Wang Guowei and Zhu Guangqian are both pioneers of modern Chinese aesthetics, and the two of them have a common feature, that is, to accept and disseminate Western super-utilitarian pure art theory and intuitive aesthetics as a manifestation, while invisiblely they are deeply influenced by the ancient Chinese Taoist spirit. Its explicit form is easy for people to notice, while the traditional factor of invisibility is often ignored.
In fact, the invisible effect is sometimes more intrinsic and profound, and the so-called "moisturizing is silent" is also. Wang Guowei's acceptance of Western influence is by no means a resignation, but a selective one, as he himself puts it, "dynamic" rather than purely "passive." The traditional Chinese Taoists have become an important "anterior vision" for Wang Guowei to choose and accept German philosophy and aesthetics.
(From left) Zhang Ruishan, Luo Zhenyu, Wang Guowei, liu hu, 1906
The Taoist Zhuangzi was not only similar to Wang Guowei in personality, temperament, and temperament, but also his ideas gained an "unexpected convergence" with Schopenhauer, Kant, and other German aesthetics in Wang Guowei. Luo Zhenyu's acquaintance with Wang Guowei is said to have been attracted by the desolate voice of Wang Guowei reciting Zhuangzi. "Without Zhuangzi, it is difficult to go deep into the kingdom dimension." Wang Guowei and Zhuangzi had an inheritance relationship in at least the following aspects:
(1) art as a means of liberation from suffering caused by the desire to live;
(2) The pure art theory of super-utilitarianism that art has nothing to do with politics, morality, and knowledge;
(3) Art achieves the intuitive aesthetic of forgetting things and forgetting things and me;
(4) The criterion of natural and frank criticism implemented in literary criticism.
For example, he highly praised the meta-dramas of "winning with nature" and "entertaining people with self-entertainment", praised Li Houzhuo, who "did not lose his pure heart", and Nalan Rongruo, who "looked at things with the eyes of nature and spoke with the tongue of nature". Moreover, these four aspects include the main content of Wang Guowei's aesthetic thought. In Wang Guowei's aesthetic and literary criticism works, the so-called "no self", "object view", "natural eye", "pure child's heart", etc., in the final analysis, are nothing more than a high degree of freedom and natural state of a subject's mind, which mainly originates from "Zhuangzi".
Deeply influenced by Croce's intuitive aesthetic thought, it has almost become the explicit symbol of Zhu Guangqian's aesthetics, but its vigorous praise for the "rooted doctrine" and the theoretical confidence it has gained should not be ignored: "We do not need to shout 'eradicate' or 'down', the doctrine without roots will eventually fall on its own; if there is a root doctrine, you will call 'down' in vain." "The doctrine with roots" is Zhu Guangqian's emphasis on the fact that his view of literature and art has its roots and deep roots. Hou Min once discussed modern Neo-Confucian literary and artistic thought under the title of "Poetics with Roots". The "root" that Zhu Guangqian is talking about here is not the Confucian tradition, but the Taoist spirit. Because Mr. Zhu strongly advocates a super-utilitarian artistic concept and advocates "pure aesthetic taste". In Mr. Zhu's view, the main obstacles to the implementation of this pure artistic ideal are political intervention and commercial erosion. In traditional Chinese thought, Confucian aesthetics strengthens the connection between literature and art with politics and morality, and only the Taoist artistic spirit that advocates transcending fame and fortune, alienating politics, and forgetting oneself is in line with the "root" of tradition in Mr. Zhu's mind.
Zhu Guangqian especially admired the realm of "doing nothing" and regarded it as the "highest ideal", and he admired Zhuangzi's "fish appearance and forgetting in the rivers and lakes", and revealed his "artistic life" to get rid of the constraints of external deeds, and to live a realm as unrestrained and natural as all natural things.
He once said: "For example, in the long tradition of Chinese culture, the books that I particularly love and have the deepest influence on me are zhuangzi, Tao Yuanming's collected poems, and shishu xinyu, as well as books similar to them... A person should be 'transcendent', 'idyllic and self-guarding', 'pure and innocent', and enjoy the pleasure of contemplation and contemplation alone. Although he studied in Europe for many years, his early aesthetic ideas are easy to be regarded as the Chinese version of Western aesthetics such as Croce and Kant, but when he explains and disseminates Western aesthetic concepts, he consciously uses the aesthetic experience of ancient China to dock. The Italian sinologist Professor Sabatini believes that Zhu Guangqian is "moving the flowers of Western culture to the wood of traditional Chinese culture", and the "wood of Traditional Chinese Culture" here also mainly refers to Taoists.
