Modern Chinese Scholars' Perspectives on Zhuangzi's Aesthetics

Abstract

Modern Chinese scholars of Zhuangzi's aesthetics can be illustrated by the words of Liu Shaojin in Zhuangzi and Chinese Aesthetics. The aesthetic significance of the book Zhuangzi is not a theoretical summary of beauty and art as objects, but rather, when it comes to its 'Dao', it's understanding of The aesthetic significance of Zhuangzi's book is not a theoretical summary of beauty and art, but a coincidence between its experience and realm of 'Tao' and the aesthetic experience and realm of art. Because of this coincidence, later generations naturally transposed these philosophical questions with aesthetic overtones to the understanding of the aesthetic characteristics of art, thus giving new meaning to Zhuangzi's philosophical propositions. In this sense, people believe that the literary and artistic thoughts and aesthetic theories contained in Zhuangzi are not distinguished by the correctness of their conclusions, but by the illuminating, suggestive, and profound way in which they touch upon the issues in the course of their exposition. This suggests that Chinese scholars have a dialectical approach to Zhuangzi's philosophical aesthetics, and that needs a careful look at examples like Zhili Shu with a critical eye in modern times.