Analysis Of Jin Shengtan's Aesthetic Thought

Jin Shengtan holds certain position in aesthetics history for his novel commentary, but a more profound understanding should be connected with his philosophical thought, that's the reason why we intend to make a thorough inquiry of the philosophy origin of his thought in this paper. The paper starts with Shengtan's philosophy characterized with the combination of Yi theory and Buddhism, then represents his whole philosophy system and methodological character. On above foundation, we can further analyze Shengtan's aesthetic ideal of life and his real life, reveal the literary significance and theoretical significance of his commentary on poet and literature works. Finally, we are able to extract his aesthetic wisdom, which runs through his philosophical thought, his outlook on life,and his outlook on literature and art. We represent it as a classical aesthetical spirit, and the core is the Confucian school, the character is the combination of"poet"and"history". The paper is divided into two parts. The first part,"between Nature and Human being", mainly concerns about Shengtan's philosophy of world and philosophy of life and their manifestation on his outlook of the world, the life, the ethics and the politics. The second part,"Great Career",mainly concerns about several concrete theories related with his commentary on poet and literature works. The first part provides a logical starting point; the second part makes a development, thus shows us a totality of philosophical thought, actual life and thought of literature and art of Jin Shengtan, and the identity of"poet"and"history"in his aesthetic spirit.As for the comprehension of philosophical thought, Shengtan takes the chance of"Word"theory to establish the philosophy system, expressing his persistent spirit that the"Word"theory in broad sense virtually refers to the entire humanism. Its aesthetic composing has two sources. One is people's courage and insight concerning people's wisdom, which is related to the understanding of Tiandao. The other is people's awareness of eventuality concerning people's affection, which is related to the care and love for Rendao. It is just these two relations that constitute the humanistic aesthetics of"Inaction"and"Action".With regard to the illumination of philosophical thought, Jin Shengtan has fully combined Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism with particular modes of thinking and expression. His philosophical thought regards"Yuan"theory as the core. The"Yuan"couldn't be fully explained so he illuminates it from two aspects, regarding heaven as Yuan's qian and regarding earth as Yuan's kun. But they are still the same"Yuan"which could be further illuminated with the combination of Yi theory and Buddhism. The red line through it, which is the mode of thinking, regards Yi theory and Buddhism as the core. The mutual explanations of Yi theory and Buddhism make the thought of Tiandao and Rendao theory that give priority to Confucian transparent and elegant. As for the modes of thinking and expression, its flexibility, versatility and wisdom are even more marvelous.Jin Shengtan's aesthetic ideal of life and his real life are the specific developments of his philosophical thought. Shengtan's"Sheng", which is the key point when we analyze his"Saint"ideal, is the listening to Nature theory and the common origin as well as ascription of Confucian, Taoism and Buddhism. Real life is the aesthetic ideal's development which is limited and concrete. Jin Shengtan's real life is just reading, writing books and comments, which is simple and pure. The books bear his pursuance of"Truth"and"Wisdom"and his ideal of"Kindness"and"Affection". Eventually with his genius aesthetic feelings and transcendence of truth and kindness, he achieves a harmonious aesthetic level of"Craze"and"Happiness".Jin Shengtan's comments on"Great Career"are the most wonderful and brilliant content in his life. His genius feelings and super organic thinking have made his commenting theory achieve the contemporary top level in system construction and mental depth. With Buddhism and grammar explaining each other, Shengtan analyzes this paper from the grammar dimension concerning"technology"as well as the philosophical dimension concerning"Tao". He discusses the theoretical significance in grammar on the one hand and reveals the aesthetic spirit on the other hand.Therefore this paper holds the opinion that the common aesthetic spirit reflected from Jin Shengtan's philosophical thought, philosophy of life and thought of literature is the combination of"Poem"and"History". Here the"Poem"refers to lyrical quality whose basis is heaven and nature and it is the great moral between heaven and earth. The"History"relies on people and practice and it is the Saint's great undertaking. Poem and History are mutually prescribing, which achieves the ideal combination of poem and history which is also the combination of heaven and human. The elegant and transparent aesthetic spirit with the combination of poem and history runs through Jin Shengtan's philosophical thought, ideal of life and commenting idea, which is the embodiment of his aesthetic spirit.