Confucianism pays attention to etiquette and respects Confucius and Mencius.
Taoism pays attention to self-cultivation and materialism.
The complementarity between Confucianism and Taoism is an ancient topic in the study of China's philosophy history. However, from different angles and different aspects, we can constantly trigger new thinking from this old topic. From the inner, hidden and genetic sense, the complementarity between Confucianism and Taoism has the cultural connotation of both sexes; From the external, open and symbolic sense, Confucianism and Taoism complement each other and have aesthetic functions. For quite a period of time, according to the value orientation of western realism affirmed by Marx and Engels, domestic scholars treated Confucian aesthetics with the tradition of "prosperity, outlook, group and resentment", and advocated that art should interfere with reality and become the mainstream of China classical art; Taoism's thought of "destroying literature and scattering five things, staying away from Zhu Mu" and "plugging ears" is regarded as the countercurrent of cultural nihilism and artistic waste. Recently, mainland scholars, as a vulgar sociological response, echoed the academic circles in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and found the freehand brushwork style and freedom realm that western modernist art dreamed of in Taoist aesthetics, which represented the true spirit of China art; In contrast, the Confucian tradition of "love ends with courtesy and righteousness" is too narrow because of quick success and instant benefit. Admittedly, the above two views have their own reasons, but put together, they are incompatible and conflicting. The crux of the matter is that this either-or attitude can only see the one-sided rationality of Confucianism and Taoism, but can't explain the dialectical relationship between them and their overall role in China's aesthetic history.
In my opinion, although the relationship between Confucianism and Taoism is quite complicated and can be analyzed by different structural models, as far as its contribution to China's aesthetics is concerned, the function of Confucianism is mainly to "construct", that is, to provide some orderly, stylized and symbolic rules and habits for China people's aesthetic activities; The function of Taoism is mainly to "deconstruct", that is, to deconstruct the alienation of Confucian aesthetics in the process of construction by interpreting decoration, rules and symbols, so as to maintain its free creative vitality. It is in this constant process of "construction" and "deconstruction" that China's classical aesthetics can develop healthily and continuously, thus creating a miracle in the history of human art.
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From the perspective of genetics, Confucianism has made a special contribution to casting the aesthetic psychological habits of the Chinese nation in the process of rebuilding the culture of rites and music. As we know, the difference between human beings and animals is that human beings are cultural animals, and culture takes symbols as the carrier and medium. In this sense, Cassirer, a famous symbolist aesthete, once pointed out that man is a symbolic animal. Confucianism, whose profession is "reciprocity", was originally the manager and operator of this cultural symbol. "Some scholars in modern times believe that the predecessor of' Confucianism' is ancient witchcraft, history, desire and divination serving the nobility; During the Spring and Autumn Chaos,' Confucianism' lost its original position. Because they are familiar with the etiquette of the nobility, they make a living by' ceremony'. " (Encyclopedia of China's Philosophy, Volume 2, page 73. This view is based on a certain degree. Confucius said, "I am a little stingy, so I can do more." "If I go out, I will work for my father and brother. If I dare not say goodbye to my funeral, why is it for me? " (The Analects of Confucius Zi Han) is the best explanation. Of course, the cause of Confucianism initiated by Confucius is by no means limited to the control and operation of this external symbol. If he wants to make professional Confucianism the home of his thoughts, he must interpret "courtesy" with "benevolence" and find the support of internal ethics (values) for the external code of conduct (symbolic form) in order to overcome the historical situation of chaotic cultural symbols and safeguard the cultural taste of the world. The so-called "Li Liyun, jade and silk clouds?" Music rhyme, bell and drum cloud? " (The Analects of Confucius, Yang Huo) shows that the revival of rites and music was not only a simple material form for Confucius at that time, but also marked the boundary between man and non-man. From a political point of view, people can only maintain a harmonious and moderate social order between advance and retreat, love and hate, and poverty by following the code of conduct and hierarchical system regulated by rites and music itself, that is, the so-called "being knowledgeable in literature, having a promise and courtesy, being a husband!" (The Analects of Confucius Yan Yuan) From a cultural point of view, only by mastering the meaningful symbolic form of rites and music itself can people maintain a civilized image higher than ignorance and barbarism in social communication, that is, the so-called "gentleman is a gentleman." ("The Analects of Confucius") Although in Confucius' view, the construction of culture is based on the reproduction of life and material security, "one son is suitable for life and one servant is available. Confucius said,' it's plain!' You Ran said,' Even if you are ordinary, why bother?' Say, "rich." Say,' If you are rich, why bother?' Say, "teach it." However, this gradual process of "being normal", "being rich" and "teaching" also shows that cultural construction is the key to making people become people. Only in this sense can we understand why Confucius, who has always emphasized loyalty, filial piety, security and courtesy, issued "I am with you!" (Advanced Analects of Confucius) and so on.
