| The research on categories of art theory is a knot of the research of art concept. The research on categories of ancient Chinese art theory must be taken from a broad view. Literature review and cross-disciplinary study methods are applied to the research. The historical facts of artistic history and cultural history are combined in discussing the cultural elements, historical contexts and life spirits of art. The significant concept of artistic history has been studies on the foundation. The most common and fundamental art concept has been explored and the commonality and general regulations of the development of ancient Chinese art has been revealed.There are three categories of ancient Chinese art theory, including ontology category, epistemology category and axiology category. The ontology category is category of Tao, Qi and Xiang. Tao is a supreme concept of Chinese philosophy and one of ultimate categories of ancient Chinese art theory. The combination of Tao and Yi is a corollary of a harmonious development of rationality and sensibility. Without Tao, Yi will be spiritless and directionless on the other hand, Tao will be pathless. Tao is regarded as a springhead and noumenon of cosmic inventory, while Qi is a essence of specific substance. What’s more, Qi is also the essence of all the elements of category Yi. Yi constructs auditory sense, olfactive sense, visual sense, tactile sense and even human beings. Sensory organs of humankind posses a biological directness and social historicality. The biological directness enables people to perceive the world without others’ help, the social historicality accumulates human’s sentiments and enable people to congnize the concrete knowledge. Ancient Chinese art stems from the perception of the world and the materialization of this abstract feeling into a tangible object. Qi is a basic element of human beings and the universe. The living body and Tian Qi are the physical reflection of the universe. Art is a social, sentimental and aesthetic reflection of the universe. Because of it’s animacy, Qi is the ontology category of art. Tao is the spirit ontology of art, Qi is the substance ontology category, then Xiang is the formation ontology of art. It is Xiang that makes art a art, and it enables human beings to capture the vigorousness of life. Xiang transformes Qi’s substantiality and Tao’s transcendentality into recognizable and perceivable objects.Which art activities can enable human beings to cognize Tao, Qi and Xiang, the noumenon of art? There is a tradition of expressing aspiration and sentimentality complex in ancient Chinese art. True feelings of The Books of Changes, the benevolence of The Analects of Confucius and the affectionlessness of Chuang tzu formed three demensions of ancient Chinese art, that is the pursuing truth, inclining to charity and appreciating aesthetics. The most important part of art expressing is the combination of affection and ambition. Although Tao roots in affection, it also ends in affection.Confucianism and Taoism achieved a high degree of uniformity in "what Heaven has conferred is called The Nature; and accordance with this nature is called The Path of Duty; the regulation of this path is called Instruction." Thus art has constructed a path to Tao by aesthetics and morality. The body and heart of human beings are transformed into Form and Spirit by ancient Chinese artists.The creation of art is a continual convergence of form and spirit. "Form based on Spirit" refers to a process of artists’initial ideas being materialized into artwork. On the contrary,"spirit from form" refers to a process of connoisseurs’recreation of artworks based on their thoughts. There is a mutual effect between spirit and form. Spirit is human being’s desire of express and objectify, while Form is a desire of inquiry. A inquiry of art’s form can achieve a unconscientious realm of Xiang Wang, that’why the transcendence of form can lead to realm of Tao. According it’s initial meaning, Spirit is a response to the existence of universe. While Tao is a exploration of universe. "Writing are for conveying truth" is a cliche, but it demonstrates a way of transcendence. The outdated conception of "Forms are for conveying spirit" also lead a way to "magical writing".Compared with categories of affection/ambition, form/spirit,the category of deficiency/excess is more inclusive. The essence of art is the subjectivity/deficiency part, that is aesthetic appreciation and spirituality. And the objectivity/excess part of art is materiality, which can also be divided into two parts of deficiency/excess. In pictures, the blank area is subjectivity/deficiency, while the colorful area is objectivity/excess. In music, the pause is subjectivity/deficiency, while the succession is objectivity/excess. The cadence in Chinese opera is subjectivity/deficiency and the continuity is objectivity/excess. The stillness in dance performance is subjectivity/deficiency while the movement is objectivity/excess. To it’s extreme,category of deficiency/excess will be transformed into a concern about Existence and None-existence. Taoism does not aim to cancel both art and its form, but to make people act under the guidance of universe. Lao-tsu also advocates the governors to act according to the rule of universe. Both Taoism and Confucianism rooted in life and society, thus they all agreed in obeying to nature. And it greatly influenced the art theory. They all appreciate natural beauty, no matter the gorgeousness or the freshness.Different from ancient western philosophy, ancient Chinese philosophy mainly concentrates on "Shen and Tao(身与道)" rather than "thought and existence". Thus the core value of ancient Chinese art is "le xin ming dao (明道乐心) ".The process of art is a process of self-cultivation which aims at knowing the Tao. Elegance and vulgarity mainly depend on personality. Only a good-natured man can produce elegance.The advocation of Confucianism on beauty and benevolence is an emphasize on ethical value, while advocation of Taoism on beauty and truth is an emphasize on aesthetic value. However, they all unified in the construction of a harmonious relation between human and nature, knowledge and action, emotion and scenery. Both Taoism and Confucianism share a common interest in perfectionism. |
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