Confucius is the founder of Confucian aesthetics. He inherited and developed the ancient tradition of rites and music in China, and took "benevolence" as the fundamental position to analyze and solve beauty and art, which laid a theoretical foundation for Confucian aesthetics. Kong Yu regards the restoration and maintenance of "Zhou Li" as his ideal, and the love between parents and children based on clan blood relationship as the basis of "benevolence" in his mind. As long as everyone can arouse the love of their loved ones, pay attention to filial piety and love the masses according to their natural desires, then "courtesy" can be restored, the world can be ruled and "benevolence" can be realized. Confucius' aesthetics is the extension and development of his "benevolence", and its purpose is still to realize "courtesy". He emphasized that the satisfaction of people's psychological desire must conform to etiquette, and at the same time he was sure that the psychological desire conforming to etiquette was reasonable. The basic point of Confucius' aesthetics lies in: on the one hand, it fully affirms the necessity and rationality of satisfying individual psychological desires, on the other hand, it emphasizes that the satisfaction of this psychological desire should be guided by ethical norms everywhere. According to this basic view, the pleasure function of art is considered necessary and can be exerted, but it is also considered that this function is meaningful only if the group develops harmoniously. The rationality of aesthetics lies in that it can lead to ethical purposes, and individual psychological desires must be unified with social ethical norms.
Confucius solved a series of important aesthetic propositions according to this basic viewpoint. First of all, Confucius regards "poetry", "music" and "art" as the means to realize "benevolence". He believes that mastering all kinds of skills, including art, freely and skillfully is only based on benevolence and morality, which is perfect for people's growth and has real significance. He emphasized "taking Tao as the goal, relying on morality, relying on benevolence and swimming in art". In his view, learning poetry and music is very important for mastering etiquette. "Poetry" can arouse people's heart of promoting good and eliminating evil, and "music" helps to cultivate people's temperament and arouse people's moral heart. It is a unified song based on emphasizing "benevolence" and aims to cultivate a benevolent gentleman. Therefore, Confucius said, "Prosperity lies in poetry, standing in ceremony and being happy." "Rite" and "art" ("poetry" and "music") are unified, and the aesthetics are unified in ethics. Secondly. Confucius attached great importance to the unity of beauty and goodness in art. When evaluating Shao's music, he emphasized both perfection and perfection. It is believed that Yindong art can not only give people aesthetic pleasure, but also improve people's moral cultivation. "Shao" is full of beauty and goodness, so Confucius appreciates it very much. "I smell Shao, but I don't know the taste of meat in March." Pursuing the unity of beauty and goodness in art is a major feature of Confucian aesthetics, which is rooted in Confucius' theory of "beauty is perfect". Thirdly, Confucius also applied the requirement of the unity of beauty and goodness to personality cultivation, emphasized the unity of literature and quality, and put forward the famous "gentleness" theory. In his view, "quality is better than literature, and literature is better than history". A true gentleman with benevolence must have a comprehensive cultivation, and only noble moral quality is not enough. You must also have aesthetic and cultural qualities; Similarly, it is not enough to only have the beauty of literary ornaments, but also to have the ethical quality of kindness. Confucius still emphasized the unity of beauty and goodness in personality cultivation. In this respect, Mencius, another representative of Confucian aesthetics, made a profound play. In addition, according to his own basic aesthetic principle, that is, the requirement of the unity of beauty and goodness, Confucius put forward the "golden mean" scale of aesthetic criticism, taking "too much is not enough" as the criterion, and emphasized the artistic psychological effect of "being happy without lewdness, being sad without injury". He thinks that the emotional expression of poetry and music should be moderate. If it goes beyond moderation, the emotional expression of joy becomes unscrupulous enjoyment, and the emotional expression of sadness becomes infinite pain. In artistic emotional expression, only the harmony and unity of emotion and reason is the most ideal, and the transcendental emotional expression does not conform to the principle of "golden mean" and cannot reach the standard of the unity of beauty and goodness.
