Pre-Qin Taoism And The Generation Of Early Aesthetic Thought Of Literature And Art

Pre-Qin Taoism and the Generation of Early Aesthetic Thought of Literature and Art makes a close study of the generation of early artistic and aesthetic thought from generative dimension and aesthetic perspective, the former of which stresses the process and the kinesthetics of the research, quite different from the conventional static one, and the latter of which helps to further theorize, systematize, and rationalize early innate thoughts, which is of much help to inheriting ancient traditions. This dissertation examines the process of the development and deviation of the aesthetic thought influenced by Pre-Qin Taoism, and gives a clear and logical presentation of the generation of the early aesthetic thought based on the clear understanding of different schools in the Pre-Qin period. Besides, it examines the connotative generation of every aspect of early aesthetic thought including its background, the generation of its ontology, subject, category, and methodology.There are six chapters excluding the introduction and the conclusion. Chapter One illustrates the sophisticated background of the growth of early aesthetic thought, and analyzes some typical cultural phenomena so as to present the whole situation. Besides, it also makes a close study of the influence upon aesthetic image, aesthetic thinking, aesthetic experience, and aesthetic abstraction made by totem worship, remote myths, religious rituals, plastic art, and ideograph, in which early aesthetic consciousness and thinking came into being.Chapter Two expounds the thought of the three major schools of Taoism and the representatives'life, and also illustrates the essence of their works.Chapter Three explores the influence of Pre-Qin Taoism upon the generation of early aesthetic ontology, distinguishes the difference of the three schools in spite of their similarities, and analyzes how the thought"Tao"in philosophy and social life turns to aesthetics and affects the generation of the aesthetic ontology.Chapter Four deals with the influence of Pre-Qin Taoism on the generation of aesthetic subject, arguing that Pre-Qin Taoism showed great concern for individual life, which finds expression in the pursuit of the innermost cultivation of the subject: freedom of the spirit, stillness of the mind, pureness of the heart, indulgence of oneself, and holistic intuitive enlightenment of thinking. These pursuits help to bring about the establishment of a theoretic system of aesthetic subject.Chapter Five probes into the influence of Pre-Qin Taoism upon the generation of early aesthetic category and then gives further analysis of how the propostions like"subtlety","harmony","seclusion","authenticity","simplicity","purity","plainness", and"freshness"posed by Pre-Qin Taoists, become the key points of early aesthetic thought. It's impossible to expound all the concepts and categories of Chinese classical aesthetics in this chapter. Discussing the generation of several categories, this chapter doesn't mean to establish an aesthetic system but to describe the mode of generation.Chapter Six demonstrates how Pre-Qin Taoism has influenced the generation of early aesthetic methodology. In literary creation, Pre-Qin Taoists pay much attention to authenticity and naturalness; in artistic creation, they lay emphasis on the unity of reality and ideality; and in language, they hold that not all meanings can be expressed in words and that as long as one can get the meaning, he doesn't necessarily have to pay much attention to words.