On November 2, the famous philosopher and aesthetician Li Zehou died at the age of 91.
He is the aesthetic enlightenment of a generation, netizens left a message: "The Journey of Beauty has made me unable to release the volume, cultivating my basic understanding of Chinese culture and aesthetics. ”
In many colleges and universities, "The Course of Beauty" and "Four Lectures on Aesthetics" are required readings for general studies courses.
Philosopher Feng Youlan commented that "The Course of Beauty" is "a history of Chinese aesthetics and art, a history of Chinese literature, a history of Chinese philosophy, and a history of Chinese culture." ”
Yi Zhongtian commented: "The title of each chapter alone is extraordinary: dragon flying phoenix dance, bronze gluttony, Wei Jin demeanor, sheng Tang tone, not to mention that every few pages there is a colorful movement." ”
Mu Xin said: "Without aesthetic power is a terminal illness, and knowledge cannot be saved." ”
Because aesthetics is not a result, but a kind of ability, it requires continuous immersion and learning.
Zhuangzi proposed that simplicity and the world can not compete with beauty, believing that the nature of nature is the highest beauty; and the words "entering the world" and "balance" in Confucianism have become the most important factors in Chinese aesthetics.
From the totems of the ancient period, to the architectural art of the pre-Qin period, to the sound of the Tang Dynasty and the landscape of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Chinese aesthetics contain Chinese ideas and wisdom in various periods.
Understanding these historical contexts will make us more rational and clear about who we are, and we will be more humble and calm in the face of the changes of the times.
In 1954, Li Zehou graduated from the Department of Philosophy of Peking University.
At that time, during the aesthetic debate in the 1950s, in his first year of work, he published a "Question of People's Nature in Ancient Chinese Lyric Poetry", and then a series of articles made him a self-contained in the aesthetic controversy of the time.
Li Zehou once said: "In the late 1950s, I had a lot of money, and in the winter of 1956, I published two articles in Philosophical Studies and Historical Studies, and the total fee was 1,000 yuan. At that time, the monthly salary income was only a few tens of dollars. ”
Since then, he has rarely worried about money, and the royalties of several books have also allowed him to live and clothe for many years.
Although "The Course of Beauty" is only a few hundred thousand words in scale, it integrates the history of Chinese aesthetics, literary history, philosophy history, cultural history and other contents.
How did the psychological experience of "beauty" develop from ancient times to the present?
In life, how can we improve our aesthetic ability to feel more beautiful and happy?
Mr. Li Zehou divides the development of Chinese aesthetics into five major historical stages:
Ancient to the Shang Zhou, it is totem worship the beauty of bronze; From the pre-Qin to the Han Dynasty, it was the beauty of reason and the beauty of romance; In the unruly wind of Wei and Jin, there is the awakening of man; Tang poems and Song poems and yuanqu, each with its own beauty; Ming and Qing dynasty literature and art is the liberation of human nature in secular culture.
There is a kind of red, called Chinese red. Since the ancient cave people on the top of the mountain, red has been regarded as a symbol to worship.
They would sprinkle red iron powder on the tombs and dye their clothes red, which is thought to be the original form of ancient totem worship.
As the rites of witchcraft continued to evolve, people gradually visualized such symbols, forming the worship of dragons and phoenixes.
During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, bronze ware occupied an important position in people's lives. The beauty of bronze carries a strong religious meaning.
Go to the museum today to see the bronzes, rugged shapes and mysterious animal patterns, will make people feel a deterrent and vicious taste.
Their beauty reflects the early human worship of power.
After experiencing the budding of aesthetic consciousness, from the pre-Qin to the two Han Dynasties, the development of thought, the controversy of a hundred schools of thought, and the collision of rationality and romance has also ushered in aesthetics.
Confucianism emphasizes the use of reason to guide real life and encourage people to make meritorious achievements; Taoism advocates harmony between man and nature and pursues an independent state without worldly constraints, while the Chu culture represented by Qu Yuan is full of romantic beauty.