Restricted by the ultimate goal of restoring Zhou rites, Confucius' aesthetic thought is obviously conservative, emphasizing the social function of art and the unity of beauty and goodness. However, Confucius' exposition on the basic artistic principles of the unity of beauty and goodness and his series of aesthetic propositions have constructed a basic theoretical framework for Confucian aesthetics and fundamentally stipulated the formation of the basic characteristics of Confucian aesthetics.
First of all, Confucian aesthetics most typically inherited the ancient tradition of rites and music of the Chinese nation, reformed and sublated the ancient witchcraft etiquette, and made "poetry", "music" and various arts become part of the "benevolence" system. The tradition of ancient rites and music is based on the clan blood tradition. After China entered the slave society, the legacy of the primitive clan society has not been eliminated, but has been preserved for a long time, and the clan blood clan system is closely related to the rule. The long-term preservation of consanguinity makes the ethical relationship between people play an extremely important role, and the tradition of rites and music is infused with a strong ethical color. It is not difficult to see that since Confucius, the aesthetic theory of Confucianism has always been closely linked with etiquette and ethics, and Confucian aesthetics has been unified with ethics because of blood relationship. Secondly, Confucian aesthetics attaches great importance to the harmony and unity between individuals and society. On the one hand, since the pre-Qin period, most Confucian representatives have not denied the value of individual existence, but affirmed that individuals have unique feelings, personality and intellectual strength. On the other hand, Confucianism regards the harmonious relationship between people as more important than the display of individual personality. Social harmony and benevolence go hand in hand, which is the first. Personal development is meaningful only if it is affirmed by society. The full development of individual personality has always been regarded as the unity with social development to have real value. According to Confucianism, art (poetry, music, etc. ), as a part of "benevolence", its real significance lies in guiding and cultivating the healthy development of individuals and making the development of individuality develop in a direction conducive to group harmony. Confucius emphasized that "it is based on poetry, ceremony and music", and the music notes emphasized that "music is the rule of mind", all of which focused on the significance of art to the unity and harmony between individuals and society. Thirdly, Confucian aesthetics regards the unity of beauty and goodness as the highest realm of life and advocates the high unity of art and ethics. A series of propositions of Confucian aesthetics, such as Confucius' theory of "gentle country", Mencius' theory of "noble spirit", Yue Ji's theory of "governing the mind with music" and Xu's theory of "unity of will and emotion", all combine art (poetry and music) with ethics (benevolence and righteousness). The representative figures of Confucian aesthetics believe that all beauty should embody "benevolence" and conform to "courtesy", and only goodness can be beautiful; Beauty takes goodness as its content and purpose, and goodness takes beauty as its ideal or moderate state of expression. Confucian aesthetics not only regards the unity of beauty and goodness as a theoretical pursuit, but also as a high-level life purpose. In addition, Confucian aesthetics also has a remarkable feature, that is, it pays attention to the unity of heaven and man and seeks the essence of beauty in the unity of heaven (nature and its laws) and man (man's will and emotion). Confucian aesthetics regards nature as the embodiment of human emotion and moral ideal, and there is a "moral comparison" relationship between aesthetic object and aesthetic subject, in which man and nature are integrated, and "those who know enjoy water and those who are benevolent enjoy Leshan" (Confucius language). Meanwhile. It also regards emotional expression as natural, standardized and moderate, "being happy but not lascivious, being sad but not hurting" (in the words of Confucius), and people conform to heaven and are integrated with nature. Because in Confucianism's view, only the unity of heaven and man can achieve the state of "neutralization", make the emotional world harmonious, make people's hearts conform to norms, and make behaviors conform to etiquette. For example, Dong Zhongshu said that man and nature are one, and man is born from heaven. The beauty of heaven lies in harmony and benevolence, and the beauty of benevolence lies in heaven. Of course, the purpose of his theory of "harmony between man and nature" is to implement heaven and benevolence in the world and achieve political harmony.
