The Original Confucianism and Establishment of Chinese Classical Aesthetics
Beijing Language and Culture University, Institute for Comparative Literature
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The Original Confucianism and Establishment of Chinese Classical Aesthetics
Dedalus 19 (2015), pp. 191-205. Download PDF
Abstract
Confucius’ thought and philosophy inherited by both Mencius and Xunzi, but carried forward from different even opposite perspective, thus formed the rich connotation of the primitive Confucianism and embodied in Confucius’ theory of benevolence, Mencius’ theory of the good human nature, and Xunzi’s theory of the evil human nature which are the main points of Confucianism. Focusing on the three figures of Confucianism over 2000 years ago, this paper will demonstrate that the primitive Confucianism had a great influence on Chinese traditional aesthetics. Some main concepts and ideas, such as harmony and the harmonious combination of the ideal of physical beauty and moral goodness, which serve as the central categories in Chinese traditional culture and aesthetics, are all stemmed from Confucianism. Different from the western aesthetics which emphasizes rational analysis, Chinese aesthetics results from the manifestation of intuitive patterns, revealing the characteristics of Chinese traditional aesthetics, which can also be traced back to the primitive Confucianism.