The Aesthetic Study Of Body Consciousness In The Yellow Emperor's Internal Classics

The Huangdi’s Internal Classics, regarded as the Ancestor of Medicine and the foundation stone of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Theory, contains a large number of concepts of body. In this masterpiece, "the body of human" was regarded as the object of study, filling with intense humanistic spirit. Contrary to western traditional opinions, which was based on the separation of flesh and spirit, in Huangdi’s Internal Classics, the body is not a purely physical object, but a wholism of a human’s flesh and spirit. Therefore, when it comes to Somaesthetics, which started in 1999 and continues to be a newly born science, it turns out to be that Huangdi’s Internal Classics and Somaesthetics are similar in the aspects of body. It also provides important historical foundation for Western modern philosophy and aesthetics to re-examine the body.In this paper, body is regarded as the starting point to study the theory of somaesthetics in Huangdi’s Internal Classics, and the different perceptions of body between China and the West. The book has put forward an important standpoint: integration of the form and the spirit. In this thought, importance had been attached not only to a good health, but also a strong vitality of life. Correspondingly, a ideal body should be reach a perfect state between the form and the spirit. The way to reach this goal is not the West’s pursuit from the external by physical exercising, but a specific way that it is a unique way of Huangdi’s Internal Classics. These studies are propitious to initiate the dialogue and establish contacts between Chinese culture and western cultures. And it also has a directive function to live better.