"But the grass and trees are scattered, and the beauty of the twilight is feared."
In the history of China, there is a special historical period in which the Mongol clans are divided and divided, and the regime changes are frequent and chaotic, but they have left behind works of art that have been passed down through the ages.
Li Zehou believes that the wind of Wei and Jin brought about the awakening of people, people began to show their personality and reflect on their fate.
Cao Cao said: "When singing about wine, life is geometric, such as chaolu, and going to the sun is more bitter." ”
Life is short, why not seize the time and live the life you want? This is people's thinking and pursuit of life and meaning.
Wang Xizhi's calligraphy also shows the beauty of freedom to the fullest.
The Tang Dynasty opened the most splendid and dazzling chapter in ancient China, the end of a hundred years of strife, economic prosperity, and social stability.
Li Bai experienced the most prosperous period of the Tang Dynasty, and also wrote the atmosphere of the Tang Dynasty, "Life must be full of joy, do not make the golden bottle empty to the moon." ”
Du Fu encountered a period when the national strength turned from prosperity to decline, and he was more concerned about the people's livelihood and social suffering, "the boundless falling wood xiao Xiao, the endless Yangtze River rolling in." ”
Developing into the Song Dynasty, another gem of Chinese aesthetics, Song Ci, reached its peak.
Wang Guowei said in "Words on Earth": "Words take the realm as the highest." ”
Tang poems are grand and thick, and Song words are delicate and exquisite, from "the realm of no self" to "the realm of having me", each has its own beauty.
"The Course of Beauty" believes that totem worship and bronze art are people's initial perception of beauty; the rational and romantic beauty from the pre-Qin to Han Dynasties, the awakening of people in the Wei and Jin dynasties, and the beauty of Tang poetry and Song poetry and song are the bloom of beauty; while in the Ming and Qing dynasties, literature and art paid more attention to people and was the sublimation of beauty.
In The Novels of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, whether it is about sincere love or secular life, they are more concerned with the fate of ordinary people and the pursuit of freedom by individuals.
The four masterpieces are representatives of the prosperity of the Ming and Qing novels, and "Dream of the Red Chamber" is the peak of the novel's literature.
At any time, we can see the real and the unreal, both blossoming and magnificent, and the beauty of the white snow and the clean void.
Haydn said: "The real meaning of art is to make people happy, to inspire and empower people. ”
Chinese culture has a long history, and Chinese aesthetics have amazed the world. But most people have not received systematic aesthetic education, and most of their understanding of Chinese aesthetics only stays in painting, calligraphy, architecture, which often appear in textbooks...
Psychology believes that around the age of three, people will enter a period of aesthetic sensitivity and begin to have awareness of self-image.
Girls will like beautiful hair accessories and clothes, and want to steal their mother's high heels;
Boys also begin to pay attention to themselves in the mirror, and from this point on, a person wants to be praised as "good-looking", get better self-image feedback from this positive evaluation, and thus build a basic understanding of "beauty".
In adolescence, people have to complete the process of personalization, we pursue self-identity more, and we care more about our own image.
The deep reason why people love beauty is the desire to use their appearance to shape themselves and express themselves more perfectly.
Only when a person approaches beauty, perceives beauty, and possesses beauty from an early age will he become the creator of beauty.
Lin Qingxuan once found a strange phenomenon, and now some tea houses will deliberately create a quaint and vicissitudes atmosphere, placing some old-fashioned wheels, buckets, baskets and so on.
He thought that his grandfather had used these things, but when he used them, he only used them as production tools, as necessities of life, and he did not think that one day they would be hung on the wall as works of art.
A friend told him a local saying: You have to get rich for three lifetimes before you know how to live.
When people only want to survive, only to be full, clothing only to cover the body, food and clothing worry-free, only to know the taste and beauty.
So he thought, "We want to live out human dignity and beauty." ”
Click [watching], may we slow down the pace and feel the beauty of life.
Author | Kale, write other people's stories well, live your own life.
Image | Visual China, Network (if there is infringement, please contact to delete)