On The Gantong Thinking And The Life Spirit Of Chinese Aesthetics

The "Gantong" thinking is a fundamental and particular pattern of thinking which belongs to the Chinese traditional thoughts, running through all the fields of traditional thought, scholarship and culture, as well as influencing and moulding the unique spirit of Chinese traditional thoughts. The tendency of Gantong thinking had been exhibited obviously at the beginning of Chinese culture. In the holistic and chaotic world experience of "All in One", the ancient people intuited the relevance between everything in the world and human's life-world and its significance in the way of analogy and imagery. In the necromantic and sacrificial activities of witchcraft and religion, the ancient people understood the divine will in virtue of the particular experience of Gantong, thereby making the Gangtong and harmony between human and gods possible. On that particular experience of Gantong between human and gods, the ancient people placed their feelings, value and ideal. This approach of experience of Gantong had subtly influenced and moulded the fundamental ways in which the Chinese ancients perceived and understood the world. Furthermore, the long-held tradition of the integration of witchcraft and politics had made the Gantong thinking a particular cultural psychology. The devout, awestruck, dedicated, solemn psychological experience and spiritual state of the harmony between human and gods in the witchcraft's and religious activities continued to deepen and richen people's minds, as well as strengthen and manifest their power of Gantong. In the "Li" and "Yue" civilization of Zhou Dynasty, the Li and Yue had gradually replaced the witchcraft's rites and formally become the new fundamental approach of communication between human and gods. However, the pattern of thinking had lasted in the way of institutionalization, in which people Gantong "Tian-Di-Gui-Shen" through the Li and Yue rites. The Li and Yue could obtain the image of everything from analogy, while not deviating from the human's feeling and emotion. This characteristic not only made the Li and Yue obtain twofold functions, namely Gantong human and gods, as well as moulding a person's temperament, but also provided the Gantong thinking with the implication of morality and human nature. Along with the breakdown of Li and Yue, and the rise of Pre-Qin Philosophers, the belief in "Gui-Shen" was gradually replaced by the belief in "Tiandao", while the Gantong between "Tian" and human became the topic of the world of thought. The mind-nature Aesthetics represented by Confucianism and Taoism presented the thinking pattern of Gantong "Tiandao" by mind-nature, revealing various possibilities of Gantong from different dimensions. The Confucianism highlighted the Gantong between the "honesty" and "respectfulness" of inner mind-nature and Tiandao on the "Rendao" level, while the Taoism highlighted the integration of "emptiness" and "silence" of mind-nature and "Tiandao" on the "Tiandao" level. The highlighting of the Gantong power of human's holistic inner mind-nature on different levels in the Confucianism and Taoism mind-nature Aesthetics made the mind-nature become the source of the meanings of Gantong, and thereby planted the Gantong thinking in human's inner mind-nature and real life. The various implications of Gantong thinking on different levels was joined together and integrated in Yizhuan. Yizhuan abstracted Gantong thinking from the former thoughts and thinking patterns, and expressed it as "It is still and without movement; but, when acted on, it penetrates forthwith". On one hand, it was an accurate understanding of the Gantong thinking and inner spirit of Yijing as the essence of the witchcraft culture; on the other hand, it was a creationary integration and abstraction of the Gantong thinking revealed by the mind-nature theory of Confucianism and Taoism. Generally speaking, it brought human and everything into a significant and inter-Gantong whole, expanding the significance of Gantong thinking from the dimensions of "Biantong", "Huitong", "Pangtong" and so on, profoundly and lastingly influencing the subsequent Chinese thoughts.The Gantong thinking presents several basic characteristics throughout its different forms and representation in the history. They can be concluded as following. First, everything in the world can respond to both homogeneous and heterogeneous things by the "Qi" or species-ness. This inner relationship of inter-responding is the manner and property of existence of everything in the world. On the basis of the long-term, repeating and in-depth observation and understanding of the inter-responding phenomenon, human can conclude and classify its laws and characteristics, and take them as the fundamental approach of perceiving and understanding things. It is the original reason that makes the Gantong thinking possible. Secondly, the inter-responding relationship exists not only among all the things in the world but also between those things and human lives. It is because of this that human understand everything in the way of Gantong and seek the Gantong and harmony between human and everything, in order to have an insight into everything in the world and the human beings themselves. Thirdly, it is because of the mind that human can Gantong everything in the world. The mind, different from and as the ruler of the external senses such as ear, eye, nose and mouth, has a particular power of perceiving to integrate instantly the representative perception of certain aspects or properties of things acquired through those senses, on the basis of which the mind can obtain a holistic, overall and essential insight of those things. Meanwhile, the mind also has a power to make moral evaluation, that is to say, to evaluate and perceive the same thing at the same time. Hence the Gantong thinking, essentially speaking, means the intuition of the mind. This intuition endows the Gantong thinking with rich and consuming aesthetic meaning, and therefore the Gantong thinking, as for its essential inner spirit, is an aesthetic and poetic way of experiencing the world. Fourthly, in the Gatong pattern of thinking, human experience the world through the intuition of the mind in an imagery-oriented, non-objectified, non-substantial and non-conceptual way. Rather than taking things as still and substantial objects that can be observed and analysed statically, we can experience and have an insight into them from various dimensions, perspectives and points of view by the vital communication between the mind and them in the virtue of "Liuguan" and "Youguan". In this way we can Gantong and reveal the value and significance of everything in the world, as well as awaken and lighten their lives and souls.The Gantong thinking is not only the recognition of all the things in the world, but also a synthetic and artistic pattern of thinking which contains the affective experience and value judgment of them. It integrates the recognition, value and end into a coherent whole, and takes the understanding of the significance of those things' existence as its purpose and interest. It is for this reason that the Chinese traditional scholarship has the features of comprehensiveness and integration, and that the Chinese traditional thought has the character of integrating the philosophy with the poeticness. As for the Chinese traditional Aesthetics as a modern discipline, the holistic and vitalizing cosmology based on the Gantong thinking lays cosmological foundation for it and determines the life spirit and characters of it as well as the Chinese traditional arts. As for their manifestation, the Chinese Aesthetics and arts emphasize following the example of the life, rhythm and lingering charm of things in the world. As for their contents, they take the expression of the life, vitality and vigor of those things as their ideal goal and realm. As for the artistic creation, they emphasize that the artists should Gantong the objects' appearance and verve with their artistic souls. For the artistic evaluation and appreciation, they emphasize the intuitive understanding and the spiritual correspondence. As for being taken as a whole, the Chinese traditional art is presented as a life-Gantong art filled with deep universal spirit and philosophical implication. In the current research of Chinese traditional Aesthetics, the attempt of investigating the Gantong thinking from the Chinese traditional thoughts' very own inherent contexts can not only reveal the unique spirit of Chinese traditional Aesthetics, but also provide reference for the construction of Chinese traditional Aesthetics' own discourse.