Su Shi, with the sensitivity of genius, on the one hand, vigorously responded to the creation of the bland style advocated and practiced by Ou Mei, on the other hand, he also noticed the problem in time, and raised the banner of "natural" aesthetic style to remedy the shortcomings of the bland and beautiful style. In fact, in the middle and late Period of the Northern Song Dynasty, along with the bland aesthetic style gradually becoming the mainstream trend of artistic aesthetics at that time, the "natural" aesthetic style also received almost the same attention. If the bland beauty style is the main symbol of the establishment of the "Song tone" and the key link in the Song Dynasty literature from exploration to final maturity, then the natural beauty style is indeed a further enrichment and supplement to the bland beauty in the background of this gradually mature literary and artistic concept.
Su Shi's poetic art theory can lead people to a metaphysical field. His pursuit of bland beauty, in addition to being directly influenced by the atmosphere of the times and the two predecessors Ou Mei, is more importantly influenced by Tao Yuanming. Most of those who respect bland beauty respect Tao Yuanming, and Su Shi is very much like a confidant of the next generation to Tao Yuanming. He once made it clear: "Yuanming Wu's teacher" "Tao Jizi Junyou Old Hall", and did his best to put Tao Yuanming in the first position of the ancient literati with practical actions.
Su Shi admired the bland beauty of Tao Yuanming's poetry; at the same time, he said: "If I am yu Yuanming, is it better to be his poetry alone?" If it is human, it is really touching. "Why is Tao Yuanming a man? Su Shiyun: "Ancient and modern sages, guiqi zhenye." "The style of the poems of "After the Collected Poems of Li Jianfu" is the embodiment of personality. The bland wind embodied in Tao Yuanming's poetry is also the embodiment of his personality. This kind of plainness is the word "true", true is natural, real, and can enjoy a personalized life experience.
Tao Yuanming's life did not have any vigorous achievements, relatively speaking, it was a very ordinary life. However, the depth of its inner life is a picturesque interpretation, in the words of Su Shi, it is "high wind and dust" and "transcendence". The poetic style and literary style born from this personality have a transcendent and natural color at the same time. The "truth" of Tao Yuanming, which Su Shi admired, is a kind of life feeling that is not burdened by the world, does not want to be enslaved by the heart, and strips away the temperament of nature, and this kind of life feeling is not expressed in a splendid way, but in a plain way.
Su Shi's artistic outlook is an inevitable reflection of his outlook on life. Therefore, this philosophy of life of "oneness without a heart", that is, the philosophy of water, is reflected in literary and artistic creation, that is, the theory of "giving shape to things". Also consistent with this is the idea of "body and bamboo". "Body and bamboo" means that the creative subject and the object depicted are vividly combined, one with nature, to abandon their own utilitarian and intellectual stereotypes, to eliminate the boundary between things and me, and to merge with nature from the depths of life, that is, to "leave their bodies behind", which is the process of "nothingness".
Why "body and bamboo"? Su Shi once criticized the exact opposite of the creative method: "If you do it step by step, and the leaves are tired, is there a bamboo again?" "Wen and Paintable Appreciation of the Bamboo of the Valley" this is to see bamboo as an external object that is opposed to itself, and has not really entered the original life of the bamboo itself to grasp the characteristics of bamboo. Painting bamboo is to "body and bamboo", correspondingly, painting anything else, must be assimilated with things, so that it will be "infinitely fresh", to achieve "literary nature, posture". This is a process made up of nothing. It can be seen from this that the idea of "body and bamboo" and the theory of "giving shape to things" are common.
Can a thing be shaped? This also involves the relationship between "Tao" and "art", so Su Shi said, "There is Tao and art." If there is a tao but not an art, then although things are shaped in the heart, not in the hands" "After the Book Li Boshi Mountain Villa", "Tao" and "art" must be integrated in the truly free artistic creation, and from the heart to do not exceed the rules, that is, as he said, "God and all things intersect, wisdom and all things." Su Shi greatly admired the handy realm when Wen and Ke painted bamboo: "With what can be taught, it cannot be given, and the mind is aware of why it is so." The husband who knows the reason for it but cannot do it, is not the same inside and outside, the mind and hands are not corresponding, and the fault of not learning is also excessive.
Su Shi said that "with the mountains and stones twists and turns, with the shape of things, unknowable also", and said "like the clouds flowing water, the beginning is not ademinated", which shows that "with the shape of things" is actually a kind of "can not", it has no fixed mode to find, rather than that such a method requires the artistic subject to mobilize the inner energy to understand. And Su Shi also said that "to do what should be done, to stop at what can not be stopped", which also points out that there is also a law in the impossibility, and in the specific process of artistic creation, there are still laws to follow. Therefore, the concept of artistic creation that "gives shape to things" is a dialectical combination of law and inability, Tao and art.
