On Imamichi Tomonobu’s Criticism Of Confucius’ Aesthetics

Imamichi Tomonobu interprets Confucius’ s thought of "start with poetry,form from ceremony,achieve in music" as the problem of poetry art,ceremony art and music art respectively,and calls it Confucius’ s three-stage theory of art.With transcendence as the axis of discussion,he explores the boundary of transcendence of these three different art forms.Imamichi Tomonobu regards Confucius’ "rectification of name" as the starting point of human knowledge and the beginning of thinking.In the process of "rectification of names",people establish the objects they know and give them clear definitions.In this way,the concept is formed,and the definition of the concept becomes the beginning of language and also the beginning of thinking.However,the establishment of this conceptual world also draws its boundaries.As the establishment of conceptual language,"zhengming" can only talk about things,but can’t touch the Beings itself.In his view,the art of poetry is the starting point of art and people begin to perceive existence.After realizing the transcendence of the conceptual world through the art of poetry,the art of poetry also touches the boundary of its transcendence--within the realm of human consciousness.Therefore,in order to transcend this externalization,it is necessary to resort to ritual.This is what Confucius said,"without learning propriety,there is no foundation."However,there is still a limit to the transcendence achieved in the practice of rites.This limit reflects that although people have been gradually approaching the existence,they are still confined to the time and space,that is,the real world.The key to Being beyond this reality lies in music.Imamichi Tomonobu also put forward his critical views on the aesthetics of Confucius.First,Confucius did not fully understand the importance of language,and poetry as a poetic language itself is the manifestation of existence.Second,the aesthetics of Confucius is only limited to the perspective of art appreciators,and lacks the perspective of artistic creation.Therefore,the transcendence completed in music is still insufficient.This paper tries to explore whether the creative interpretation of Confucius’ aesthetics by Imamichi Tomonobu is the same as the speech of Confucius’ aesthetics itself as the wisdom of China,and the relationship between art and Taoism from the perspective of transcending its own prescriptive nature.