Obviously, in the process of constructing this cultural symbol system, people have produced an artistic experience and the enjoyment of beauty. Because in the final analysis, "art can be defined as a symbolic language" and "beauty is inevitably and essentially a symbol", which contains the symbolic system of art and beauty, "gives us order in the appearance of seeing, touching and hearing" and "enables us to see the deepest and most diverse movements of the human soul" (Cassirer's On Man, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 65438). In this regard, our predecessors seem to have realized something in Ji Leben: "Everyone who has a voice has a heart. Emotion moves in the middle, so it is shaped by sound; Writing in sound means sound. " "Music, ethics also. People who know sounds but don't know they are animals. Those who know each other but don't know how to be happy are ordinary people. Only a gentleman can know happiness. " Here, the difference between sound, sound and music marks the important difference between animals and people, barbarians and civilized people. The so-called "emotion moves in the middle, so it is shaped by sound" means that the sound emitted by people's mouth is the natural expression of people's emotions; However, when the natural expression of this emotion has not yet entered the symbol system and is only an incommensurable sound, it is equivalent to the howl of a wild animal: although it also expresses some emotion, it cannot be distinguished and no one can understand it. Only when this kind of sound enters the symbol system can it be the expression of "human" of subjective feelings, that is, "the sound is written and the sound is called". The word "written with sound" here can be understood as that the sound has literary color through interweaving and combination, and it can also be understood as that the sound has entered the symbolic network of meaning and has literary significance. In fact, only when natural sounds enter the symbolic system of meaning can they be infinitely rich in complexity and diversity. Animals can make all kinds of sounds, but these sounds are always monotonous because they can neither be distinguished in symbolic sense nor organized and reconstructed on the basis of distinction. In the final analysis, only talents have no literary talent and meaning, which is the difference between people and non-people. "Those who know the sound but don't know the sound are animals." Furthermore, once the sound enters the symbol system, it not only has the possibility of transmission, but also has ethical significance, that is, "the deepest and most diverse movement of the human soul." Therefore, if people only know that voice can convey emotions, but can't see the ethical connotation that only talents have behind this emotion, then he is at best a barbarian rather than a civilized person, so he said, "Knowing friends is not fun, but vulgar." Only a gentleman can know happiness. "The so-called' gentleman's happiness', regardless of the class prejudice of Confucianism, actually refers to the understanding and grasp of the diverse forms and multi-layered connotations of beauty by people of a culture. It is conceivable that without this set of "gloomy and literary" ethical norms and regulations laid by Confucius on the basis of three generations of culture, the ancient people's behavior and emotional ways will not only become chaotic, but also appear monotonous. It can even be said that without the historic efforts made by Confucius and his Confucianism to build a culture of rites and music, the Chinese nation, known as the "state of etiquette", would be in a state of ignorance and barbarism for a long time or to a great extent. It is easy to remind us of an exaggerated sentence of the Song people: "Zhong Ni will not be born in the sky, and the earth will last as long as night. "
