Reflections on Chinese Aesthetics

In the course of "Design Aesthetics", I read the book "Huaxia Aesthetics", and I reviewed the beauty of China's literature and art for the first time from the ancient rites and music, the humanity of Confucius and Mencius, the freedom of Zhuang Sheng, the deep affection of Qu Zi and the metaphysical pursuit of Zen, which benefited me a lot.

I first learned from this book that the so-called China aesthetics is the traditional aesthetics of China with Confucianism as the main body. Its long historical roots lie in the non-Dionysian tradition of rites and music, and some of its basic viewpoints, categories, problems it wants to solve and contradictions it contains have long been included in this traditional root. Therefore, how to deal with social and natural, emotion and form, art and politics, the relationship between heaven and man, and how to understand the humanization of nature and the naturalization of man have become the focus of China's aesthetics. Gradually discuss the ancient rites and music, the humanity of Confucius and Mencius, the freedom of Zhuang Sheng, the deep affection of Qu Zi and the metaphysical pursuit of Zen.

From the "beautiful sheep" and "beautiful sheep" in the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, I understand that the so-called "aesthetics" is the humanization of emotional pleasure and emotional catharsis, that is, the socialization and culture of animal pleasure. Aesthetics is the precipitation of social things on various psychological functions, especially emotion and perception. I also learned that China's traditional aesthetic consciousness is not asceticism, which not only does not exclude but embraces and appreciates this perceptual happiness-taste, sound and color. However, the affirmation of this kind of happiness is not sensualism, but needs social regulations, systems and etiquette to guide, standardize, shape and construct. China's art and aesthetics are the tradition of "music", which is based on directly shaping, edifying and constructing humanized emotions, rather than arousing emotions by reappearing the world picture. Therefore, China's art and aesthetics pay special attention to refining art forms and strongly oppose all kinds of natural forms.

Confucian aesthetics emphasizes "harmony", mainly human harmony, and the isomorphism with heaven and earth is basically implemented as interpersonal harmony. Zhuangzi's aesthetics also emphasizes "harmony". Zhuangzi's philosophy is an aesthetic philosophy that affirms the existence of nature and requires spiritual transcendence. Zhuangzi's main aesthetic objects: infinite beauty, "great beauty" and magnificence. It refers to the greatness of personal freedom and strength that is not bound by various things including social ethics. Mencius' "greatness" refers to the greatness of individual moral spirit and has a strong ethical color. Zhuangzi greatly expanded the scope of nothingness and introduced ugliness into the field of beauty. Anything, no matter what it looks like, can be an aesthetic object, that is, the aesthetic object of people.

In the Six Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties, beautiful women were affectionate. The whole ideological system in Wei and Jin Dynasties has the fundamental characteristics of "intelligence and emotion", and the combination of deep affection and wisdom philosophy is directly manifested as aesthetic style, that is, the so-called "Wei and Jin romance". During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, beauty was in the realm. Zen emphasizes that sensibility is transcendence, and that moment is eternity. Therefore, it pays more attention to understanding in the common phenomenon of this kind of action, reaching the eternal and static ontology, thus jumping into the extraordinary, beautiful, happy and mysterious spiritual realm where things have been forgotten and the universe and mind are United. Compared with Qu, Zen is more indifferent and quiet. In the field of literature and art, Zen still inherits Zhuang and Qu, and inherits Zhuang's style and Qu's feelings. Zen Buddhism and its own "enlightenment", the combination of the three makes Ge and Qing become the pursuit direction of mysterious eternal ontology, and achieve the tranquility of that ontology in various turbulent movements. In Ming and Qing Dynasties, beauty was in life. Instead of deliberately pursuing "gentleness and generosity", I began to doubt "gentleness and generosity"; There is no need for beauty, tranquility, harmony, profundity, desalination and dullness, and there is no need to avoid or even pursue all kinds of "surprises", "desires", "terror" and "charm". It shows that literary appreciation and creation are no longer stubbornly attached to or subordinate to the ethical education emphasized by Confucian tradition, but are striving for their own independence, which also shows that people's aesthetic fashion has more emotional happiness in daily life.

After reading this book, I deeply understand that China's philosophy, aesthetics, literature and art, and even ethics and politics are all based on a kind of psychology. It is not the object of some empirical science, but a philosophical proposition based on emotion. This noumenon is not God, morality or reason, but a kind of human psychology which combines reason and reason. It is both "beyond" and internal; It is both perceptual and super-perceptual, and it is a metaphysics for aesthetics.