The Theory Of "Elysium"

As one of the meta-categories of traditional Chinese culture,"le" has quite rich inherent connotations and the basic or common one is a type of "happy" emotion;besides,"le" can also represent an emotional form in a broad sense.In fact,"le" has undergone several times of transmutation in Chinese classical cultural progress."Le" is also an important basiccategory in Chinese philosophy to symbolize the relationship between"human" and "nature"...It can be found,after an overview on the various cultural forms and implication within "le",the inclusion and condensation of human’s emotional experience and spiritual state turn out to be the hidden train of thought.Regarding this point,"elysium",a brand-new theoretical term coined by combining "le" and "state",can,to a great degree,cover the profound connotation of "le" in terms of aesthetic experience and spiritual transcendence.Chapter I reveals and analyzes the overall situation of "le" in Chinese culture,by discussing the continuous evoluation path of "le",i.e.origin → transmutation →sublimation.As far as the origin,"le" as a specific emotional state is triggered by the mutual reaction between the "le" within "nature" and the "le" entrusted to "human".On the part of transmutation,"le" undertakes four times of transmutation,along with the alteration of "emotional subject".Specifically,the four times of transmutationof "le"include(1)a complex integrating religious experience,political dignity and aesthetic form,(2)the separation between holy significance and sensationalexperience,(3)an independent aestheticexperience and(4)daily aesthetic experience.In terms of sublimation,as a basic category of Chinese philosophy,"le" begins with Pre-Qin Confucianism and grows mature and thus becomes Neo-Confucianism at Song and Ming Dynasties,eventually integrating moral implication and aesthetic taste.In this way,"le"both adheres to sensible experience and fulfill sinner transcendence.It symbolizes the state of "the oneness between nature and human",possesses great theoretical significance and belongs to a philosophical category on a pretty high theoretical level.Chapter II reveals the essential connotation of "elysium" on two syncretic levels,i.e.aesthetic experience and state transcendence.As to aesthetic experience,"elysium"shows that Chinese classical aesthetics emphasizes and seeks the value of "elysium".In specificaesthetic activity,"elysium" can be reflected by three states or levels,i.e."the pleasure out of eyesight","the knowing pleasure" and "the pleasure out of mind-wandering".As to state transcendence,"elysium" surpasses ordinary emotional experience and intends to reach a "happy&harmonious" effect;During the assimilation movement with the universe,subject transcends specific spatial-temporal experience,accomplishing a ksana eternity of life.More importantly,"elysium" tries to embody an overall spiritual transcendence integrating aesthetic experience and life experience.Chapter III explores the cultural origin for the creation of "elysium" from the perspective of the basic idea and way of thinking of Chinese philosophy.As an important assertion and core principle of ancient Chinese thought,"the oneness between nature and human" is a significant ideological source during the creation of "elysium" and,at the same time,represents the top ideological state of "elysium".During the traditional Chinese way of thinking,the consciousness of subject is usually emphasized,which makes the life activity of ancient Chinese tend to emphasizesubject’ sexperience and the creation of subject’s inner psychological state.It is during such inner spiritual exploration that "elysium" comes into being.Chapter Ⅳ focuses on the obvious ideological division and theoretical system of traditional Chinese culture and describes three mature and typical states of "elysium":the"elysium" of Confucianism,the "elysium" of Taoism and the "elysium" of Zen Buddhism.The "elysium" of Confucianism originates from a set of mind and body-cultivating effort,with "respect" as its core and ends with a free spiritual state illustrated by the Chinese words "吾与点也" from The Analects of Confucius,which was mentioned by Confucius to show that himself and Xi Zeng had the same life pursuit.The "elysium" of Taoism begins with how to create apsychological state featuring in"stillness" and ends with the ultimate fusion between "mind" and "Dao",i.e."untroubled ease".In Zen Buddhism,"elysium" exists in the peaceful,natural and original disposition of human.The "elysium’ takes "Dunwu" as the critical point and finally blend in the perfect state of "non-sage,non-ordinary people" and "ordinary people is sage or vice versa".The logical deduction and theoretical narration from "le" to "elysium" demonstrate the various levels of the spiritual world of ancient Chinese and how far-reaching and broad their spiritual world is.The deduction and narration also embody the real-time mindful observation of ancient Chinese towards their inner soul experience and their eternal pursuit of the deeply-rooted value and significance of life.