the destruction of beautiful and valuable things should be very shocking to people's feelings. This is the core of Lu Xun's concept of tragedy. It has also become the most representative concept of modern Chinese literary tragedy theory.

China's more famous "tragedy", such as China's ancient literary history of the earliest and best long narrative poem "Southeast Flight of the Peacock" is more representative. The tragic art expressed in the poem is roughly embodied in three aspects: first, the story creates a tragic atmosphere in the narrative of the plot. The setting of the original title, the rising of the beginning and the rendering of the atmosphere in the development of the plot are all trying their best to create a tragic mood of love. Secondly, the tragic beauty of the characters is the most infectious tragic power. The main character Liu Lanzhi's posture, heart and personality are all molded to perfection. The more perfect the character's image is, the more prominent its tragic effect is. Therefore, the tragedy of Liu Lanzhi is actually a social tragedy. The weak character of Jiao Zhongqing, who dared not resist boldly because he was bound by feudalism, was the main reason for his tragedy. Thirdly, artistic methods strengthen the effect of tragedy. The traditional techniques of expression such as fugue, ratio, and rising increase the emotional concentration of the tragedy; the aesthetic effect of the character image is emphasized by counterpoint and accentuation; and the techniques of detailed description and multi-level rendering condense the tragic atmosphere into one in a clear and orderly way. The protagonist's life is destroyed and the eternal value of spiritual life is achieved, thus stirring up the feelings of sadness to make people's hearts purified and the spirit is uplifted. This is the aesthetic power of tragedy.

There are also other tragedies such as "Dou'e Grievance". The power of this kind of tragedy comes mainly from the tragic fate of the good and powerless little man who suffers in an unjust society. This kind of tragedy scenario is not in line with the above western traditional tragedy theory, first of all Dou'e does not show fault in the play, secondly Dou'e represents a typical character in the stratum society, what she suffers is a kind of torment of dark power, and does not represent a kind of universal power of the society, in other words, the traditional western tragedy theory has a kind of aristocracy, while this kind of tragedy of the lower strata of the Chinese represents In other words, traditional Western tragedy theory has an aristocratic character, while this Chinese tragedy of the lower classes represents a kind of reality.

The West Wing, the Peony Pavilion, and so on, represent a strong inner conflict of the characters and the suppression of the general forces of society, and here we can see the conflict between the power of human lust and the pressure of society.

The tragedy of the scholar. This is not directly expressed in literature, but their lives, the pursuit of ideals, the realization of a perfect personality represents a tragic temperament unique to China, that is, a kind of "know that it is not possible to do but to do it," "although the ten thousand folds I carry on," the ideal personality, the ideal personality of the tragedy. Ideal personality, the tragedy of this ideal personality lies in the lack of the spirit of reality, in the face of the complexity of reality and the sharp contradictions can not be from a pragmatic point of view to achieve a better result, but to the destruction of the individual to achieve the realization of the ideal personality. Examples include Qu Yuan and Wen Tianxiang.

The Dream of the Red Chamber represents a more complex tragedy. It expresses the vulnerability and powerlessness of human beings in the face of the vagaries of fate, as well as the conflict between individual ideals and the universal forces of society, and at the same time has the tragic fate of the little people in the cruel reality, while all this focuses on a deep sense of disillusionment in life.

Based on the above examples, I have roughly summarized four types of tragedy. First, the impermanence of fate (Greek tragedy, Dream of the Red Chamber). Second, the conflict between the ideal of life and the universal forces (Dream of the Red Chamber, Jia Baoyu, Socrates, Hegel's theory of tragedy). III. The realization of ideal personality (Chinese scholarly spirit). IV. The tragic fate of ordinary people in darkness. (Sinusitis, Lessing's theory of tragedy). And these tragedies in the human mind can be said to produce the psychological effect is not the same, there is sympathy, there are in the position of fear and pity, there is the fate of the **** song, there did not happen to their own sense of security (similar to the sublime), as well as Hegel's reference to the pleasure of the soul. But it should be said that regardless of the type of tragedy, it is an expression of beauty. Life is finite, and the quest for immortality. Tragedy presents the cruelest side of life to us, causing us to be shocked, but it also inspires us to pursue a better life and a deeper awareness of the beauty of tragedy.

Bibliography:

1 Principles of Aesthetics, edited by Jiang Kongyang, North China Normal University Press, 1999 edition

2 Tang Tao's Collected Writings, Volume IX, The Realism of Southeast Flight of the Peacock, Social Science Literature Publishing House, 1995 edition

3 History of Chinese Literature, edited by You Guo'en, People's Literature Publishing House, 1983 edition