Confucian Aesthetics Research Articles

The character differences in the aesthetics of Zen Buddhism between China and Japan can be seen in the concepts of "qu" and "ji"

The integrity of Chinese culture itself has led to Buddhism being predominantly associated with religion, while in terms of aesthetics, there were numerous theoretical works during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties in China, with highly active thoughts. Works such as Lu Ji's "Wen Fu," Zhong Rong's "Shi Pin," Liu Xie's "Wen Xin Diao Long," and Xie He's "Gu Hua Pin Lu" emerged as a large body of aesthetic and artistic works. Therefore, the influence of Buddhism on Chinese aesthetic consciousness is prominently represented by the Zen thought influenced by native Daoist philosophy, which also reflects a positive aspect in facing real life. It presents an aesthetic taste of "joy" and "carefree." The core of Chinese aesthetics is not limited to the ethical aspect of Confucian aesthetics, but rather stems from the Daoist concept of "harmony between heaven and man" and the perception of nature. Before the introduction of Buddhism, Japan did not form a complete and systematic aesthetic concept. Moreover, the natural environment of the disaster-prone Japanese archipelago was not superior. With the entry of Buddhism into Japan and its dominance in Japanese culture, a pessimistic attitude towards the world quickly permeated the aesthetic consciousness of Japan, which lacked a conscious ideological system. This difference in aesthetic expression is manifested in the characters of "qu" and "ji" .

A study on the integration of Confucian aesthetics into the curriculum thinking of universities based on multiple data chain networks

Abstract This paper uses multivariate data chain incremental control to distribute Confucian aesthetic thought data information through a Poisson process to evaluate the initial data set according to changing business volume change dynamics. A time-slot teaching distribution algorithm is employed to transform the time-slot teaching problem using a slow additive incremental approach to increase the amount of Confucian aesthetics information access. The results show that the average error of teaching Civics under the multi-data chain network is 9.7 ns, and 69% of students think that college Civics incorporates many Confucian aesthetic ideas. The good integration of Confucian aesthetic thought with college curriculum Civics has certain practical significance for tapping Confucian thought and can open up new paths for college ideological and political education work.

Is the Unity of Goodness and Beauty the Distinctive Feature of Confucian Aesthetics?

Tvrdnju da je jedinstvo ljepote i dobrote (美善合一) karakteristično obilježje konfucijanske estetike, estetičari su previše lako uzeli za aksiomatsku i na osnovi toga pretpostavili da je teorijski temelj konfucijanske estetike i obrazovanja. U suvremenim kineskim akademskim krugovima ovaj je stav dobio tako veliku podršku da se pojavio implicitni konsenzus, dajući dojam da jedva da postoji potreba za filozofskim argumentom koji bi opravdao ili na drugi način osporio izvornu tvrdnju. Da bismo promaknuli novo stajalište povratkom na drevne tekstove, pokazat ćemo da su u starokineskom znakovi 美 i 善 sinonimni, te da su estetske misli Konfucija i ranih konfucijanaca češće izraženi izrazom yue (樂), nego mei (美), dok se njihova ideja o odnosu između lijepoga i dobrote iskazuje terminima li (禮) i yue (樂), umjesto shan (善) i mei (美). Zatim pokušavamo dokazati da dva najčešće citirana dokazna teksta za pretpostavku da postoji jedinstvo dobrote i lijepoga u drevnoj tradiciji, točnije jedan odlomak iz Mencija i drugi iz Analekata, zapravo ne govore o jedinstvu lijepoga i dobrote. Zaključujemo kratkim prikazom značaja ovog argumenta za proučavanje kineske i svjetske estetike.