From the above brief analysis of the basic characteristics of Confucian aesthetics, we can see that various theoretical viewpoints of Confucian aesthetics revolve around such a basic point: based on the clan blood tradition, pursuing the unity of beauty and goodness, and embodying the integration of aesthetics and ethics. This basic feature of Confucian aesthetic theory is very remarkable in China's aesthetic history. Unlike Taoist aesthetics, which seeks for distance by doing nothing, and takes "things as actions" (in Zhuangzi language), nor does Chusao aesthetics pursue the unity of human interests and romantic ideals, nor does Zen aesthetics emphasize intuition and epiphany, and "nothing is wonderful without enlightenment" (in Xie Oak language). Confucian aesthetics seeks the essence of beauty in the relationship between beauty and goodness. This fundamental feature of Confucian aesthetics has been basically formed in Confucius' aesthetic theory, and Confucian aesthetic representatives in various periods after Confucius have launched a rich ideological course around this theory.
Mencius and Gou Jian, as the most important successors of Confucius' aesthetics in the pre-Qin period, developed Confucius' theory from two different aspects. Although Mencius and Gou Zi both inherited benevolence, they both advocated "courtesy". They all emphasize the journey of benevolence and righteousness, and they are outstanding representatives of Confucian aesthetics, but their views and development directions are very different: Meng pays more attention to the relationship between people and Gou pays more attention to the relationship between man and nature; Meng holds the theory of "goodness of nature", and his focus is on personality cultivation and practical application. Meng developed Confucius' personality thought and Confucius' theory of human nature. In aesthetic thought, Mencius mostly transformed and restricted people's perceptual desires with innate moral norms, making beauty subordinate to goodness; Gou Zi assimilated and unified man's utilitarian desire and realistic human rules, hoping to accommodate beauty with goodness. Mencius hoped to cultivate a kind of "noble spirit" and realize "courtesy" with ideal human nature; Gou Zi tried to unify the "human desire" and "ceremony" needed by utilitarianism. Obviously, the principle of the unity of beauty and goodness in Confucian aesthetics is obviously different in Meng Hegou's aesthetic theory.
In Mencius' aesthetics, the most important thought is to admire the beauty of personality. Mencius inherited Confucius' thought about the beauty of personality, and clearly linked personality spirit with aesthetic pleasure. He said, "I'm not as good as me." In his eyes, personality spirit is also an aesthetic object. Mencius believes that goodness is inherent in human nature, and individuals should consciously exert their goodness and cultivate a kind of "noble spirit", which is "filled between heaven and earth", "combined with righteousness and Taoism" and "born from gathering righteousness". Pet-name ruby as long as you develop this kind of "qi", you are fearless and can make progress. As long as individual humanity can enrich this "noble spirit" and show it externally, it will have the value of beauty, and then reach the realm of "greatness", "holiness" and "God". Mencius said, "What you want is goodness, what you have is faith, what you enrich is beauty, what you enrich is greatness, what you magnify is holiness, and what you don't know is God." Mencius' understanding and admiration for the beauty of personality had an important influence on the development of China's art and the formation of China's ancient theory of life realm, which was a typical expression of the unity of beauty and goodness in Confucian aesthetics. Later generations called those fearless and enterprising people with lofty ideals "Confucian demeanor", which largely refers to the personality beauty of "noble spirit" described by Mencius.
Different from Mencius, Gou Zi's contribution to aesthetics is mainly manifested in his affirmation of the realistic perceptual natural basis of human aesthetic requirements and his satisfaction of natural desires on the premise of courtesy and righteousness. He tried to unify "desire" and "ceremony", and thought it was reasonable to satisfy the psychological desire that conformed to the ceremony. He said: "A saint has his desires and his feelings, but the person who controls his desires is reasonable. What is the strength of the husband? What danger does he have? " He believes that the greatest happiness of emperors lies in satisfying all kinds of desires to the greatest extent: "A husband is the son of heaven, rich in the world, called a holy king, and unified people. It is people's feelings and desires, and the king has both. " Pay attention to color and clothing, pay attention to taste and food, pay attention to money and make it, and the world cooperates with you; The diet is thick, the vocal music is loud, the trees are tall and the gardens are wide. When I establish a prince, the world is also what people want, and the ritual system of the son of heaven is like this. ..... The desire for world cooperation is to have both. If the world is firmly established and the system is formulated, if people are not crazy and confused, who can see it without being happy? ⑥ Gouzi's view that "desire" and "ceremony" are all inclusive and must satisfy the rationality of utilitarian desire is obviously different from Mencius' view of perfecting personality and moral spirit, and even more obviously different from Laozi and Zhuangzi's aesthetic view of transcending merits and doing nothing for nature. Gou Zi's basic aesthetic view is consistent with his thought of "controlling life and using life", which leads beauty to reality, shows optimistic and enterprising pioneering spirit, and has a great influence on Yi Zhuan and Han Confucian aesthetic thought.