From the perspective of "symbol system", this set of ritual and music culture reconstructed by Confucius includes three interrelated components: poetry, music and dance. Regarding the relationship between "ceremony" and "music", there is a concise analysis in the Book of Music: "The musicians are the same, but the ceremony is different. It is also a blind date, and the difference is respect. If you win, you will flow. If you win, you will leave. Those who are sensible and beautiful are also things of ceremony and music. " In other words, "music" can communicate the feelings between people, and "ceremony" can distinguish the boundaries between the old and the young. If there is only "happiness" but no "ceremony", the feelings between people will be laissez-faire, lacking a sense of order and hierarchy; If there is only "ceremony" without "joy", people of different status will be alienated from Germany and lack communication and cohesion. Therefore, the best way is to use "music" to help "ceremony" and use "ceremony" to save "music" and achieve the realm of love with harmony but difference and difference. Thus, the dialectical relationship between "ceremony" and "music" is the direct expression of the contradictory movement between "benevolence" and "ceremony" in the ideological field. As an emotional symbol of this expression, "music" in a broad sense consists of three elements: language (poetry), melody (music) and movement (dance). In short, when these elements communicate with people's hearts together with etiquette, it will cause an emotional resonance and beautiful enjoyment. Therefore, the Analects of Confucius will have the function of "courtesy and harmony are precious". Wang Zhidao comes first, Sri Lanka is beautiful ". In other words, when these elements develop independently, they will become different art forms and play their own aesthetic functions. Therefore, for poetry, Confucius will have the instruction that "if you don't learn poetry, you have nothing to say" (The Analects of Confucius Ji Shi); For music and dance, Confucius would feel "I don't know the taste of March meat" and "I want to be happy but not happy" (The Analects of Confucius). In a sense, the relatively developed historical features of China's ancient poetry, music, dance and other expressive arts can be found in the unique way of Confucian culture construction with rites and music.
This historic effort of Confucianism to construct the culture of rites and music has had a great and far-reaching influence on the formation of China people's aesthetic psychological habits and the establishment of artistic values, and it can even be exaggerated to say that it is from scratch. However, this kind of artistic emotional symbol derived from ethical concept symbols has its inherent weaknesses and limitations. Formally, the post-Confucianism didn't really understand the profound meaning of Confucius' self-denial, so it constantly made a fuss about the external form of "ceremony", thus leaving us with a set of rare red tape in Zhou Li, Yi Li, Li Ji and other works, which made people coronate, marry, mourn, sacrifice and swallow. In content, the hierarchical concept of "ceremony" always regulates the free imagination of "music", which leads to the development of art form without the cooperation and support of concept renewal, so that it is always in the emotional mode of "starting with emotion and ending with ceremony and righteousness", moving from moderation to mediocrity. Therefore, the creative "construction" activity first leads to the double alienation of form and content. In this case, the "deconstruction" activity of Taoism has special historical significance.
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Hegel pointed out in his book Little Logic that there can only be one absolute logical starting point, and that is "you", that is, there is no prescriptive pure existence. However, when this "you" is pure and pure, so that there is no stipulation, it becomes its own opposite and another logical link-"nothing". If we use these two categories to understand China culture, then the construction goal of Confucianism is "being" and the deconstruction goal of Taoism is "nothing". Like Hegel's point of view, the Confucian "being" comes first and the Taoist "being" comes last, so the logical relationship between them cannot be transposed, otherwise the deconstruction of Taoism will become meaningless; Different from Hegel's point of view, Confucianism's "being" is unconsciously transformed into "nothing" because of its lack of stipulation. On the contrary, it is precisely because there are too many regulations that we need to use "nothing" to eliminate it and realize a historic return.