A Study on Confucian Calligraphy Aesthetics based on the Thought that What Truly is within Will be Manifested without

A Study on Confucian Calligraphy Aesthetics based on the Thought that What Truly is within Will be Manifested without

Pleasure and Sin

Abstract This article offers a reconstruction of the intellectual dialogue between Kantian aesthetician Li Zehou 李澤厚 (1930–) and humanist literary critic Liu Zaifu 劉再復 (1941–). By comparing Li's ruminations on “cultures of pleasure” (legan wenhua 樂感文化) and Liu's treatises on “literatures of sin” (zuigan wenxue 罪感文學), the author shows how religious ethics became a crucial medium for them to reflect on the theologico-political aspects of Chinese revolutionary culture. In particular, Li's cultures of pleasure were grounded in the May Fourth aesthetic discourse that highlighted the inculcation of secular humanity as an alternative to religious transcendence. Meanwhile, Liu underscored the transcendence of literatures of sin to stimulate an inner morality through which to excise all secular political commands from human interiority. Whereas Li prioritized a realistic ethical and psychological noumenon in Confucian aesthetics to refute the romantic and sublime figure of the proletarian subject, Liu's espousal of religious transcendence provided Chinese writers with a spiritual dimension to actualize literature's breakaway from the tutelage of the revolutionary state. Their reflections on this-worldly pleasure and otherworldly sin have merged in exorcising the myth of Mao's revolutionary utopia.

Zhu Xi’s Study of the Chuci and the Tradition of Confucian Aesthetics

Zhu Xi regarded the Chuci as highly as the Shijing. The author argues that Zhu’s positive reading of Chuci turned on the author Qu Yuan’s (Confucian) patriotic intent but neglected the cultural background of Chu and alchemical Daoism. Zhu’s didacticism led him to take the non-Confucian cultural imagery as metaphor.

On Chinese Aesthetics: Interpretative Encounter between Taoism and Confucianism

Abstract Chinese aesthetics mainly derives from Confucianism and Taoism. This essay attempts to revisit the main theories that run through Confucian and Taoist aesthetics in order to make them comprehensible within a broader global context. Aesthetics in Confucianism pertains to fields as various as literature, art, music and the natural environment. It holds the idea of ren 仁 (human-heartedness) as the essential attribute of beauty. In comparison, Taoist aesthetics emphasizes the centrality of tao 道 (way), which transpires through naturalness, and, as such, considers natural forms to offer the highest degree of beauty. In order to understand variations of representation and interpretation in Confucian and Taoist aesthetics, the essay discusses accordingly the three fundamentals of Chinese aesthetics: beauty, feeling of beauty, and artistic image. This comparative study will hopefully bring to light differences and similarities between two traditions, which may also resonate within the wider context of modern global aesthetics.

유가미학(儒家美學)으로 본 화가인품론(畵家人品論)

유가미학(儒家美學)으로 본 화가인품론(畵家人品論)

A Study on Confucian Aesthetics with Idea of Carrying Ways through Calligraphy (書以載道) in Zhao Yi’s Feicaoshu

A Study on Confucian Aesthetics with Idea of Carrying Ways through Calligraphy (書以載道) in Zhao Yi’s Feicaoshu

Confucian Aesthetics Consideration of Paintings and Calligraphic Works of Yi Jae (彛齋) Don-in Kwon (權敦仁)

Confucian Aesthetics Consideration of Paintings and Calligraphic Works of Yi Jae (彛齋) Don-in Kwon (權敦仁)