Yi Zhuan inherited Gou Zi's thought of attaching importance to the relationship between man and nature and advocating positive progress, took the attitude of Confucianism as the basic position, absorbed the viewpoint of Taoism, combined the Confucian view of "benevolence" with the Taoist view of "heaven", and established a world model dominated by Confucianism. The basic attitude of Yi Zhuan's aesthetics is still to realize benevolence and righteousness, to realize the ideal of Qiang Bing, a rich country of Confucianism, and the pursuit of goodness is the first. The legend of Ganxi said: "The change of the avenue, everyone living in harmony, is conducive to chastity. The first thing, Xianning, the world. " Obviously, protecting life and harmony is the most important thing, which is the ideal of Confucianism. The aesthetics of Yi Zhuan are all based on the pursuit of goodness, and the basic characteristics of the unity of beauty and goodness of Confucian aesthetics have not faded, but are outstanding.
Yi Zhuan has made important contributions to the development of Confucian aesthetics, mainly in the following aspects: First, Yi Zhuan expounds Confucian aesthetic thoughts in the form of a short essay, so it adopts many metaphors and symbols related to ancient witchcraft culture, which is very similar to the artistic expression of Bi Xing. Moreover, the use of metaphor and symbolism also shows that the author of Yi Zhuan has developed the characteristics of "primitive thinking" such as intuition and analogy, which is actually a quasi-artistic way of thinking. Obviously, Yi Zhuan carries forward the positive elements of ancient witchcraft culture, and has important reference significance to art in terms of expression and thinking mode. Secondly, Yi Zhuan highlights the viewpoint of life movement and regards the display of vitality as beauty, which is of great significance to increase the vitality and vitality of Confucian aesthetics. Yi Zhuan holds that the movement of life is the nature of heaven and earth, "the virtue of heaven and earth is life", "heaven and earth are connected, everything is connected" and "heaven and earth are in harmony, and everything is in harmony". Pay attention to the development and changes of heaven and earth, and emphasize the movement of life. This is an important idea in Yi Zhuan. "Under the Cohesion" puts forward that "life is easy" and "on the cohesion" explains that "the new day is called morality", which is a meaningful explanation and affirmation of the development of life movement. This concept of life movement in Yi Zhuan has a great influence on China's art, and China's art pays attention to the beauty of flying, rhythm and expression of lines. Thirdly, Yi Zhuan puts forward some new propositions, which are of great significance to enrich Confucian aesthetics. "Yi Zhuan" connects "Wen" with "Ming" and expounds the meaning of "civilization", which not only refers to the brilliance of all things in the world, but also refers to the brilliance of saints and humanities. Yi Zhuan said: "Civilization should be healthy and upright, and gentlemen should be upright." ⑥ The discussion of Yin and Yang in Yi Zhuan greatly influenced China's aesthetic understanding of "masculine beauty" and "feminine beauty". "Yi Chuan" said: "Dry, penis also; Kun, the matter of yin is also. Yin and yang combine virtue, but both rigidity and softness are combined, and they are written in the body of heaven and earth to communicate the virtue of the gods. " Attending this concept of combining rigidity with softness has a great influence on the corresponding personality and artistic conception of China's ancient artistic creation. The proposition of "setting images with all one's heart" put forward in Yi Zhuan also has an important influence on China's artistic conception theory. In a word, Yi Zhuan puts forward rich aesthetic views on the premise of the unity of beauty and goodness in Confucian aesthetics. Although most of them are only propositions, they are not elaborated, but their meanings are extremely profound, which has become the theoretical source of many aesthetic viewpoints later.
