On The Hsu Fu-kuan, "the Life And Art," Literary Thought

Xu Fuguan, is one of the important representatives of modern new Confucianism.His thoughts run through many domains, such as philosophy, historiography, literatureetc. Although his learned practice mainly are conducted in Taiwan and Hong Kong inthe second half of 20th century, he stick to basing himself upon Chinese culture andconcerning himself with the future and fortune of the Chinese nation. In recent years,the academia in the mainland China attach great importance to him in recent years,with his numbers of works published in succession and with monographs and paperson him in increase. These works and papers, however, just focus on philosophical,historical and cultural respects to investigate him, without paying much attention tohis literary thoughts. This article intents to take this as the springboard to make aprofound analysis and research on his literature and art thoughts. The article is dividedinto four parts.1. Introduction. To present briefly the process of his academic thinkingdevelopment as well as the status and meaning of the research of his literary thoughts.2. The detailed explanation of his "Arts for life". Xu points out that only twotypes of models consist of the Chinese artistic spirit. One is the artistic spirit ofConfucianism;the other is the pure spirit of Taoism. Though Confucianism andTaoism are different in the performing forms, they are both responsible for the life innature, that is to say, being arts for life. In Xu's opinion, the artistic spirit ofConfucianism is undertaken by music at the beginning, and then it is literature thatrepresent undertake and achieve the artistic spirit of Confucianism. It requests theliterature to show the character of the author, the beauty and kindness of temperament,and sublime morality, in order to be responsible for the reality in life. Xu thinks thatthe artistic spirit of Taoism is a thoroughly pure artistic spirit, which is not excludedby "for life", but is presentint the reality in self-reflection, bringing the effect oferoticisation or surpass. The pure artistic spirit of Taoism is mainly fulfilled andincarnated in Chinese landscape painting. Landscape painting can be positive inexceeding the reality, attaining the spiritual freedom, keeping spirit pure, etc..Moreover, it can relieve mankind's pressure, which by the machines, tools,institutions and even logos in science and technology in today's society.3. The creation of Xu's literature and art thought—"Arts for life". The formationof his "Arts for life" is closely associated with the circumstances in the 1960s and1970s in Taiwan. Apart from the reason of the background, Xu's theory of "Theculture of heart" and his thoughts on humanity are the philosophical basis of hisliterary thoughts. Xu's "The culture of heart" emphasizes Chinese culture is one kindof humanity culture which concentrate on the human beings and the true life. Xumainly discusses the issue of humanity centralizing Confucianism and Taoism.Although he considers highly of Taoism, he prefers that Confucianism is themainstream of the theory of humanity in China. Furthermore, he tries to find out thespecialty of Confucianism, mixing and communicating the theories of humanity inboth Confucianism and Taoism. And all of the above contributes to the creation of hisliterature and art thought of "Arts for life".4. The characters meaning and existing problems of Xu's "Arts for life". Histhought discourses upon the Chinese artistic spirit, basing on the Chinese traditionalculture and the connections between Confucianism and Taoism. Its characters are:attaching importance to the subjects of the artistic spirit and the qualities of thesubjects;paying attention to the virtue while not ignoring the arts, etc.. He claims thatthe virtue is different from the arts, meanwhile, he admits that the two parties arecommunicated with each other originally. However, his literature and art thoughtshave some problems and shortcomings, such as the blurry partition among someconcepts, simplification of some issues, as a consequence, the evaluation about himstill is controversial. Generally speaking, Xu allocates that writers should possesssublime virtues and qualities, be concerned about and responsible for society. Theseartistic thoughts play an important role in guiding the true-life issues like artisticcreation, modern literati's character and morals.