Aestheic Category And Myth

As the earliest emergent civil expressive form of mankind, myth is the soil of mankind's long and splendid civilization, and is the archetype of all civil expressive forms of mankind.Myth reflects the essential problems of mankind's existence, is the image of ancient mankind's existent state, chiefly reflects the relationship between mankind and nature.The relationship between them undergo three phases of their harmony, their separation and their confrontation. Viewing from aesthetic angle, the three phases in myth correspond respectively with three aesthetic categories,namely harmony, sublimity and tragedy, in other words, we can excavate three aesthetic categories archetypes of harmony, sub Iiraity and tragedy from myth. This article analyses emphatically these archetypes of aesthetic categories and discusses their evolutions.In harmonious archetype of myth , the harmonious relationship between mankind and nature undergoes two phases of god man and man god harmony.At the phase of god man harmony, at the scales of harmony, the weight of god isn't the same as the weight of man, the former holds the leading position in the harmonious structure. In the relationship between god and man, namely nature and man, man is in a condition of depending on nature,man's existence basically depends on nature's charity, so it forms a harmonious structure of subject depending on object between B-:an and nature. At the phase of man god harmony, man initially has a conscious sense, gradually get rid of the position of depending on nature completely, man pours his life consciousness into nature, causes it to become a god of man's shape. To give god man's soul,namely to personalize nature,which enables man and god have a common characteristic of blending with each other, so it forms a harmonious structure of man god harmony. The harmonious archetype of myth reflects a primitive harmonious relationship between man and nature of an integral entity. In the sublime archetype of myth ,with the awakening and determining of mankind's self consciousness, as the subject, man has initially realized his separation from and opposition to nature. Man has been aware of nature's alien characteristic, has realized the latter's threat, the comparison between both'spowers makes man feel his own negligibi lity,hence man appeals to god in order to surpass his negligibility and achieve a sublime state, so it forms the primitive sublimity.The essence of sublime archetype is that mankind 'uses imagination and has the aid of imagination to conquer and control the power of nature.' For this reason, the primitive sublimity isn't the embodiment of man's essential power in (rractice,but is man surpassing nature of spirit in imaginary state.In tragic archetype of myth, the practical power of primitive people isn't enough to conquer nature, mankind's subjective wish doesn't coordinate with his objective power, man's practical power can't help him to achieve his wish, which leads to conflict between ideal and reality. At the age of myth, man's essential power is still in the bud of practice, the alienation of man's power can't assimilate nature, the contest between both often ends with man's crushing defeat, such is the essence of the tragic archetype.The archetypes of aesthetic categories in myth have an important influence on their late evolutions, which standardize and restrict the latters' development.The archetypes of harmony, sub Iimity and tragedy in myth shape their late evolutions, both form a logical correspondence surpassing time and sky.The harmonious archetype of myth evolves into the ancient harmony, from the harmony of integral entity, it develops into the harmony of man's conforming to nature consciously and into the initiative harmony of man's establishing in his subjective consciousness, thereby settles the structure of the ancient harmony.In the structure, the practice of man's essential power is limited, man basically follows nature's own law, namely its own criterion to carry out practice. Therefore, the unity and compatibility...