Research On The Category Of "Xiang" In Pre-Qin

In the ancient Chinese ideological and cultural system,"Xiang" is a domain that is containing cultural concepts,philosophical thoughts,and aesthetic traits.It involves many fields such as philosophy,aesthetics,literature,astronomy,psychology,etc.It has an indispensable influence on ancient Chinese language’s way of thinking,logic of speaking,and even its social value system.The reason why "Xiang" can become a unique Chinese cultural symbol is due to its close relation to the pre-Qin era from when it was born and growing."Xiang" is a fundamental symbol for constructing the ideological and cultural system of whole pre-Qin era.The evidences had revealed from the instruments of conventional ritual activities;daily music and dance events;astronomical anecdotes;the essence of Chinese medicine;the images of the turtle in the “Wubu”culture as well as from the perspective of political system in the patriarchal culture.In another words,"Xiang" is closely related to pre-Qin’s material culture,spiritual culture,institutional culture and many other aspects.It is a kind of ideological value,a spiritual character and a concept of national consciousness."Xiang" is an important domain related to the thinking patterns of the pre-Qin people when thinking and figurative languages were widely used.After the theoretical interpretationby many prior philosophers,the meaning of "Xiang" has formed a combination of thoughts,and it bridged the gap between “sky”,society,and “ground” comprehensively.Although "Xiang" domain plays an important role in the formation of the pre-Qin knowledge system,there is a lack of systematic research of "Xiang" domain in the pre-Qin era about its gestation and occurrence,academic evolution,connotation characteristics,its relationship with iconic thinking,its influences on the later generation culture and so on.It is necessary to combine the handed down literature with the unearthed literature,also to combine categorical research with cultural research,to combine micro-analysis with macro-analysis,and to employ diverse research methods to study the pre-Qin "Xiang" thoroughly and systematically.With a solid grasping of the literature,then it will become possible for us to clarify the process of its gestation,occurrence and development,thus,to sort out the various schools’ expositions on the "Xiang" domain,to explore the connotation,characteristics and functions of the "Xiang" domain,and to focus on "Xiang" domain from national scope,and to dive into its influences on the culture in later generations.This process will yield to multiple implications: it will help us to grasp the concepts of pre-Qin’s culture,their ways of thinking as well as discourse expressions.It can help us to understand the unique connotation of Chinese traditional culture,to comprehends the characteristics andspirit of Chinese literary aesthetics,and it can also help us constructing comparative study of culture and literature theories between China and the West.The rich meaning of the word "Xiang" lays the foundation for the formation of "Xiang" domain.Based on founded oracle records,“Xiang”represented animals’ names,clans’ names and people’s names,and music and dance names.The meaning of the word "Xiang" in the Zhou Dynasty mainly followed the path of animal’s righteousness,divine righteousness,and visual purpose.Then "Xiang" transformed into a verb,which has the meaning of similarity and mimicking.In the process of the development and transformation of the meaning of "Xiang",its cultural connotation has been enriched and gradually becomes an important domain related to the ritual culture of the Zhou Dynasty.The theoretical summarization by the pre-Qin thinkers had directly promoted the emergence of "Xiang" domain and fostered its development.Laozi put forward a series of propositions such as "big Xiang is invisible","there are Xiang" and "the Xiang is invisible",which marked him as the first thinker to promote "Xiang" into a philosophical world.The propositions such as "Viewing Objects and Taking Images","Implementation of Imagery","Improvement of the System" and other propositions in Yizhuan explains the occurrence,purpose and function of Yixiang respectively,and it established a comparative systematic theory of “Xiang” theory.Moreover,Yueji introduced "Xiang" into the field of art,for instance,"qi into the Xiang","Sounds,the Xiang of Yue","Yue,is to Xiang de",and other propositions had explained the occurrence,form and function of music.It aligned "Xiang" with multiple meanings in the music field such as ontology,medium,and features.The pre-Qin thinkers seldom had direct definitions for "Xiang" domain.The connotation,characteristics and functions of the "Xiang" domain are mostly highlighted in the association and comparison with other discourses.From the scope of “Xiang’s” nature,it is closely related to "thing","form","name" and "text".The "Xiang" domain is derived from the ancient people’s experiences about universe,nature and social life.It is the product of the intersection of the imaginary world and the conceptual world."Xiang" not only preserves the perceptual form of natural objects,but also contains supernatural and super-physical features of subject’s image.It is a cultural symbol with enriched meaning.From the characteristics of the "Xiang" domain,it is closely related to "qi" and has an intuitive property.It is also closely related to "Tao" and were endowed a metaphysical nature,since it is a product of the integration of mind and matter and has the compatibility of merging subject and object.Last but not least,from the perspective of "Xiang’s" function,"Xiang" is an important way of sense making for pre-Qin thinkers,they have used it widely as a metaphorical vehicle to demonstrate their theoretical claims.The reason why "Xiang" has become an important symbol in pre-Qin ideology and culture is because it is closely related to its logic patterns."Xiang" originated from the ideology of the ancestors.Our ancestors’ fishing and hunting life,their ritual and fortune telling activities as well as the totem symbols and pictographs have all reflected this pattern.The extended uses of the pre-Qin metaphorical literature have also reflected “Xiang’s” thinking style.“Xiang” thinking started from "observing things and taking out the inner image” and expended to"taking the Xiang as a class",by aiming to "create an image to the fullest",it captures and expresses the unknown world via the form of symbolism,class,association,and recommendations.“Xiang” thinking is a mode of thinking in which the world of objects is mixed with the world of ideas.it incorporated its characteristics,intuitiveness and integrity.The extended uses of pre-Qin “Xiang’s” thinking increases the occurrence of the"Xiang" domain from the latent level,moreover,the occurrence,development and extensive use of the "xiang" category is an important symbol of the maturity of thinking.The discussion of the "Xiang" domain by the pre-Qin thinkers and the extended uses of its iconic thinking have had a profound impact on Chinese traditional culture.Taking literary aesthetics as an example,it manifested “Xiang” in three levels: from the perspective of discourse,the ancient Chinese literary aesthetics has spawned a series of secondarycategories such as “yixiang”,“xiangxiang”,“qixiang” and “jingxiang”.In the Tang Dynasty,from when a mature aesthetic image theory was formed,it was further developed into the artistic conception by the theory of "inside Xiang" and "outside Xiang".From the perspective of thinking and speaking,the pattern of thinking and the way of figurative expression in the pre-Qin period which exerted an important influence on the iconic thinking and figurative expression of ancient literary aesthetics,and later promoted an emphasis on intuition and figuration of theoretical character.From the perspective of cultural spirit,the pre-Qin "Xiang" domain cultivated and had important influences on the mentality of transcendence,the spirit of life and the spirit of poetry.All in all,"Xiang" has multiple connotations such as primitive figuration,cognitive intermediation and ontological meaning.It occupies an important position in the evolution of ideological culture and the generation of knowledge pedigree."Xiang" was combined with tortoise shell and prod divination,which was established as an intermediary to communicate with the society,people and heaven."Xiang" had completed the theoretical transcendence through the interpretation of the thinkers from the period of Spring and Autumn and Warring States.Laozi’s "Xiang" theory had promoted "Xiang" to a philosophical level and established its metaphysical ontological value.Confucianism associates“xiang”with ethics and morality,and establishes the traditionof political and religious through“xiang”,which symbolizes the morality.All of the facts above reflected the transformation from original "Xiang" admiring to a higher level “Xiang” philosophy.The pre-Qin "Xiang" category and “Xiang’s” thinking have had an important influence on Chinese classical literary that emphasize imagination and aesthetics.