Wang Yichuan: The Twisting Development and Renewal of Chinese Aesthetic Tradition in Modern Times

Author: Wang Yichuan, chief expert of the National Social Science Fund's major project of art, "Research on the History and Peak of Literature and Art", and professor of the School of Arts, Beijing Language and Culture University

The Chinese civilization has a long history and has formed its own outstanding characteristics. It has also bred the unique aesthetic consciousness or aesthetic thinking tradition of the Chinese nation that is different from other nations in the world, namely the Chinese aesthetic tradition (or the Chinese classical aesthetic tradition). However, this tradition was reconstructed at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China by virtue of the mirror effect of the western aesthetic discipline system. This means that although there was no aesthetic discipline system in the western sense in ancient China, a unique aesthetic ideology comparable to western aesthetics was born after all. Once this aesthetic ideology has gained self recognition from the mirror learning of the western others, it will increasingly highlight its unique value in the next cross-cultural dialogue with the strong western aesthetic discipline system, especially in the process of creating China's own modern aesthetics.

At the same time, it should be noted that it is in this process that the reconstruction of the Chinese aesthetic tradition and its position and role in the development of Chinese modern aesthetics have gone through a tortuous process. This process is also closely linked to the historical process of "the basic principles of Marxism combined with China's specific reality, combined with China's excellent traditional culture", that is, the "two combinations" in modern China. A brief review of this process can be divided into five periods.

From the end of the Qing Dynasty to the beginning of the Republic of China to the May Fourth Movement, the main task of Chinese modern aesthetics was to introduce the western aesthetic discipline system to create Chinese modern aesthetics, and at the same time to reconstruct the Chinese classical aesthetic tradition. With the introduction of western aesthetic discipline system from Japan and Europe, modern aesthetic and literary trends such as "aesthetics", "three circles revolution", "literary revolution", "art revolution" and "replacing religion with aesthetic education" have been set off. At the same time, Wang Guowei, Zhang Taiyan, Xiong Shili, Liang Shuming and others also "discovered" the unique value of Chinese classical aesthetic tradition with the help of the "candle" of western philosophy and aesthetics. For example, Wang Guowei found that the concept of "artistic conception" and "realm" in ancient China has modern value with the help of Kant, Hegel, Schiller, Schopenhauer and other aesthetic ideas, and put forward new ideas such as "ancient elegance".

Then came the 1920s to 1940s, which was characterized by the appearance of the present and the concealment of the past. The present manifestation refers to the manifestation of modern Chinese aesthetics in the creative construction; Ancient concealment refers to the invisible level of Chinese classical aesthetic tradition. During this period, modern aesthetics has developed into "outstanding learning", while the reconstruction of the traditional classical aesthetics is still in a recessive position. Comrade Mao Zedong formally put forward in 1938 that "Marxism must be combined with the specific characteristics of our country and can only be realized through certain national forms", requiring the development of "a fresh and lively Chinese style and style popular with the Chinese people". From the height of "the first combination", this paper puts forward the important proposition of combining the basic principles of Marxism with China's specific reality, that is, the sinicization of Marxism, which points out the correct path of sinicization for the aesthetic discipline system from the West and related literary and artistic theories. Comrade Mao Zedong's Speech at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art further established the basic principles that the beauty of art originates from the beauty of life and is higher than the beauty of life, typification, etc. During this period, the construction of Chinese modern aesthetics has made outstanding achievements: Zhu Guangqian's Talking about Beauty, Literary Psychology, Poetics, Deng Yizhe's The Difficulties of Artists, Fang Dongmei's Outline of Chinese Philosophy of Life, Cai Yi's New Art Theory, and New Aesthetics, opening up a new way to introduce western modern aesthetics and build Chinese modern philosophy and aesthetic system; At the same time, Zong Baihua's series of papers, such as "On the New Word of the World" and the Beauty of Jin People "," Space Consciousness Embodied in Chinese Poetry and Painting ", Feng Youlan's" Six Books of Zhenyuan ", Jin Yuelin's" On the Doctrine "," On Knowledge ", and He Lin's" Brief Interpretation of Modern Idealism ", have promoted the modern inheritance and development of Chinese classical philosophy and classical aesthetic traditions from the perspective of philosophy and aesthetics. However, the urgent task of Chinese aesthetics in this period is to create a modern Chinese aesthetic framework, and the task of inheritance and reconstruction of Chinese classical aesthetics has to be postponed.

From the founding of the People's Republic of China to the reform and opening up, Chinese aesthetics entered the construction period of the Marxist sinicization system. The aesthetic discussion from 1956 to 1957 was conducive to invigorating the atmosphere of free discussion of modern Chinese aesthetics, and initially formed an objective sociological aesthetic framework based on materialism in the discussion. But at that time, it mainly focused on such philosophical issues as the objectivity, subjectivity, or the unity of subjectivity and objectivity of beauty, and ignored the in-depth analysis of the Chinese classical aesthetic tradition. This shows that in the process of promoting the "first combination", the status and role of the Chinese classical aesthetic tradition have been initially restored and improved, but compared with the dominant position of Chinese modern aesthetics, it is still in a hidden or secondary position.

