Researching On The Modern Neo-Confucian Aesthetics Of Literary And Art Thought

The modern Neo-Confucian is a very important academic community in our history of academic. On the one hand, they give their accent to learn advance technology and culture from West; on the other hand, they opposed to learn all the things from West. They insist we could not adopt the method of breaking off traditional culture completely. They are not a group who cling to the remains of old ideas, but are modern intellectual men who are knowledgeable about both the East and the West. They go out the Western learning and return to the Confucianism. They devote to the transformation from Chinese traditional culture to the modern theory. The aesthetics of literary and art is an important constituent of the academic thoughts of the modern Neo-Confucian scholars, and is consistent with their basic academic standpoint. But at present the modern scholars at home make little account of the aesthetics of literary and art.The thought about aesthetics of literary and art of modern Neo-Confucian scholar's is consistent with the humanities spirit contained in China traditional culture. They think that China traditional culture contains valuable humanities spirit, which is the essence of Chinese traditional culture, and which is also expressed in the classical aesthetic."Perfection"is one of the Confucian views of literary arts all the time. The modern Neo-Confucian scholars make new explanation for this proposition unifying the western philosophy thought, thus make it with strong metaphysical color. After the contact with western modern philosophy, the modern Neo-Confucian scholars hold the idea that"the life"takes an important position in China ancient esthetics. Comparing with the west, life esthetics is completely different in China, the China traditional culture is a culture of"valuing life"which can be found the source in Zhou Yi. Many important propositions are related to"the life"theory in Chinese traditional literature theory. Liangshuming,Xiongshili,and Muzongsan, they all attach great importance to the understanding of Chinese traditional culture from the perspective of life. And Fang Dongmei even has constructed his own Philosophy of Life—a complete philosophy system. Confucian philosophy is a theory of mood and it is the habitual method for Confucian discussing arts from the mood perspective. For Neo-Confucian, studying and explaining Confucianism and the core of Chinese culture from the perspective of that mood is a Consensus for the Neo-Confucian, discussing aesthetics of literary and arts from the perspective of mood is to regard art as life's performance and reflection. The core of works has close relation with its author. In this way, the view of the arts and that of universe and philosophy are unified as a whole. The merits are to maintain the harmony of theory which is an Academic feature of modern Neo-Confucianism. The four points referred above are the basic features in the aesthetic thought of Neo-Confucian's which is a Critical inheritance form china traditional aesthetics of literary and art, and which is not simply persist without change , they are developed and completed by the way of absorbing western modern philosophy thought and deep thinking.The Neo-Confucian's thought of aesthetics of literary and art is valuable to the construction of our national taste of discourse. The"aphasia" of aesthetics is the performance of fact facing sorts of western literary theory and aesthetics, Chinese literary theory has lost itself. In new century, the most important task of aesthetics workers and art workers is the extrication of this awkward position, and the reconstruction of our national aesthetics taste of discourse. The achievements get our attention. The four points mentioned above are the Quintessence of the results which the Neo-Confucian get from their research on Chinese traditional aesthetics of literary and art. These points represent the features of our traditional aesthetics of literary and art, which derive from the Chinese traditional culture and which can represent the aesthetics features of our nation. Meanwhile, the research methods in aesthetics of literary and art of modern Neo-Confucians are also worth our learning. But they insist that they learn from the West to reconstruct the Chinese culture in a higher level, and introduce western thought to Confucian. Their purpose of learning western thought is to reconstruct Chinese culture. They are all in their bounden duty to promoting Chinese culture. They all committed to exploring the source of the limbo life of culture and the long-lost truly spirits of Confucian; and committed to promote the Chinese traditional culture in a strong sense of culture mission. In specific methods, firstly ,the Quintessence of traditional culture should be modernized in a creative way. It is the basic method for Neo-Confucian in the new historical conditions, traditional Chinese culture whose main body is Confucian culture should be reexamined, the valuable thought of this culture should be developed and enriched, at the same time, the outdated dross part of which should be discarded, this is also the reason why they are named Cultural conservatives. Secondly, the culture exchange with the western culture should be on an equal basis. Most of the Neo-Confucians are learned from both Chinese traditional culture and western culture, and they have studied on the western culture deeply, but they do not become self-contempt and look down upon our traditional culture, they introduce the western culture to Confucian, and carry on intercultural dialogue with the western. Thirdly, they have the courage to have their own thought. The Neo-Confucian has a great courage in culture discussion. Both the standpoints and the method of Neo-Confucian deserve our research.