곡성 동악산 청류구곡(淸流九曲)의 형태 및 의미론적 특성

곡성 동악산 청류구곡(淸流九曲)의 형태 및 의미론적 특성

The Aesthetic Categories and Features of Popularity in Manhoing-cheong-ryu

The aesthetic categories of popularity in Manhoing-cheong-ryu are classified as 6: the affection and grudge of love, the erotic, the sentimental, the comic, the fantastic, and the exclusiveness of violence. Based on these categories, I analyzed whole 116 sijo pieces in Manhoing-cheong-ryu. The sas?l-sijos about the affections and grudge of love in Manhoingcheong-ryu are 27 pieces of poems: #449, 465, 466, 477, 484, 496, 501, 517, 518, 541, 543, 551, 559, 564, 481, 493, 495, 502, 506, 507, 537, 540, 547, 553, 555, 568, and 580. Audiences feel aesthetic pleasure arises from sublimation of eternal love or emotional involvement to the affection and grudge of love, escaping from confucian ideology and ethics. The sasol-sijos about the erotic in Manhoing-cheong-ryu are 21 pieces: #479, 480, 491, 492, 494, 508, 519, 526, 533, 546, 552, 569, 574, 576, 503, 514, 545, 562, 565, 567 and 577. Men feel aesthetic pleasure arises from imagining and observing on women’s body and sexual love with patriarchic and voyeuristic eyes through sijo which depict sex as sensuality. On the other hand, women feel aesthetic pleasure arises from communication and oneness between man and woman. The sasol-sijos about the sentimental in Manhoing-cheong-ryu are 19 pieces: #468, 471, 475, 489, 498, 511, 515, 542, 548, 549, 563, 572, 579, 467, 488, 490, 534, 538 and 575. Audiences feel aesthetic pleasure from empathizing with such a tragic real world which the beauty, the good, the eternality, a love, and justice is lost. There is no sasol-sijo that depict only the comic. It appears along 29 sasol-sijos pieces like depicting sensual sex or singing a song about affection and grudge of love. Audiences feel joy and pleasure from sublimating confliction between affection and grudge into laugh, or making satirizing solemn and serious things. The sasol-sijos about the fantastic are also utilized for highlighting other subject. Audiences feel freedom about escaping from violating law and system. Through this fantasy, they also relax their mind, satisfy their desire and enjoy amusement of play. The sasol-sijo about the exclusiveness of violence is only 1: #550. The exclusiveness of violence is begun from pleasure which arises from giving damage to others or satisfaction which arises from excluding others and reinforcing identify. Focusing on audiences and performance stage, out of 116 sas?l-sijos pieces in Manhoing-cheong-ryu 17 pieces aim confucian aesthetics, 5 pieces post-medievalism, 88 pieces popularity. Out of 88 pieces in the aesthetic category of popularity, 61 pieces are the sijo about love.

A Study on the Confucian Aesthetics of the Era of Joseon Dynasty in Bill Designs

A Study on the Confucian Aesthetics of the Era of Joseon Dynasty in Bill Designs

Observance of Forms: An Aesthetic Analysis of Analects 6.25

This essay analyzes how the zhengming 正名 theory of Confucius is linked to the problem of “observances of form” in light of the methodology of Confucian aesthetics. This essay argues that the “name-shape” combination in the zhengming paradigm is ultimately connected with the “name-role” combination. The “name-shape” paradigm continuously maintains and strengthens the “name-role” paradigm. However, the “name-shape” paradigm itself ultimately becomes more meaningful than the “name-role” paradigm. This is because the aesthetic structure that appears peculiar in the Analects constitutes the “name-shape” paradigm. In this aesthetic structure, what is ultimately important is “form.”

Transnational spectres and regional spectators: Flexible citizenship in new Chinese horror cinema

ABSTRACTChinese horror's participation in the turn-of-the-millennium Asian horror boom has been largely pan-Asian. This article focuses on one such endeavour, Kelvin Tong's The Maid (2005), a MediaCorp Raintree co-production from Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines that has been billed Singapore's first home-grown international horror film. I argue that The Maid uses the horror genre to construct a cultural Chineseness based on a flattening of Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist aesthetics. Placing The Maid in the context of recent Asian horror films, this article investigates the various processes involved in the production, distribution and consumption of new Chinese horror, particularly how it functions as a regional genre that contests the notion of national cinema and problematizes the Sinophone. I contend that it is through the erasure of Singapore's non-Chinese cultural elements that the film aligns itself with regional Chinese horror and the international phenomenon of new Asian horror.

Some Reflections on Confucian Aesthetics and its Feminist Modalities

This chapter starts from the reflection and analysis of the origin of “beauty” in the Confucian aesthetics. It first traces its origin in the suggestion of the Confucian moral mind. The emergence process involved is regarded as a very different one from that of the Western mainstream, in which the subject and object dichotomy is presupposed.