With the process of reform and opening up, from the 1980s, modern Chinese aesthetics as the leading factor and classical Chinese aesthetic tradition as the auxiliary factor, presenting the characteristics of ancient and modern talks. Chinese modern aesthetics, which is open to western aesthetics again, has formed a trend of equal talks with the reviving Chinese classical aesthetic tradition. In this new context of Chinese and Western aesthetic talks, Zhu Guangqian's "Talking about Beauty" and "Aesthetic Gathering Collection", Zong Baihua's "Aesthetic Walk" and "Artistic Conception", Cai Yi's "Principles of Aesthetics" and "New Aesthetics", Wang Chaowen's "On Sister Feng" and "Aesthetic Mentality", Jiang Kongyang's "German Classical Aesthetics", "Comments on Pre Qin Musical Aesthetics" and "New Aesthetics", Ye Lang's Chinese Fiction Aesthetics, Outline of Chinese Aesthetics History, Hu Jingzhi's Literary Aesthetics and other works have been published in succession. On the one hand, they reflect the clear intention of adjusting and reconstructing China's modern aesthetic system, and on the other hand, they show a high degree of self-awareness of looking back to explore China's classical aesthetic tradition. It is also in this open atmosphere that Wang Guowei's "artistic conception" and "realm" theory started, and Zong Baihua's "artistic conception" theory continued. The "artistic conception" category from Chinese classical aesthetics has finally been jointly identified by the academic community as one of the core categories that can represent the characteristics of Chinese classical art. Through this effort, the status and role of the Chinese classical aesthetic tradition has been significantly improved.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Chinese classical aesthetic tradition has established a rooted position in the development of Chinese modern aesthetics, showing a new characteristic of taking the ancient as the root. With the promotion of the "second combination", the excellent traditional Chinese culture has gained a new position in contemporary social life: "The excellent traditional Chinese culture is the spiritual lifeline of the Chinese nation, an important source of cultivating socialist core values, and also a solid foundation for us to stand firm in the turmoil of world culture.", The Chinese classical aesthetic tradition has also gained new opportunities for reconstruction: "We should inherit and carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture and the spirit of Chinese aesthetics in combination with the new conditions of the times. Chinese aesthetics stresses expressing aspirations based on facts, embodying feelings, stressing simplicity and conciseness, stressing both form and spirit, profound artistic conception, and emphasizing the unity of knowledge, emotion, meaning, and action."

In this atmosphere of taking the ancient as the root, the aesthetic tradition with the "Chinese aesthetic spirit" as the core has gained and is gaining an unprecedented key position in the construction of China's modern aesthetic system, and has become the foundation of China's modern aesthetic system. This is a national aesthetic tradition that is longer in time, broader and richer in space, and more recognizable in nature. In this sense, it can already be called the Chinese aesthetic tradition.

It can be seen that with the process of "two combinations", especially the "second combination", the Chinese aesthetic tradition has finally gained its root status after more than 100 years of twists and turns, opening up new possibilities for the development of modern Chinese aesthetics. The word "rebirth" has the meaning of daily renewal. As a result of returning to the ancient source of Chinese aesthetic tradition, Chinese modern aesthetics and Chinese contemporary literary and artistic creation can obtain their own "important source" and "treasure", so that they can carry them towards the goal of daily renewal.

There is no doubt that the Chinese aesthetic tradition needs to do some necessary basic work if it is to have an expected rejuvenation effect in the new era. First of all, we should not copy all the traditional things in aesthetics, but should use the basic principles of Marxism, especially the achievements of the modernization of Marxism in China to analyze and criticize them, eliminate their dross and absorb their essence. Secondly, to absorb the essence of the Chinese aesthetic tradition does not mean to follow the old path of "retro ism", but to extract the positive and creative elements, apply them to the aesthetic practice of contemporary social life, and become a guiding factor. This shows that the Chinese aesthetic tradition needs to be integrated into the future oriented contemporary life world through creative transformation and innovative development. Thirdly, in terms of the beautification of contemporary social life and literary and artistic creation, as one of the basic values in the development of Chinese civilization, "literature", "literary spirit" and "advocating literature" should play a more basic role than the concept of "beauty" from western aesthetics. Traditional Chinese aesthetic propositions such as "words without words, lines without distance", "gentleness", "literature with morality", "literature with morality", and "culture with integrity" should become the basic or core elements of the values of contemporary social life. Finally, the unique value concept advocated by the Chinese aesthetic tradition should be based on the common values of human beings, integrate with the diverse aesthetic values of the contemporary world, and move towards the aesthetic realm of "harmony but difference" in the "mutual learning of civilizations" and "beauty and common". As Zong Baihua pointed out, "The future world aesthetics should not be confined to the artistic expression of one time and one place, but should integrate the world's ancient and modern artistic ideals, integrate them, seek the most common principles of aesthetics without neglecting the special styles of each personality... Chinese art and aesthetic theory also has its own great and independent spiritual significance. Therefore, Chinese painting has its own special and important contribution to the future world aesthetics. " It is expected that the Chinese aesthetic tradition will play an important role in the construction of the Chinese nation's modern civilization and the mutual learning of global human civilization.