Dong Zhongshu, a great thinker in Han Dynasty, inherited the basic aesthetic viewpoints of Xunzi, especially Yijing, summarized the theory of the relationship between heaven and man in pre-Qin Confucianism, and deeply discussed the concept of "the unity of heaven and man" which had a great influence on China's aesthetics. Dong Zhongshu endowed "Tian" with the characteristics of "benevolence", personified "Tian", and affirmed that man is "the most precious thing in the world" and the leading role of man. It is on this premise that he discussed "the harmony between man and nature". He believes that "heaven also has joys and sorrows, harmony but difference, and harmony between man and nature." ⑥ In his view, the "harmony between man and nature" is highlighted in the corresponding relationship between human emotional changes and natural changes: "The husband's joys and sorrows are actually the same. Happiness is warm in spring, anger is clear in autumn, happiness is sunny in summer, and sadness is winter. " ⑦ Although this aesthetic concept of "harmony between man and nature" is mysterious, it has often become a principle for artists to follow in the aesthetic history of China. It has influenced the literary theory, painting theory and calligraphy theory in China's artistic aesthetics, and is one of the theoretical foundations of China's artistic conception theory.
Yue Ji in Pre-Qin Dynasty, Preface to Shi Mao in Han Dynasty and Wen Xin Diao Long in Qi Liang are three classic works of Confucian literary aesthetics. They show the basic characteristics of "the unity of beauty and goodness" in Confucian aesthetics in the theories of "music", "poetry" and "literature" respectively, which have exerted great influence on China art and China literature.
The outstanding contribution of Yue Ji lies in its profound exposition of the essence and social function of art. Yue Ji clearly puts forward that art is the expression of people's inner feelings, and holds that "musicians are born of sound and rooted in people's emotions and things." Anyone who has a voice is also a person with a heart. Emotion moves in the middle, so it is sound shape, sound writing, meaning sound. "Sound" is born in people's hearts, but "sound" is not "music". Only the content containing ethics is "music". Musicians are also connected with morality. " "E6" is the voice that used to rule the world and its politics. The voice of troubled times is angry, and its politics is good. ..... voice and political communication. On the one hand, Yue Ji regards "music" and art as the expression of emotion, which is the development of Confucian aesthetics in the pre-Qin period, and it grasps the essence of art more deeply. On the other hand, the author of Yue Ji still emphasizes the relationship between beauty and goodness and the ethical and political value of Yue Ji from the standpoint of Confucianism. Yue Ji affirmed the social function of art and distinguished the different functions of "ceremony" and "music": "The musicians are the same, but the ceremony is different. It is also a blind date, and the difference is respect. If the ceremony is just, it is noble and so on; If you are happy, you will be harmonious. " "Music" leads people to have a good impression on the blind date through inner feelings, and "ceremony" makes people's behavior respect through external norms, so "music governs the heart" and "ritual governs the bow". In a sense, "music" has more ethical effects than "ceremony". It can "reconcile feelings and desires", make people return to the right path, meet ethical requirements, and realize the harmony between individuals and society.
Preface to Mao's Poems is a demonstration of the basic viewpoints of the poetics in Yue Ji, which systematically expresses the Confucian aesthetic thoughts on "poetry". Preface to Mao's Poems puts forward the idea of the unity of ambition and emotion in poetry, which combines the Confucian idea of expressing ambition with the saying that emotion moves in China and form is in words, and thinks that this unified poem is helpful to "govern the world" and achieve "harmony" "The first king was a husband and wife, filial piety, good ethics, beautiful education, and changing customs." ② The Preface to Mao's Poems expanded the view that art is the expression of emotion from the theory of "music" to the theory of "poetry", and affirmed the educational function of art, which was widely circulated in the history of China's art theory.
