The Confucian school of thought on aesthetic education has a distinct?

Confucianism's idea of aesthetic education has a distinct: Confucianism is moralistic tendency.

Confucian ideology of aesthetics

Confucian aesthetics is rooted in Confucian benevolence, and is a natural extension of Confucian benevolence. Confucianism believes that the root of "benevolence" is "loving others". This is viewed as the emotional and psychological requirements of human beings, based on the love of family and children, which is further extended to social groups. In Confucianism, Confucius and Mencius believed that this emotional and psychological requirement is inherent in every human being.

Although Xunzi believed that man's natural desire for life was not in itself in conformity with benevolence and righteousness, it was still perfectly capable of being brought into conformity with benevolence and righteousness through social indoctrination. In Confucianism, in order to make a person a "human being", it is necessary to arouse the inherent emotional and psychological requirements for the practice of "benevolence", or to use benevolence and righteousness to sensitize the impulses of human nature to desires that are contrary to benevolence and righteousness.

In order to do this, it is necessary to educate people. Since the important feature of literature and art lies in appealing to the emotional psychology of individuals and groups, this can just become an important means of Confucian indoctrination, which is valued by Confucians. In addition, what Confucianism calls "benevolence" is inseparable from "propriety", and "propriety" has been inseparable from "music" since ancient times. and "ritual" has been inseparable from "music" since ancient times. Confucianism is the inheritor of the ancient tradition of ritual and music. This also makes it pay special attention to the role of literature and art.

Confucianism assigns to literature and art the important role of helping to build an ideal society that conforms to "benevolence", and regards literature and art as an important means of shaping the emotional psychology of individuals to conform to "benevolence". Since literature and art are indispensable for making people "benevolent," theories about literature and art and beauty have become an important aspect of Confucian thought, giving rise to and shaping the Confucian idea of aesthetics.

Confucian aesthetics is inseparable from Confucian benevolence, but also because what Confucianism calls "benevolence" is not only a moral concept, but also leads intrinsically to aesthetics. This is because "ren" has the following characteristics: it is related to the rational development of the individual's sensual life, and is an affirmation of such development; it is rooted in the individual's internal social and emotional psychology, and is not a purely rational concept, nor is it an extrinsic moral law.

It takes the harmony and unity of the individual with others and the group as the highest ideal; the realization of "benevolence" is not for the purpose of getting rewards or claiming credit or honor; "benevolence" itself is the highest goal, not a means to achieve personal self-interest. The realization of ren is regarded as the greatest joy that can be achieved in life. All these characteristics indicate that the complete realization of ren is both the highest moral state and the aesthetic state, and that the two are one and inseparable.

Confucianism believes that "ren" is fully compatible with the heaven and earth, which nurtures all things, and with the harmonious growth and continuity of life. This leads Confucian aesthetics from the realm of social ethics to the realm of nature, and connects beauty to the issues of literature and art, and to the issues of life in nature. The realm of beauty is not only the realm of harmony and unity between the individual and society, but also the realm of harmony and unity between man and nature.

Confucianism believes that literature and art are the expression of the emotional and psychological requirements of "benevolence" inherent in the subject, with the aim of infecting others and society. This kind of emotional and psychological requirements can not be detached from the subject of the relationship with society and nature, is the subject of the results of the sense of external objects, and its performance must be consistent with the structure, function, and change of the laws of life in the natural world.

Thus, in the relationship between literature and art and the external world, Confucianism neither advocates that literature and art are the products of imitation of external nature, nor does it advocate that literature and art be the manifestation of the subject's mind that has nothing to do with external objects (nature and society). Confucian aesthetics regarded the sympathy between mind and matter as the basis for the creation of literature and art, and put forward the "theory of induction" or "theory of sympathy" which was different from the "theory of imitation" of ancient Greece and the "theory of expression" of the modern West. The first is the theory of "sympathy", which is different from the theory of "imitation" in ancient Greece and the theory of "expression" in modern West.