Body Research From The Perspective Of Chinese Character Aesthetics

The Chinese character aesthetics refers to studying Chinese characters from the aesthetic perspective and studying aesthetics through the studies of Chinese characters.Its foundation lies in the unification between the forms,pronunciations and meanings of Chinese characters.Hence the study consists of the images of Chinese characters,as well as corresponding discourse connotations and structure.Quite a few constructive theoretical domains of Chinese character aesthetics are closely related to the human body.The paper consists of three parts,including the introduction,the main body and the conclusionThe introduction part first reviewed the ancient resources of Chinese character aesthetics and summarized the extent studies of Chinese character aesthetics.It then pointed out that the Chinese character aesthetics should consider a question amid the focal questions of contemporary aesthetical cultures.For instance,the “turn of the body” in Western philosophical studies makes it necessary to reexamine the issues concerning the human body in China from the perspective of Chinese character aesthetics.Hence the author combined philology,iconology,body aesthetics and genealogy to “peel off” and “abstract” the physical and mental structures consistent with the original image and basic landscape of Chinese history from the character images and literature of ancient Chinese society.Next,the author studied Chinese character aesthetics,including “five senses”,“four limbs”,“soul” and “heaven—men” from the perspective of the human body.The main body is divided into five chapters.Chapter I demonstrated the internal connections between the human body and the Chinese character aesthetics.It first conducted an etymologic study on two characters,including “?”(body)and“?”(form),and explained their original implications and explicit aesthetical concepts.Next,it reviewed the status quo of studying the human body and pointed out the difficulties met in studying the human body and body aesthetics.It then put forward the necessity and feasibility of studying the human body from the perspective of Chinese character aesthetics.The necessity lies in the image and pedigree characteristics of Chinese characters,which allow for the construction of complex prospects for the human body based on reflecting the signifying and signified images of Chinese characters and the complementation between Chinese characters.The feasibility lies in the fact that Chinese characters were created based on mankind's sensual experience and“multiplied and increased”according to the characteristics between the human body and main body.As a result,natural connections were established between Chinese characters and the human body.Chapter II focused on exploring the body aesthetics contained by the Chinese characters related to five senses.This part discussed about how the Chinese characters related to “?”(eye),“?”(ear),“?”(mouth),“?”(nose)and“?”(eyebrow)reflect and experience beauty.Firstly,it pointed out“?”is matched with“?”(corner of the eye),“?”(eyelid),“?”(eyelash)and“?”(pupil)to reflect its aesthetic qualities.“ ? ”(watch)is the aesthetical function of “ ? ” and the aesthetical connotations of“?”(watch)are from the Chinese character pedigree of“?-?-?”.Secondly,it started with introducing the image connotations of“?”,and thought ancient Chinese created“?”in the image of a large ear to express the life connotations of the human body.Next,it pointed out ancient Chinese had deep aesthetical understanding of transient and momentary sounds based on analyzing the images of“?”(listen)and“?”(holy).Thirdly,ancient Chinese reflected the mouth with“?”to accentuate its eating and speaking functions.Regarding the eating function,the author explored ancient Chinese'perceptual understanding of taste centered on ?(sweet)and ?(taste).Regarding the speaking function,the author explored the character “?”(speech)and pointed out that“?”is applied to ceremonies through the characteristics of“harmony between sound and music”and“appeasing the people and pleasing gods”,which laid a foundation for future generations to develop the views of speaking and speech.Fourthly,the author analyzed the configuration meaning of “ ? ”(nose)and pointed out the important significance of “ ? ” to self-cognition.Based on exploring the character“?”,the author pointed out“?”(smell)is an important aesthetical experience in ancient China that profoundly affected the literary criticism of future generations.Fifthly,the author held the view that “?”(eyebrow)primarily reflects an external aesthetics feeling of the body.For men,it represents life and bearing.For women,it symbolizes the aesthetical interests of “?”(charm).Chapter III focused on studying the connotations of the human body represented by the character pedigrees of“??”(four limbs).The author respectively discussed about the character images of“?”(hand)and“?”(foot)pedigrees to explore how ancient Chinese reflected the human body's reconstruction and exploration of the world space through Chinese characters.Firstly,the author analyzed the configuration and meaning construction of“?”(hand),explored its role of instrument and etiquette,and pointed out the body pattern of exploring the world space based on analyzing the variant characters of“?”(hand).Secondly,the author explored the characters in the“?”(foot)pedigree and thought“?”(foot)is the basis for the human body to explore the space;“?”(Road)is the starting point and midway of“?”(foot),the process and goals,as well as the most primitive source of aesthetics for the human body;“?”(remoteness)is the goal of“?”(path).The meanings of“?”(remoteness)are vague,abundant and transcendent,which attracts scholars to explore the character“?”and constructed the poetic speech for the human body space in the process of returning.Chapter IV focused on exploring the spiritual connections between the characters in the“?”(heart)pedigree and the human body.Centering on the characters related to“?”(heart),the author discussed about how ancient Chinese established connections between the abstract soul and concrete human body at the cognitive,emotional and semantic levels.Regarding the cognitive level,the author explored the character“?”(think),whose image reflects the connections between the heart and the mind and found out the thinking role of“?”can be achieved by interacting on the human body.Regarding the emotional level,the author first explored the characters“?”(emotion)and“?”(feeling).The author then pointed out that the aesthetical significance of“?”originated from“?”(green),while“?”expressed the authentic expression of the physical emotions;the meaning of“?”comes from“?”(sour)and evolved into“?”,which better reflects the mutual-touching and mutual-induction between the human body and everything.Regarding the semantic level,the author analyzed characters“?”(idea)and“?”(ambition),thinking“?”originally referred to the speech in the heart and its profound connotations are the physical activity guided by the intention of the human body;the image of“?”shows the goal and expectation of the heart;“?”refers to the spiritual will that guides,decides and dominates the behaviors of the human body.Chapter V mainly studied the aesthetic feeling conveyed by the Chinese characters related to “? ”.The author focused on discussing about key words,including“?”(man),“?”(large),“?”(beauty),“?”(civilized)and “?”(heaven),and studied how ancient Chinese expressed the beauty of the human body by taking a human being as a whole.The author then studied the image and meanings of “?”(man),pointed out that the image of “?” reflects a primitive spirit of life and the characteristics of “the heart of the heaven and earth”.Next,the author analyzed character“?”(large),thinking it accentuates the physical characteristics of a nobleman or the emperor,from which pan-aesthetic and pan-moral charm are derived in subsequent generations.Based on summarizing the explanations of“?”(beauty),the author pointed out its aesthetical connotations are jointly represented through the head decoration in the upper part and the image of a large human body in the lower part.It conveys the beauty of a dynamic form through the structure of power.Lastly,the author thought the character“?”originally reflected the nobleness of the heaven by enlarging the human head.As character “ ? ”evolved into “? ”and eventually into “?”,the philosophical-aesthetical form that was dominated by the“ unity between men and the heaven ” was derived from Chinese traditional philosophical aesthetics.The conclusion part summarized the significance and values of studying the human body from the perspective of Chinese character aesthetics.It pointed out a meaning world can be decoded centered on the human body.In addition,the present history and real history of the human body can be examined from the perspective of Chinese character aesthetics,so as to trace the profound significance of several concepts of literary course.By analyzing the character pedigrees related to the human body,the author found out some problems that were neglected by past aesthetical research.Hence the study is of profound significance for constructing and developing the aesthetics of Chinese literature and human body.