Zhuangzi Aesthetic Survival Thought

Chuangzi is a great thinker in the Warring States Period, Book of Master Zhuang is the centralized reflection of the thought of Chuangzi and his followers. In this Paper "ZhuangI" refers to ZhuangI and his followers, The exploration of the Paper goes with Chuangzi's timer chapters as the main part, while its outer chapters as supplementary materials. We use the word of the Aesthetics of existence by French contemporary philosopher Michel Foucault for reference, to expound the survival thought of Chuangzi and reflect the characteristics of human survival. The essence of the thought is the Aesthetics of existence , which is distinct from moral survival of the Confucian school and utilitarian survival of the Mohist School.The Paper is composed of the following five parts, the abstract: a brief introduction to the research thesis, content, evaluation, significance and general situation both at home and abroad. The first Chapter: source exploration of Chuangzi's the Aesthetics of existence thought Produced by the social reform and ideological reform (including aesthetic consciousness), Chuangzi's aesthetic survival thought took shape in the course of inheriting, rebelling and surpassing history as well as culture. The negative factors of man's civilization evolution stimulated its fermentation; the longstanding ideological and cultural achievement gestated its embryo; the rice and independence of literati class provided the fresh survival conception background. The school chapter: the world' view of Chuangzi's aesthetic thought. Fighting against utilitarian and worldly view in knowledge, morality as well as art, Chuangzi managed to turn the man-world relationship from pragmatic and utilizable focus into the aesthetic one so as to reestablish its original essence: a genuine, honest, perfect relationship between man and the world and to change the limited, practical survival world into an aesthetic survival world. The third chapter: life view of Chuangzi's aesthetic thought. Regarding man's lives as the aesthetics target, Chuangzi made the essence of human aesthetics. With the deep concern of individuals, Chuangzi revealed the phenomena of individual's self-dissimilation, the opposition between man and society, and the opposition of man themselves and tried hard to dismiss this dual opposition. Symbolized by freedom, Dao is pursued in way freedom is pursued. It is a course of experiencing aesthetic life: through the perfection, purification and nature recalling, people are made to be aesthetic. The last chapter ends with the evaluation: although limitations exist due to his absolute negation hi dissimilation and unpractical realization in freedom, significance still remains in his negation, criticism purification and promotion of the practical existence.The newness of the research lies in: (1), the focus on aesthetic survival and the nature of human mind to bridge the two extremes of drifting and nihilism. (2),the emphasis on the aesthetic relationship between human beings and the world to probe the distinctiveness of his knowledge concept (the universe, the nature and skills),moral concept and artistic concept. With the perfection of human nature as its starting and ending point, to establish the aesthetic relationship between human beings and the world, the Paper broadens the scope of the past researches on his aesthetic attitude. (3), "the Aesthetics of existence" as the instrument to negate, criticize, purify and promote this irrational existence state bears such a dual-meaning which is able to reveal the practical characteristics of his thought and strengthen its realistic meaning for researching.Being one of the earliest social and cultural introspection, Chuangzi and his thought still exert great influence on people nowadays. (1), It has enlightened the understanding of the development of how to be an all-around person. Providing people with the life experience and value which are beyond the reach of cognition, instrument and reason, the thought lends people to pursue the spirit development, to sh...