As this historic return, the founder of Taoism first questioned Confucianism's benevolence and morality at the ethical and political levels. Laozi thought: "The avenue is abandoned and meaningful; Wisdom comes out with great fallacies; Six parents are not harmonious and have filial piety; The country is in chaos and there are loyal ministers. "(Chapter 18 of Laozi) thus advocates" abandoning wisdom and gaining wisdom will benefit the people a hundred times; Desperate, the people are filial; Never give up profits, thieves have nothing. "("Lao Zi "Chapter 19) Zhuangzi is more fierce. He directly crusaded against "saints": "Simplicity is not residual, this is sacrifice! If the white jade is not destroyed, who will be Gui Zhang! Virtue is not abolished, but righteousness is taken! Never leave your temperament and use music and rituals safely! Five colors are not chaotic, this is literary talent! Five tones are not chaotic, it should be six tones! The husband thinks it is a tool, and the craftsman's sin is also; Destroying virtue means righteousness, and saints are also at fault. "(Zhuangzi Horseshoe) The reason why they are so firmly opposed to Confucian ethics is because Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi found inequality in the relationship between monarch and minister, unfairness in condescending ceremony and insincerity under the gentle appearance. At this level, Taoist theory does have the special significance of resisting alienation. However, because the alienation reality that Laozi and Zhuangzi resisted has its historical rationality, this resistance itself cannot be simply affirmed in the philosophical sense. While resisting Confucian ethics, the founder of Taoism further criticized a set of cultural symbol system constructed by Confucianism and tried to thoroughly deconstruct and subvert it. Laozi advocates "learning without worry" (Chapter 20 of Laozi), and thinks that "five colors make people blind, five tones make people deaf, five flavors make people refreshed, galloping hunting makes people crazy, and strange goods can hinder people." (Chapter 12 of Laozi) Zhuangzi is even more fierce, and simply asserts: "The six laws disturb it, and the ear plugs are deaf, and everyone in the world contains its wisdom; Destroy the article, scatter five picks, glue away from the eye of Zhu, and contain it at the beginning of the world; Destroying the hook rope and abandoning the rules, the finger of the work, the world has its own ingenuity. " (Zhuangzi Gui) At this level, Taoism does have a certain anti-cultural color. However, due to the special background and premise of this anti-cultural tendency of Taoism, this resistance itself cannot be simply denied in the aesthetic sense. In other words, Taoism's nothingness is aimed at Confucianism's existence, while Taoism's deconstruction is aimed at Confucianism's construction. Therefore, the understanding of Taoism must be based on the judgment of Confucian philosophy and aesthetics.
In the aesthetic sense, Taoism's deconstruction of the ritual and music culture constructed by Confucianism is mainly manifested in three aspects: first, the deconstruction of literary ornaments, that is, the removal of all decorative elements attached by civilization to material objects and the reduction to a simple and chaotic form. We know that Confucius still attached great importance to "Wen" on the premise that he emphasized the dialectical relationship between "Wen" and "Quality is better than Wen, and Wen is better than history" (The Analects of Confucius, Yongye). The so-called "Huan Hu! The Analects of Confucius Taibo is a tribute to the sensory culture of Yao carving and decoration. The so-called "eating and drinking filial piety leads to filial piety, and poor clothes lead to beauty" (The Analects of Confucius Taibo) is a compliment to the gorgeous ceremonial costumes created in the Yu era, while the so-called "in the second generation, he was depressed. When talking about people's self-cultivation, Confucius said, "If people don't want what they know from Wu Zhong, Bian Zhuangzi's courage and Ran Qiu's skill, they can also become adults. "(The Analects of Confucius) The so-called" writing with rites and music "here is to attach rites and music to people as a decoration, so that it has noble quality and cultural significance. When talking about the rhetoric of the article, Confucius said: "For life, we should strive to create it by grass, discuss it by uncles, decorate it by pedestrians' feathers, and polish it by hedges." "The so-called' retouching' and' retouching' here are obviously a kind of treatment of words and a modification of language. When it comes to art appreciation, Confucius said: "The chaos of watching drama was very echoed at the beginning of learning from foreigners!" (The Analects of Confucius Taber) The so-called "majestic" here undoubtedly reflects the artist's technique and ingenuity. This kind of thought is more obvious in post-Confucianism. Xunzi said, "People of nature are simple in materials; Fake people, art and science flourish. Asexuality is just falsehood, and without falsehood, sex cannot be self-beautiful. " (On Xun Gigi Lai). This kind of cultural effort, such as "showing off one's edge" (see the quotation in The Book of Songs in The Analects of Confucius), is exactly contrary to