The boundaries of beauty in Pre-Qin Confucian aesthetics

“Beauty” is a very important concept in Pre-Qin Confucian aesthetics. Pre-Qin Confucian aesthetics generally had two viewpoints when defining beauty: Negatively, by stressing that “beauty” in the aesthetic sense was not “good”; and positively, by stressing two factors: one, that beauty was related to “feeling” which was not an animal instinct, the other was that “beauty” was a special texture with a particular meaning. “Beauty” in Pre-Qin Confucian aesthetics may be defined as “texture (or form)” capable of communicating feeling or triggering a reaction of feeling.

An Exegetic Study of the So-Called Proposition of Confucian Aesthetics

Research Article| April 01 2008 An Exegetic Study of the So-Called Proposition of Confucian Aesthetics Yi Wang; Yi Wang Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Xiaowei Fu Xiaowei Fu Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Journal of Aesthetic Education (2008) 42 (1): 80–89. https://doi.org/10.2307/25160267 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Yi Wang, Xiaowei Fu; An Exegetic Study of the So-Called Proposition of Confucian Aesthetics. Journal of Aesthetic Education 1 January 2008; 42 (1): 80–89. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/25160267 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressJournal of Aesthetic Education Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2008 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois2008 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

An Exegetic Study of the So-Called Proposition of Confucian Aesthetics

Since Wang Guowei and Cai Yuanpei introduced concepts of aesthetics and aesthetic education, respectively, to China in early twentieth cen tury, there has been a strong tendency in many of aesthetic discussions to examine ancient texts and materials using modern concepts of aesthet ics. In particular, sentences with character-word are often sought in classical works and interpreted as speeches on or about beauty, which has led to frequent misunderstandings of classical texts and of ancient Confucian aesthetic theory. The most typical among these misunderstandings, we think, is misinterpretation of one of Mencius's remarks on goodness of human nature?To possess these qualities of goodness fully is (Chongshi zhiwei mei)2?as a representative statement of Confucian aesthetic theory of the union of beautiful and good. Although it is not clear who was first to put this interpretation forward, it is now widely accepted and almost unquestioned that statement Chongshi zhiwei mei is classical proposition of Confucian aesthetic theory after countless repetitions by aestheticians and educationalists. And extended from this is claim that the union of beautiful and good, or union of moral and beauty, is traditional theory of Confucian aesthetic education. Finding it coincidentally in accordance with idea of the union of beautiful and good in both Soviet and Greek philosophies, aesthetic educators are apt to admit that aesthetic education is included in moral education or aesthetic education is but one of means of moral education; thus, aesthetic education cannot be an independent subject.

The Dancing Ru: A Confucian Aesthetics of Virtue

Feminist and postmodern critics appear to have placed the final nail in the coffin of the traditional idea of ethics as obedience to a moral code. For postmodernists, universal moral laws are the ethical expression of logocentric and essentialist thinking and are more intelligibly conceived as abstractions from particular moral decision making. Feminists are more specific in their claim that this type of morality represents one of the most pervasive forms of patriarchy-to wit: the tyranny of the divine father who created the rules and the earthly fathers who have enforced them. Both deontological and utilitarian perspectives also assume a disembodied, impersonal self, which is a pale and misleading shadow of our own engaged personal agency. In his book From Morality to Virtue, Michael Slote criticizes Kant for his moral asymmetry-for example, the failure to help is wrong only when applied to others and not to the self. He also critiques utilitarianism for its reductionism and, at least in its Singerian form, its unreasonable moral demands such as the voluntary equalization of living standards. The most constructive response to the crisis in moral theory has been the revival of virtue ethics, an ethics that has the advantages of being personal, contextual, and, as I will argue, normative as well. In this essay I will also propose that the best way to refound virtue ethics is to return to the Greek concept of technC tou biou, literally of life. The ancients did not distinguish between craft and fine arts, and the meaning of techn6, even in its Latin form of ars, still retains the meaning of skillful crafting and discipline. In Greco-Roman culture these techniques were very specific, covering dietetics, economics, and erotics. In ancient China moral cultivation was intimately connected to the arts, from the art of archery to poetry, music, and dance such that virtually every activity would have both a moral and an aesthetic meaning. A Chinese poet of the Book of Odes conceives of moral development as similar