Chuang-tzu And Modern Chinese Aesthetics

The resource of Chinese classical aesthetics still has its active constructional function in modern culture. Therefore, to explore its modern value and to display its modern significance are undoubtedly the important tendency in the study of classical aesthetics. In order to present Chuang- tzu's value and significance in modern Chinese aesthetics, this paper reviews the modes and channels that Chuang-tzu takes part in the construction of modern Chinese aesthetics by means of empirical and elucidatory study. In view of the complexity of modern Chinese aesthetics, for clarity, this paper ventures to present Wang Guowei, Lu Xun, Guo Mo Ruo, Zhu Guangqian, Zong Huabai as representatives to display the overview of Chuang-tzu and modern Chinese aesthetics. Wang Guowei is the inaugurator of modern Chinese aesthetics, while Lu Xun and Guo Moruo are respectively the representatives of realistic aesthetics and romanticism aesthetics, and Zhu Guangqian and Zong Baihua are both professional esthetes. The relationship between them and Chuang-tzu illuminates the logical process from the submerged to the merged that Chuang-tzu bears part in the construction of modern Chinese aesthetics. That is to say, to a great extent, for Wang Guowei and Lu Xun, their inheritance of Chuang-tzu is the extension of Chuang-tzu's inherent aesthetics, which should be interpreted so as to discover the existence of Chuang-tzu's modern aesthetics value; as for Guo Morno, Zhu Guangqian, and Zong Baihua, their elucidation of Chuang-tzu suggests the collision and dialogue between the Chinese and western aesthetics, and the integration of them, which helps to explain the historical dimensionality of Chuang-tzu's aesthetics.