A Study Of Leisure Thoughts In Ancient China

It is in the 1990s that Chinese scholars began to attach great importance to the study of modern leisure although the topic is very old in the west. Since the 21st century, great changes have taken place in the consumption structure of Chinese living style, especially in the developed regions in east coast of China due to the rapid development of Chinese economy. Up to now, leisure has become the most important living style in the daily life of the Chinese.The new leisure industry develops rapidly under the stimulus of increasing leisure consumption. According to the Report on the Leisure Development from 2009-2010 in China, released on June 2,2010, by China State Social Science commissioned by the State Travel Bureau, the leisure industry in China in 2009 remained rapid growth in spite of global recession in the face of the financial crisis throughout the world. According to the statistics, the central part of the leisure consumption of the Chinese residents in 2009 was about 1,700 billion, which was equal to 13.56% of the total volume of retail sales of consumer goods, and to 5.07% of GDP in China. Human beings have to reflect on their own developmental orbit due to a series of social problems caused by the modern industrial civilization, pay much attention to the leisure activities and try to figure out their influences on the modern society.As the concept of leisure has been accepted by an increasing number of people, leisure activities have become colorful and the industrial structure of leisure more perfect, which makes it possible for people to improve their personality, living quality, the relationship with nature, and the establishment of a more harmonious community. With the advent of a new round of economic growth in the 21st century, leisure will play a more important part in people's daily life and become the spiritual home in the establishment of the new civilization structure.China is a country with a long history of culture and civilization. Throughout history China has had her unique way of understanding the leisure culture and made great contributions to the development of human mind and culture, especially the leisure thoughts and leisure culture in the world. Far back in history China is rich in leisure thoughts derived from leisure activities and has formed her own activity pattern, which is like a dazzling pearl in the treasure-house of the world culture. With the rapid economic and social development in China, the Chinese have more leisure time and financial capability than ever before, naturally they are able to pursue their leisure life. The leisure industry is booming in China as a result of the strong demand for it, and the fact that the leisure culture plays a more important role in people's daily life. The development of leisure industry gives a great impetus to the social and economic development, but there exist many misunderstandings due to the immature development of leisure industry in China, which in return lead to irrational consumer behavior and the distortion of the leisure functions. Therefore the adjustment is required for the leisure industry in our country, and the most important thing is to try to orient itself toward the sound development under the guidance of the right way of thinking. The traditional Chinese culture is rich in leisure thoughts and leisure culture, which are suggestive to the sound development of leisure industry in China. Furthermore, it is very urgent for us to study the leisure culture and leisure thoughts in ancient China and the significance in the development of modern industry. The dissertation aims to make a detailed study of the leisure thoughts in ancient China in order to have a full understanding of leisure and give an impetus to the sound development of leisure industry.Theoretically, the dissertation tends to analyze the leisure thoughts, especially the leisure thoughts in Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism by means of functional theory and conflict theory in sociology. The study of the leisure thoughts in ancient China from a new perspective helps us to have a better understanding of the rich content of the leisure thoughts in ancient China and the analysis of the inspiration we draw from the leisure thoughts is of great significance both in theory and practice to the right predictions about the future development trend of leisure in China.The research methods employed in the dissertation are as follows:1. Text study is employed to grasp the implied meaning that can't be in the text from the surface structure to the deep structure.2. Historical approach is accepted to trace the origin of the leisure thoughts in ancient China and figure out the law of its development with the help of the detailed study of the leisure thoughts in different stages in ancient China in order to make a prediction about the development of leisure in future in modern China.3. Etimological analysis is applied to the study of the changes in meaning of the word Leisure from the diachronic perspectiveThe general roadmap of the dissertation is as follows:the dissertation looks at the nature of leisure and makes further analysis of relevant concepts from the perspective of etymology. Leisure is reclassified from the humanistic and economic perspectives. The dissertation focuses on the analysis of the leisure thoughts in ancient China and comes to a conclusion. The dissertation discusses the leisure thoughts in ancient China from two aspects:a. the leisure thoughts in ancient China is reclassified from the perspective of the traditional Chinese culture; b. the leisure thoughts are studied from the perspective of history. The study of the rich leisure thoughts in the traditional Chinese culture is based on the domestic culture. However, it is hard to make a clear demarcation line between them since they are so closely related. Up to now, leisure has become an essential part in our daily life, but there exist many misunderstandings of it due to the fact that many people can not lead a meaningful leisure life and that there are many problems caused by the rapid development of leisure industry.The dissertation expounds on the causes of the existing problems in the leisure industry and behavior and puts forward some suggestions, which are of great significance both in theory and practice to the right policy-making of leisure development and makes predictions about the development of leisure in future in modern China.