Studies Of Rabindranath Tagore's Aesthetics Ideology

"Who are you, reader, reading my poems an hundred years hence? "A century ago, a great poet and philosopher in India asked the question emotionally, which could serve as the most vivid and authoritative footnote for the significance of the study of Tagore. This author thinks that since the asked by Tagore is not an individual person, but human beings as a whole, the value of Tagore's thoughts will not die out, as long as human beings keep asking questions about the truth of humanity. Today people both in the west and east trapped in a dilemma turn to Tagore's thought and get illuminated, because his thought is closely concerned with the destiny of human beings and beneficial for people throughout the world. That is the reason why this author writes this paper.The core of Tagore's thought is "harmony and unity", which under different circumstances could be expressed as "rhythm", "love", "unity" or "truth" etc. Centered on this core concept, this paper deals with the following questions: what is the root of "harmony and unity"? What are the features of Tagore's religious thought? What is Tagore's philosophy like and what influence it has upon his aesthetics? What are the characteristics of Tagore's aesthetics and what significance it has for the present world? In a broad sense, discussion of these questions will help human to solve their present problems in living, and promote the healthy development of humanity; in a narrow sense, it will contribute to the development of oriental aesthetics.The term "oriental" used in this paper follows Professor Qiu Zihua's definition in his book the History of Oriental Aesthetics, which is not a pure geographical concept nor pure category of cultural systems, but, a combination of both. The case study mainly covers the most representative civilizations, Indian and Chinese civilizations. This paper is divided into five parts:The foreword introduces the modern significance of Tagore's aesthetics. It starts from Tagore's life experience, then turn to the present living problems facing human beings, which leads to the illumination of the modern significance of Tagore's aesthetics, and meanwhile it introduces the status quo of the research of Tagore's thought in China, and the basis and approaches of this author's study. Part one is the study of Tagore's religious thought. The sources of Tagore's religious belief include Upanishadic thought, which is also the foundation of Hindoo-- the biggest native religion in India, Vedatic philosophy, Buddhism, Jaina, and foreign religion Islamism and Zoroastrianism. Pantheism and the doctrine "love" remain the most striking feature of Tagore's religious thought, apart from that, it also has a mystic color. However, "religion of people" is in fact not religion in its true sense; instead, it is more like an ideal life with strong color of humanity. The idea of harmony and unity derives from his pantheistic thought "the sameness of Brahman and Atman".Part two studies Tagore's philosophy. The close tie between Tagore's philosophy and his religion is not only the characteristic of Tagore's thought, but also that of Indian or even the whole oriental thought. This part mainly addresses the ontology and epistemology of Tagore's thought. Tagore posits Brahman as the source of the world (i.e. The "God" in religion), and holds that there are three existence in the universe, one is Brahman, and the others are nature or phenomena and individual souls (Atman) Among which Brahman is the fundamental one, the source of everything, and individual souls are the internalization and personification of Brahman, they belong to spiritual world, and can only be felt by intuition. Sensations are for the learning of the everyday life experience while reason is for the learning of science. Nature and people are both finite and infinite, they all contain and embody the truth of "harmony and unity", and they all rely on the truth of "harmony and unity". Therefore what constitutes the strongest feature of Tagore' philosophy is the regulation of the opposites, contradictions and differences, and the denial of their absoluteness.The third part studies Tagore's views about beauty in general and the beauty of nature, which are the exemplification of his philosophy in aesthetics. Nature is beautiful because it is the appearance of Brahman, and full of energy of life. Beauty is always concrete and sensory, and what is more, it possesses integrity. Beauty is possible because it shows the truth of "harmony and unity" in a sensory way and thus aesthetic subject and object or the whole universe become unified spiritually, which produces a happy feeling called aesthetic feeling. Nature is beautiful but not at the highest level, because the beauty of nature relies so much on human's sensory organs that there is no free creation by human in it. Art, on the contrary, is the most beautiful as it contains the image of free creation by human which is the token of spirit.Part four studies Tagore's literary and artistic theories. Tagore holds that the nature of art is expression, the content of which is the agreeable feeling caused by the accordance of subject's spirit with the outside world, or in Tagore's own word "combination". Rasa in literature interpreted in Indian poetics in some extent has much in common with Beauty, but is not entirely equivalent of Beauty. Rasa is in fact an advanced form of art, which is the artistic formation of human's natural feeling and therefore is exempt from the actual appearance of things. The beauty of literature lies in the harmony and unity of the various elements. Tagore's aesthetics is also embodied in his opinions about the creation of music and painting. Music as an expression of truth via sound, enjoys much freedom for in music the content of expression is just the media of expression while the beauty of painting lies in the reflection of the omnipresent truth of Brahman through the integration of colors and lines, in the artists presentation of "true forms" in stead of "actual forms", and in the tolerance or assimilation of the differences and opposites. In a word, they both are expression of the infinite through the finite.Part five studies Tagore's comparison of western aesthetics and oriental aesthetics and his reflection of the comparison. Based on Tagore's opinion of western and oriental aesthetics, this paper looks into the prospect of the combination of western and oriental aesthetics. This paper quotes Professor Zhang Shiying's philosophical view of "three periods in the development of human spirit, as the frame of reference for the modern analysis of Tagore's aesthetics, since the latter has much in common with the former. At present, as both western sand oriental philosophy including aesthetics are both in a transforming period and have the same problems to deal with, the west and the east need to learn from each other's experiences, and to join the trend of harmony and unity at a higher level through the combination of each other.The concluding part studies the effect and response of Tagore's thought in western and eastern world. While in the west, Tagore's thought has aroused intense interest, but its reception is hindered by orientalism, in the east particularly in China and Japan, there has not been much concern about it, hence misunderstanding of it exists. Although the current social and political elements resulted in the unsatisfactory situation mentioned above, it is still strongly believed that Tagore's thought will be of great significance for all the people in the world.