On Tong Category And Aesthetic Subject In Ancient China

In the Chinese Aesthetics(中国美学)research of recent years, categories is common point of research. Because there is no so-called Aesthetic(美学)in ancient China, the ancients express their aesthetic thoughts mainly through literature, painting, calligraphy, art activities and other ordinary Aesthetic Activities(审美活动).After a long time of successive development, these thoughts gradually evolved into many Aesthetic Categories(美学范畴),which embodies the spirit of Chinese Aesthetics(中国美学).Based on the above, it is imperative to research these Chinese Aesthetic Categories through the performance of Aesthetic Activities(审美活动).However, the mainly problem of the Chinese Aesthetics research is that many scholars have ignored the Aesthetic Activities, their research are based on the point of art aesthetics, so the scope of Chinese Aesthetics has been narrowed and it is difficult to show some of the characteristics of Chinese Aesthetics. This paper takes the category of "Tong" as example, systematically analyzing its connotation and extension by the means of series of some active proposition with the purpose of seeking wide views in a small confined space, to explore the research direction of Chinese Aesthetics.The introduction of this paper analyzes the concept of Aesthetic Subject(审美主体),indicating the relationship of Aesthetic Subject and Aesthetic Object(审美客体).There is no possibility to separate the activities of Subject(主体)from Aesthetic Activities, and Aesthetic Activities is the transcendence of Aesthetic Subject. Finally, the ultimate purpose of the Aesthetic Subject is the pursuing of freedom. Aesthetic Subject is of far reaching importance of Chinese Aesthetics.There are three parts for the main body of the paper, which analyze the relationship between Aesthetic Activities, Aesthetic Object, and Tong, revealing the function of Tong in this progress.Chapter One analyses the propositions of the Exceptional Vision(视通万里)and the Seeing and Hearing to the Spirits(耳目内通).These two propositions interpret the effect of Aesthetic Subject in the Aesthetic Activities, pointing out that there will be some modifications for the mentality of the Subject. Between the two of them, the former one places extra emphasis on Aesthetic Imagination and association, which achieves the Subject and the Object(客体),the latter one emphasizes the internal feelings when the Subject percepts the Object, namely the inspiration of the Subject through the mind. These two propositions show the action of Tong to the Aesthetic Subject.Chapter Two choose another two propositions, one is Feeling then Communicating(感而遂通),the other is To Communicate with All Things(通于万物),which emphasize the perception of all things, and also reveal the feature of Aesthetic Subject. Feeling for Communicating means that when the Aesthetic Subject are stimulated, it will lead to related Aesthetic Activities; To Communicate with All Things stick out the initiative of the Subject, for the Subject combination with the Object. and also Compensated with All Things, then the Subject will enjoy the highest happiness.The last two propositions in Chapter Three is Three Glass To Communicate to Tao(三杯通大道)and All things Are Free When the Soul Is Communicated(心通万事闲),which show the communicated with All Things in the Aesthetic Activities: To communicate to Tao, the Subject will also inspirit the harmony between the heaven and human(天人合一)and the Subject and the Object mixed together(物我一体).The proposition in the end expresses that when the physical Communicate with All Things and the metaphysical Communicate to Tao are becoming true, then the Subject will apperceive vacancy and quiet, leisurely and comfortable, and the Aesthetic subject is communicating with the nature and all things. So there will be no obstacle between the Aesthetic Subject and the Aesthetic Object, and the subject will adjustment with all things, to reach the freedom.The purpose of the discussion of the main body of the paper is to reveal the progress, in which the ancients break the obstacle between the Subject and the Object, to bring about the freedom between human and Tao. At the end of the paper, I elaborate the researching of these propositions and meaning to the Environmental Aesthetics(环境美学)and the Ecological Aesthetics(生态美学).The innovations of my paper are as follows. First, I no longer use the pure theory research of art, but emphasis the importance of Aesthetic Activities in ancient China. Second, I also propose that the direction of aesthetic research should be aesthetic scope, when I treatise, I choose some propositions that related with Tong, highlighting the inspiration and experience in the Aesthetic Activities, also explaining the view that the harmony between the heaven and human and the subject and the Object mixed together in the movement term.