Liu Xie, the author of Wen Xin Diao Long, stands on the position of Confucianism, is compatible with Buddhism and Taoism, inherits Yi Zhuan, expounds his "original Tao" thought from the viewpoint of "one yin and one yang is the Tao", emphasizes the unity of the Tao of heaven and earth and the Tao of social ethics, and discusses the relationship between literature and Taoism on this premise. Liu Xie believes that "Tao" gives birth to "Wen", and "Wen" is the expression of "Tao". He believes that "literature" can be divided into "astronomy" and "humanity", and "literature" expresses "Tao" in various forms. Specifically, "astronomy" refers to the existing forms of heaven, earth, sun, moon and mountains, "humanity" refers to all cultural relics and regulations, and "humanity" refers to "literary words" in a narrow sense, mainly referring to the beauty of literary words. Words embody "Tao" and are "the text of Tao", so "text" has "literary heart" Someone's spirit is involved. It shows people's moral pursuit. Liu Xie's view on the relationship between literature and Taoism is basically consistent with that of Confucianism in the pre-Qin period, and does not exceed the basic characteristics of the unity of beauty and goodness. At the beginning, Wen Xin Diao Long advocated "original way", "gathering saints", "observing classics" and "correcting latitude", emphasizing the unity of beauty and goodness. Liu Xie's transcendence over the previous Confucian aesthetics lies in that he pays more attention to the concrete analysis of "Wen" and the essence and expression of the beauty of "Wen". Most of the length of Wen Xin Diao Long is to analyze and discuss all aspects of the beauty of "Wen" and put forward various new artistic opinions. The article "Feng Gu" deeply discusses the composition of artistic beauty, and holds that the beauty of "literature" can not be separated from "Feng Gu" and the unity of internal emotional elements, meaning, personality and language: "Words are like the skeleton of the body, and emotions are full of wind. ..... If the character of the wind does not fly, the vibration will lose its freshness and the negative voice will be weak. " ⑥ Cai Qing had a new understanding of the Confucian theory about the relationship between literature and quality, and thought that "literature is attached to quality" and "quality should be attached to literature". There are three forms of literature: tangible, sound and emotion. Emotion is of fundamental significance to literature: "emotion, literary classics, rhetoric and rational latitude", which is also the origin of this paper's correctness and rationality. "@ This theory of the relationship between reason and reason, which takes emotion as the classics and reason as the latitude, is Liu Xie's innovation in Confucian aesthetics. This innovation shows that although the aesthetic thought of Wen Xin Diao Long is dominated by Confucianism, it is also the compatibility and absorption of conscious aesthetic views that attach importance to the relationship between "Wen" and "Qing" and advocate "Wen" since Wei and Jin Dynasties.
The development of Confucian aesthetics in the Song and Ming Dynasties has completely lost its conscious concern for "literature". On the relationship between literature and Taoism, Zhu and other Song and Ming Neo-Confucianism advocates the following basic views: "Taoism is the foundation of literature; Writers are branches of the Tao. " In the view of Neo-Confucianism, "Wen" is not as important as "Tao" and needs no attention. Therefore, there is no detailed discussion on the beauty of "Wen" in Neo-Confucianism works, let alone the relationship between "emotion" and "Wen". In this sense, Neo-Confucianism aesthetics tends to be non-aesthetics because it ignores "emotion" and actually becomes an ethical philosophy that interprets classics and explains Tao because it despises "literature". But in another sense, as far as the essence of Neo-Confucianism aesthetics is concerned, "Wen" is regarded as the embodiment of "Tao", which means that "Wen" is "Tao", art and morality are integrated, and art embodies the ethical realm of life. Therefore, Neo-Confucianism aesthetics has actually raised art to the height of ethical realm, brought the Confucian tradition of "rites and music" into full play and made it beautiful.
In a word, Confucian aesthetics has a complete logical development process from Confucius to Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties. Confucian aesthetics has its conservative side, which often overemphasizes the social function of art and ignores the independent characteristics of art, and values goodness over beauty and "reason" over "literature". However, Confucian aesthetics also has a vigorous and enterprising side. It forms a complementary relationship with the transcendental attitude of Taoist aesthetics, and forms a confrontation and opposition with the epiphany and intuition in Zen aesthetics, which has a great influence on China's art and life. China's artistic theories, such as "Theory of Virtue", "Theory of Ming Dow", "The Beauty of Neutrality" and "Writing to Carry Tao", are all directly reflected or fundamentally influenced by Confucian aesthetics. China's art is basically characterized by the unity of beauty and goodness. Scholars in China have always pursued a "Confucian demeanor" in dealing with people and things, which is an important influence of Confucian aesthetics on the ideal of personality beauty. The culture of the Chinese nation is elegant, bearing the profound imprint of Confucian aesthetics.