The Lan Aesthetic Thought

As one of the most famous scholars in Modern Chinese Philosophy, Feng You-lan constructed a system of philosophy with modern means which is known as new-confucianism.His work is accomplished by the integration of Chinese and Western philosophical traditions.It has been twenty years since the death of Feng You-lan. The depth and richness of Feng You-lan's philosophical thoughts has attracted wide attention from researchers in the field of philosophy during the past twenty years.However, his aesthetic thoughts have been overlooked.It is true that Feng You-lan's books contain a wealth of aesthetic thoughts. These are reflected not only in his directly addresses on the Beauty and the Arts, but also in his philosophical discussions.The study on the aesthetic thoughts of Feng You-lan is based on what others have already researched,and we adopt the Marxist method of the unity of history and logic.This paper is divided into four parts:Chapter one is mainly study backgrounds and theoretical origins of Feng You-lan's aesthetic thoughts.In our opinion,Chinese-western cultural conflict, the national crisis and the tension between tradition and modernity are backgrounds of Feng You-lan's aesthetic thoughts. The integration of Chinese and Western philosophical traditions constitute theoretical origins of his aesthetic thoughts. Feng's unique way of life and temperament is the direct cause of his aesthetic thoughts.Chapter two is mainly study components of Feng You-lan's aesthetic thoughts.This section includes Methodology, Ontology, On Art and Feng You-lan's Realm Theory. In the New Confucianism of Feng You-lan's discussion on the methodology, its use of "negative approach" to the metaphysics gives inspiration to the aesthetic, and even it itself is a rich aesthetic. Taoist method , Zen approach and poetic speech are the three kinds of typical speech modes of the "negative approach". In our view, these three modes form the possibility of aesthetic interpretation, are reflected in the following four aspects : the intuitiveness, mystery, transcendence, and muddy. In Feng You-lan's New Confucianism, there is a transformation of aesthetic ideas which is also a gradual process of understanding, approaching the practice. The earlier argument of Feng You-lan with weak points is not in conformity with the actual aesthetic activities.It was so weak that he came to realize its mechanical natures.Therefore, he turned his attention to the aesthetic nature of the actual people's activities, emphasizing that "Beauty is an image to make people produce some feelings". And then, it really highlighted the value of his theory. "Beauty is an image to make people produce some feelings" can be seen as a theory derived by Feng You-lan based on the aesthetic fact. In his process of statement of philosophy, Feng You-lan often discussed the arts from time to time. His discussion of many issues in art is not only related to some fundamental questions of art, but also reflects the integration of Chinese and Western aesthetics. At the same time,Feng You-lan constitutes the realm of the leading theory without losing the national-based values. That is mainly reflected in three aspects: two levels on the art, the art of "literary" and "quality" and the function of art. Although the realm of transcendence, as Feng You-lan has said, is primarily about philosophy, it has the possibilities of the aesthetic interpretation. Seen from the perspectives of art and main body, the theory could be interpreted as a kind of philosophy of artistic beauty or artistic philosophy, a mystical beauty of experience , a kind of poetically survival beauty and a romantic beauty of personality. Therefore, Feng You-lan's realm of transcendence is also a realm of aesthetic level.Chapter three is mainly study the overall outlook of Feng You-lan's aesthetic thoughts.In our opinion, Feng You-lan's aesthetics presents the overall outlook of " the blending of Rationality and Realm ". " Rationality " refers to the rational temperament emphasizing the position of the scientific doctrine; " Realm " means the realm of aesthetics, which is the ultimate goal of the aesthetics. And the two aspects are combined together to reflect the integration of Chinese and Western fusion without losing the national-based thinking.Chapter four is mainly discuss contributions,weakness and the modern significance of Feng You-lan's aesthetic thoughts. Methodological integration of Chinese and West, the creative thinking about Aesthetic Ontology, the pursuit of metaphysical on Arts and the upgrade on the aesthetic realm are four contributions that Feng You-lan provided to us. The weakness of Feng You-lan's aesthetic thoughts are also Manifested in four aspects. First, His aesthetic thoughts are objective idealism. Second, He treated the aesthetic ontology too simple. Third, there was a conservative side when he discussed Arts. Fourth, Feng ignored the sensibility of transcendence realm. Feng You-lan's aesthetic thoughts is not only good for theoretical research but also beneficial to our reality.Firstly, it provides a new way to look at Chinese and Western ways of thinking. Secondly, it is good for us to construct Chinese Aesthetic System. Finally, it gives us an opportunity to rethinking the real meaning of life.