As a representative of the literati artists of the Song Dynasty, Su Shi paid attention to the issue of aestheticization of daily life and expressed many important views. Qin Guan once commented: The way of Su Shi is the deepest in the time of self-satisfaction. Self-sufficiency is a concise summary of Su Shi's philosophy of life, and it is also a portrayal of his aesthetic and leisure life. Su Shi's aesthetic and leisure thought has its philosophical basis, which is the philosophy of emotion based on the ontology of emotion, the work of pleasure, and the realm of unintentional unity. The composition of Su Shi's leisure aesthetic thought also unfolds from the three levels of ontology, work and realm.
On the surface, Su Shi had the ambition to return to seclusion in his life but never went into hiding, and some people commented that he still had a crush on Shi Eunuch, which was actually impossible to really understand Su Shi. Although it seems that Su Shi has always wandered around in the public eunuch space, his individual spirit has completely returned to the "private sphere" of more freedom and transcendence.
As Li Zehou said: "Su did not retire in his life, nor did he really return to the field, but the sense of emptiness of life that he expressed through his poems was deeper and heavier than any verbal or de facto retreat to the field of his predecessors." Because this retreat knot expressed in Su Shi's poems is not only a retreat from politics, but a retreat from society" The retreat from society is not equal to the retreat from "public space", but a retreat from life in a more fundamental sense, that is, a return to the "private sphere".
Food, clothing, shelter and transportation are extremely simple, entertainers are also simple, and social travel is simple. The purpose of "Xie Shi Lu" is to live a simple life. The simpler life is, the more it seems to embody the free personality of the scholar. In his view, the micro-object belongs to the private realm that he can grasp, and can better reflect the subjective consciousness of the scholar's autonomy and freedom; while the grand thing is not controlled by man, and it is easy to alienate man from it.
Su Shi is not without extroverted space, he is "ZhongjiaKe, Dengjinmen, Shangyutang", the official to the Hanlin Bachelor is proof. However, this kind of construction of the extroverted space, in the view of the Buddha Seal, is an objective destiny, which is not what he wants, nor is it the purpose of his life. Moreover, the so-called name plus body, because it is not within the control of one's own life, it appears illusory and unreal. Moreover, fame and position are the culprits of Su Shi's bumpy fate and drifting life. Therefore, in the unique political and cultural environment of the Song Dynasty, the enthusiasm of traditional scholars for the construction of extroverted space has been greatly reduced, and instead it is the enjoyment and experience of the field of their own life. Leisure is the most important practical activity for scholars to pin this individual life sentiment on ("sitting on the tree all day").
If in the past, leisure was only a leisure activity for scholars to recuperate after a busy life, or a means for dignitaries to squander money and show off their positions, but in the Song Dynasty where Su Shi lived, leisure became the place where the lives of scholars and people lived, and it was the pursuit of individual life. Being able to be idle, being able to relax and being able to enjoy this leisure is often considered a symbol of accessibility.
Leisure can make people immortal, so why seek fame and fortune? Besides, what is a real career for the true self? "Drunk and high sleep real career, this life has a taste in the three more." At this time, Su Shi believed that the value orientation of the life of the scholar was no longer for the sake of the enterprising cause of fame and fame, but had turned to leisure, that is, "drunk and high sleep". The true taste of life is not in the busyness, but in the "three surpluses". Su Shi believes that "aftermath" is the true taste of life and is the most worthy of people to pursue and enjoy.
Exile in Hainan in his later years was the formation period of Su Shi's casual outlook on life, and at this time his life was full of leisure. He can find pleasure and beauty in the trivialities of daily life. In a kind of leisure and elegance, the trivial daily things such as haircuts, lunch breaks, and foot washing can become the inspiration for their poetic life. Being able to pay attention to and enjoy the joy of these things in the aftermath of life is an important feature of leisure life. Su Shi can often pay attention to poetry in the microscopic field of life, and observe and experience life as an idler.
Li Zehou once profoundly pointed out the significance of Su Shi's aesthetics of life:
[Su Shi never retired in his life, nor did he really "return to the field", but the sense of emptiness of life that he expressed through his poems was deeper and heavier than any verbal or actual "retreat", "return to the field", and "reclusive world" of his predecessors. This is because this kind of "retreat" mentality expressed in Su Shi's poems is no longer just a retreat from politics, but a retreat from society but a doubt, boredom, and desire for liberation and abandonment of the fundamental question of the purpose and significance of the whole life and the world. 】
Some scholars have further summed up: "The significance of Su Shizhi's 'deeper than life self-sufficiency' lies in the transformation from the pursuit of external social merits into the excavation of the inner spiritual world, linking the life and death of Zen Buddhism and the unsupported mind of all things with the realization of Confucian and Taoist attachment to real life and individual personality ideals, so that the value of individual life can finally be realized as the highest realm of life, and become a model for the pursuit of individual personality beauty in future generations" Su Shi's humanistic aesthetic spirit is undoubtedly full and profound. This is the result of his casting of Dao Zen and the return of Confucianism to his own family. At the same time, he represents the highest state of aesthetics of Song Dynasty artists.
Author: Zeng Yugeng
Source: Song aesthetics