nature and human nature in Taoist view. Lao Tzu believes that "if Ming Dow is ignorant, he will retreat when he enters the Tao" (Lao Tzu's Chapter 41) and "Tao is a fool's beginning" (Lao Tzu's Chapter 38)! In this way, all human efforts and the pursuit of civilization, instead of approaching the original realm of "Tao", run counter to "Tao" and create a large number of false, distorted and miscellaneous cultural wastes. -"In addition to the DPRK, the fields are rough, the warehouses are empty, the clothes are colorful, the swords are disgusting, and the goods are more than enough. This is called stealing. It' s also awkward! " (Chapter 53 of Laozi) In this case, "learning to be an excellent official" (Chapter 48 of Laozi), he advocated that it is best to give up too much sensory enjoyment and spiritual desire, and "govern by doing nothing, doing nothing and being tasteless" (Chapter 63 of Laozi), and experience pure and primitive life fun in a simple and simple life. Zhuangzi and his later scholars are also skeptical and critical of the artificial efforts of carving: "Cattle and horses have four feet, which is called heaven;" "Falling off the horse's head and wearing a bull's nose are all people. As the saying goes, people can't destroy the sky, their lives can't be destroyed, and their names can't be sacrificed. It is counter-intuitive to keep it. " (Zhuangzi Qiushui) Therefore, it is argued that "human voice" is not as good as "earth sound", and "earth sound" is not as good as "nature". "Heaven and earth have great beauty, but we don't talk about it. We always have a clear method, everything is reasonable, and we don't talk about it. Sage, the beauty of the original heaven and earth, the principle of all things, is the principle of inaction, the great sage does not do it, and the view of heaven and earth is also. " (Zhuangzi's Journey to the North) It can be seen that Laozi and Zhuangzi's deconstruction of cultural ornaments not only has a negative destructive effect, but also seeks a new aesthetic significance of returning to nature and attaching importance to nature in the process of deconstructing cultural symbols.
Secondly, Taoism should further deconstruct the internal laws followed by Confucianism in creating cultural symbols on the basis of deconstructing the external decoration of physical objects. As we said, in Confucius' view, cultural symbols such as "Li" and "Yue" are the direct expression of the values of "benevolence" and "Li" in the ideological field. Therefore, as a special "emotional symbol", the creative rules followed by art are completely determined by its "going too far" behavior standard and "golden mean" thinking mode. Confucius has always advocated that emotion should be controlled by reason, and painting elements afterwards (The Analects of Confucius, Eight Shu). In Yan Yuan's words, it is "the master is good and charming, erupts me with words and asks me with courtesy" (The Analects of Confucius, Zi Han). Only by treating art according to this law can we create excellent works that meet the ethical standards, such as Guan Ju, which is "happy but not lewd, sad but not hurt" (The Analects of Confucius, Bashu), which plays the role of "evil purple takes Zhu Ye, evil Zheng Sheng makes music, and evil interests overwhelm the country" (The Analects of Confucius, Yang Huo). However, in Taoist view, since Confucianism follows that set of ethical standards, Laozi believes that people's natural feelings should not be restricted and distorted by art, but that people's life and art should follow the laws and regulations of nature, thus entering a realm of "the laws of man, earth, heaven and Tao are all natural" (Chapter 25 of Laozi). In this realm, art is simple, natural and non-utilitarian, and only on the premise of these three, people's artistic activities can realize free imagination and continuous creation, that is, the so-called "Heaven, do not fight for victory or defeat, should be silent, uninvited, but resourceful." (Chapter 73 of Laozi) This kind of "aimless and purposeful" seems to be more in line with the law of artistic creation than the Confucian view of "starting with emotion and ending with propriety and righteousness". Zhuangzi and his later scholars also thought: "Being quiet means being clear, being clear means being empty, and being empty means doing nothing." (Zhuangzi Geng Sangchu) and on this basis, developed a set of artistic realm of life of "riding things". The so-called "taking things" means following the laws and rules of nature; Only by conforming to nature to the greatest extent can we "wander"-realize spiritual freedom and liberation. Just like experts understand cows. Only by "following the principle of nature" and "because of its nature" can we "enter a room without thickness, and there must be a room again". Even "from nature to nature" and "falling into alto" are the dances of "Sanglin", which is the first of the classics. ("Zhuangzi Health Master") It can be seen that Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi's deconstruction of artistic laws only abandons artificial utilitarian standards, rather than trampling on objective natural laws; On the contrary, in dealing with the dialectical relationship between nature and freedom, the "deconstruction" activity of Taoism has its unique insights and creativity.
