The Practice, Life And Existence Of Aesthetics

Chinese contemporary aesthetics stated in this paper refers to the Chinese aesthetics since the 90s. The question of the forms of existence existed in Chinese contemporary aesthetics is actually the question of practice, life and existence of Chinese contemporary aesthetics. Here "practice" , "life" and "existence" are not the three parallel concepts, but the interwoven ones. This means that if we say that the life of aesthetics is no doubt manifested in the existence of aesthetics, which is manifested in both theoretical form and the practical form, then the summation of the two forms is not the whole contents of the existence of aesthetics; that is to say that thinking about the whole reason for the development and continuation of the life of aesthetics, we can find that besides the theoretical form and practical form of aesthetics, aesthetics has anther form of existence, which is neither theoretical nor practical.The existence of Chinese contemporary aesthetics is plural, multilevel and multidimensional, and they interact and merge with each other; in another word, being plural, multilevel and multidimensional is the concrete manifestation of the ontological spirit of Chinese contemporary aesthetics. The ontological spirit of Chinese contemporary aesthetics is the aesthetic spirit of truth, that is, the manifestationof academic spirit which is naturally imbedded in beauty and aesthetics and which naturally shows in aesthetic research the great concern for the existence of human beings. The aesthetic spirit of truth is closely connected with the broad scope of aesthetics—so broad that it may include all the scope of human life activities; with various layers of life—so many layers that it may cover production practice, daily life, artistic life, natural beauty, social beauty, artistic beauty and so on; with the subtle manifestation of this scope—so subtle that it may concern with rhythm, rime, spirit, formalistic beauty, content beauty, symbolic meaning, connotative meaning and so on.In contemporary China, on the one hand, the inner needs of the whole existence of human beings stand out; on the other hand, the actual realization of the whole existence of human beings faces great difficulties or challenges. This kind of social reality and this kind of cultural situation is a chance and a motivation for the gradual and complete prosperity of Chinese contemporary aesthetics. In a word, the "practical aesthetics" , which inherited the practical spirit of Marxism, can make use of this situation, inherit our Chinese practical tradition and strengthen our own vitality. We can do it better in this situation if we combine the study of western life philosophy and life aesthetics, which is actually not the perfect "life aesthetics" , with the prime of ancient Chinese cheerful spirit. We can combine the study of western subtle "existentialist aesthetics" of Heidegger with Chinese ancient existentialism before Qin Dynasty and then come back to the absence of non-subject in the present Chinese situation, in whichthe subject has got unprecedented prominence, thus developing itself into the moonlight at nightfall everyday in the process of the interpretation of Chinese contemporary aesthetics, which has practical spirit and which is sometimes called "the pure game of heaven, earth, god and man" .From the above description we can see that the problem of the form of existence in Chinese contemporary aesthetics involves not only man' s aesthetic existence, but also his whole existence. Man' s aesthetic existence is not a linear existence. Theoretically speaking, it covers everything in man' s whole existence, but actually it often does not. Theoretically and ideally aesthetics includes everything. This forms the theoretical foundation and builds a connection between aesthetics and the whole existence of man. But actually aesthetics can not include everything. And this becomes the reason for the direct connection between aesthetics and the aesthetic existence of man. So practical aesthetics, life aesthetics and existentialist aesthetics are all theoretical forms of aesthetic, which could be regarded as "narrow aesthetics" . On the other hand, the practice of aesthetics, the life of aesthetics, the existence of aesthetics includes the theoretical form of aesthetics and the non-theoretical form of aesthetics, which could be regarded as "broad aesthetics" . For the establishment of the discipline, the research of the "narrow aesthetics" can help oppose abolitionism of aesthetics. On the other hand, the research of the "broad aesthetics" can help clear up aesthetic dominance. Thus we can see the importance of the research of the forms of aesthetics existed in Chinesecontemporary aesthetics.Based on the social and cultural situation of "including tradition, pre-modern, modern and post-modern" , based on the idea that we can acquire far-reaching significant combination if we combine the western aesthetic resources with the Chinese traditional aesthetic heritage under the guidance of basic Marxist principle and also based on the academic idea that we can mutually benefit from Marx' s practical idea in "Paris Draft" and from Heidegger' s existentialism, this paper starts from the methodological principle of combining ontology, phenomenology and hermeneutics together, explores six dimensions of the forms of the existence of Chinese aesthetics including the practical aesthetics and the practice of aesthetics, life aesthetics and the life of aesthetics, existentialist aesthetics and the existence of aesthetics, thus in its field of discussion, offer something new and creative in a certain depth.