Zhu Guangqian
Zhu Guangqian and Zong Baihua were once known as the "Twin Peaks of Aesthetics" in modern China. Unlike Zhu Guangqian, who takes the acceptance of the West as a manifest symbol, Zong Baihua has laid a lofty position in modern Chinese aesthetics in expounding the spirit of Chinese art and highlighting the value of classical Chinese aesthetics.
Zhang Fa once said: "Among the previous generations of scholars who expounded the spirit of ancient art, I think that only two people can be called first-class, one is Zong Baihua and the other is Xu Fuguan. "The Complete Works of Zong Baihua" has very few articles devoted to Lao Zhuang, except for "Taoism and Ancient Time and Space Consciousness" (actually compiled by the editor Lin Tonghua based on Zong Baihua's notes), and only the "Outline of the History of Chinese Philosophy" introduces the philosophy of LaoZi and Zhuangzi. But this does not mean that Lao Zhuang's artistic spirit is absent in his aesthetic articles, but rather a deep presence.
Zong Baihua was deeply nourished by the artistic spirit of Lao Zhuang, and Lao Zhuang's wisdom was spread like scattered gold and jade, mixed with his aesthetic ideas, without a trace. Zong Baihua has a deep love for Chinese art that is deeply stained with the spirit of Lao Zhuang. He believes that "Zhuangzi is a philosopher with artistic genius, and he is the most exquisite in his exposition of the artistic realm." "Zhuangzi is an artist among China's representative philosophers" and "Zhuangzi's influence is enormous." "Most of the ancient Chinese painters were high-ranking people who were obsessed with Lao Zhuang's thought. They forget the world, and contemplate the rationality of all things in silence." The Chinese art and artists that Zong Baihua loves are all "people" in the old Zhuang family tree.
At the same time, Zong Baihua's discussion of Chinese art focuses on the excavation of the spiritual level, and he especially loves the simple, ethereal, and vivid side of Chinese art. Wandering between these arts, he and Lao Zhuang carried out the "secret covenant" of the artistic soul, and the circle melted into his perception of art and the understanding of artistic conception. His interpretations are both classical, modern, and universal, and are permeated with his deep reflections on the modern reconstruction of Modern Chinese aesthetics and the traditional Taoist aesthetic spirit. To list him as a modern neo-Taoist figure is completely appropriate.
Xu Fuguan and Ye Weilian are among the most influential figures in the entire Chinese aesthetic community, including the mainland, in the past 50 years. Mr. Le Daiyun commented on Ye Weilian: "He is very 'new', always in the forefront of the latest literary and artistic trends and theories; he is also very 'old', spending his life wandering in the field of Chinese poetics, Taoist aesthetics, and classical Chinese poetry and making outstanding achievements." "His contributions to Chinese Taoist aesthetics, classical poetics, comparative literature, and Chinese and Western comparative poetics are still unparalleled."
Although Ye Weilian has made many achievements in the academic field, the title of the book "Taoist Aesthetics and Western Culture" compiled and published in his later years shows that "Taoist aesthetics" is the most creative territory that Ye himself believes to be unified. Because the "Chinese poetics" that Ye shi talks about is actually the part that is influenced by the Taoist "unique way of viewing objects and sensing things and the strategy of expression", not the whole of Chinese poetics; its "comparative poetics" is also intended to highlight the modern value and world significance of Taoist aesthetics and the Chinese poetics it influenced in the broad perspective of Chinese and Western comparison.
All of Ye's research seems to be able to be summed up in the conclusion that the trend of Western modern and contemporary aesthetics represented by phenomenological aesthetics has been greatly different from That is, the natural presentation of Taoist "object-based" and "that is, thing is true" is very different from the aesthetic vision caused by the Western classical "I see things" induction method, but Taoist aesthetics and the Chinese classical poetics it influences have commonalities with the tide of Western modern and contemporary aesthetics and have many innate advantages. The elaboration and manifestation of Taoist aesthetics and laozhuang artistic spirit is his consistent and loving academic pursuit. He often "went between Western works" and "never believed in Plato's emphasis on the 'eternal outline' ,...... Or do you think that Zhuangzi's idea of 'transformation' is close to reality."
The aesthetic vision of Laozhuang's "Drinking Taihe", "Speechless Independence", "Object View" and "Real World" excavated and interpreted by him from the perspective of Chinese and Western comparisons not only embodies the strong ecological aesthetic spirit, but also connects with phenomenology. This interpretation provides profound enlightenment for Lao Zhuang's artistic spirit to the contemporary and to the world. Judging from the identification criteria we proposed earlier, Ye Weilian is a modern new Taoist figure with a lot of color!
[The text is from "Taoist Thought and Chinese Modern Aesthetics" published by the People's Publishing House]