On the basis of deconstructing literary decoration, the most extreme development of Taoist thought is the deconstruction of language symbol system as the carrier of cultural phenomena. We know that the cultural symbol system with rites and music as the core existed long before Confucius, but it is very loose and unstable due to the lack of support of ethical values. The so-called "construction" of Confucianism is to support the symbol system of "rites and music" with the value concept of "benevolence" in order to overcome the situation that "rites collapse and music is bad". In view of the confusion of cultural symbol system at that time, Confucius once issued "No, no, no! Hey! " (The Analects of Confucius Yongye). In his view, the confusion of superficial symbols such as "nothing" means the vacillation of deep values such as "no monarch" and "no minister". Therefore, he tried his best to rectify the values and symbol system through "correcting the name" and straighten out the relationship between them: "the name is not correct, and the words are not smooth; Words are not smooth, things are not smooth; If you can't do it, you will be happy; If the ceremony and music are not prosperous, the punishment will be lost; If the punishment is not correct, the people have no wrong hands and no feet. Therefore, the name of a gentleman must be spoken, and words must be feasible. The words of a gentleman are nothing but nothing. " In fact, in the process of expressing his views, we can also find that he is very particular and confident in the use of language symbols. For example, when Confucius talked about the character of benevolent people, he said: "fairness, tolerance, faith, people and benefit." Respect is not insulting, forgiveness is popular, faith is responsible, sensitivity is meritorious, and forgiveness can make people. " (The Analects of Confucius Yang Huo) When talking about the artistic function of poetry. Confucius said, "Poetry can arouse, examine, crowd and complain." (The Analects of Confucius Yang Huo) Although Confucianism is not very interested in logic and rhetoric, all this at least shows that Confucius and others hold a positive attitude towards language symbols. In Taoism, whose function is deconstruction, the attitude towards language symbols is just the opposite. Laozi said: "Tao can be Tao, but extraordinary;" Famous, very famous. " (Chapter 1 of Laozi) In his view, it is impossible to express the real ontological content with language symbols. Once we describe Tao with limited symbols, the infinite meaning of this ontology will inevitably be covered up, which is the so-called "Tao is hidden and nameless" (Laozi 41). Under his influence, Zhuangzi also saw the limitations of language symbols: "Tao is not audible, but not audible; Tao is invisible, seeing instead of also; Tao cannot be said, and words cannot be said. Do you know the shape of the shape? Tao is not famous. "(Zhuangzi's Journey to the North) and further pointed out:" Where the world is expensive, books are also valuable, but books are not language, and language is expensive. The language is expensive, and the meaning also follows; Your meaning cannot be expressed in words, but what you say cannot be expressed in words. Although the world is expensive, I am still not expensive, because it is not expensive. Therefore, those who can be seen are all kinds; Those who can hear and smell are also famous. Sad husband! All kinds of fame in the world are enough to win the love of others. If the husband's reputation is not enough to win his favor, then the knower does not speak, the speaker does not know, and the world knows it! " (Zhuangzi Heaven) In this way, the whole language symbol system composed of various reputations has been deconstructed. However, the purpose of Zhuangzi's deconstruction of language symbol system is not to abolish this system, but only to achieve the meaning beyond symbols with the help of language. "Zhuangzi Foreign Things" said: "People who are full of fish are caught in the fish and forget the fish; Hooves are such in rabbits, he got rabbits but forgot hooves; The speaker was so concerned that he forgot to speak proudly. "Because the deconstruction of superficial symbols and the pursuit of deep meaning are mutual, the deconstruction of symbols by Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi is not completely negative, just like the deconstruction of literary ornaments and rules. In fact, it is close to the mystery of artistic language on another level.
From the above triple deconstruction, we can see that the historical contribution of Taoism to China's aesthetics is presented as the antithesis of Confucian aesthetics. From the aesthetic ideal, simplicity itself is not beautiful, only returning to the original is beautiful. Therefore, if there is no culture of rites and music constructed by Confucianism that is far away from the original form, then the living state of "living with animals and living with everything" (Zhuangzi horseshoe) pursued by Taoism has no aesthetic value at all. In the art category, if there is a direct kinship between Confucian aesthetics and music and dance, then Taoist aesthetics has a far-reaching influence on painting and calligraphy. Wang Wei, a great poet and painter in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, advocated: "Ink painting is the most important in painting; The nature of nature is the work of nature. " ("Landscape Tactics") This obviously contains Laozi's thought of "Taoism is natural"; Zhang Yanyuan, a painting theorist in the late Tang Dynasty, said: "The vegetation is full of glory, not waiting for the color of painters; Clouds drift with snow, not waiting for lead powder to be white. The mountain leaves no green, and the phoenix leaves no color. It is because of ink and five colors that this is called pride. " There is no doubt that Zhuangzi's spirit of "getting carried away" permeated this period. Therefore, on the whole, as Xu said, "In the final analysis, the artistic spirit in China culture is just two typical examples of Confucius and Zhuangzi. Confucius shows a typical unity of benevolence and joy, which is the unity of morality and art in the hinterland and can be used as an eternal standard; ..... Zhuangzi's typical character is purely artistic, mainly solid in painting. " (China's Artistic Spirit, Feng Chun Literature and Art Publishing House (1987), p. 5. It's just that I don't quite agree to use "purity" and "impure" to distinguish the two artistic spirits of Confucianism and Taoism. If Confucian aesthetics emphasizes "goodness", its extreme development will inevitably lead to "ethicism"; Then Taoist aesthetics pursues truth, and its extreme development will inevitably lead to naturalism As far as their ultimate value orientation is concerned, none of them is pure "beauty" or "art". However, beauty and art are just between goodness and truth and ethicism and naturalism. Therefore, just as the "construction" of Confucianism needs the "deconstruction" of Taoism to be constantly cleaned up to avoid "alienation", the "deconstruction" of Taoism also needs the "construction" of Confucianism to be constantly remedied to prevent "nothingness". In fact, it is under the impetus of the necessary tension between Confucianism and Taoism that China's aesthetics can present colorful styles and develop healthily.
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In a word, unlike Confucianism, which decorates the logical, orderly and symbolic aesthetic world with "construction", Taoism seeks a non-logical, non-orderly and non-symbolic aesthetic world with "deconstruction". If the efforts of Confucianism are a process from scratch, from simplicity to complexity, it pursues the realm of "fullness is beauty" (Mencius wholeheartedly) and "the deficiency of impure essence is beauty" (Xunzi exhortation); Then, the efforts of Taoism are a process of simplifying the complex and eliminating the complex, and its pursuit is the realm of "a loud voice is like its sound, and an elephant is invisible" (Laozi's forty-one) and "simplicity is beautiful without competing with the world" (Zhuangzi Heaven).
In the logical sense, these two realms have many variations in the category of China's aesthetics, such as truth and emptiness, movement and quietness, complexity and simplicity, form and spirit, law and impossibility, consciousness and unconsciousness, masculine beauty and feminine beauty. In short, these specifications