Study On The Aesthetics Of Tongcheng School

The fact that Tongcheng School has such a far-reaching meaning is partly explained by its system of literary theory,rich and outstanding ancient Chinese prose works,a large number of creative team,and its close connetion with social and political environment,historical and cultural context.However,it is our view that the more important reason lies in the rich aesthetic values abundant in its ancient prose theory and production which endows Tongcheng School its immortal historical position.Their aesthetic thoughts,including Dai Mingshi's natural aesthetic thoughts.Fangbao.s view of Yi-fa.Liu Dakui's theory of Shengqi,and Yao Nai's theory of Yin-Yang and Softness-hardness,of argumentation,textual criticism,and art,of spirit,Li,Qi,meter,rhythm,sound and color,have both historical values and realistic significance to the construction of contemporary Chinese aesthetic thought.The first chapter."The Natural Aesthetics of Tongcheng School," concentrates firstly on the origin of natural aesthetic ideology,which begins from the nature worship of I-Ching·Xi-Ci to natural beauty of Li Zhi of Ming dynasty,in terms of history.A subsequent point focuses on the natural aesthetic ideology of Dai Mingshi,the creator of Tongcheng School,which includes his thoughts of nature first,the compatibility of Tao,Law and Ci and the same importance of Essence,Qi and Spirit as well as his critique to the ugly society.Next the aesthetic ideology of Fang Bao,Liu Dakui and Yao Nai and the slight differences in their descriptions of the nature's forms are discussed with Yao Nai's Tai as an example.The conclusion drawing from the Tai is that the flaw can be seen clearly if it is just read from the unification of argumentation,textual criticism,and art.The natural aesthetics of Fand Dongmei,the later follower and the representative of new Confucian.is analyzed in the last part of this chapter.The second Chapter."Yi-Fa is beautiful",explores Fang Bao's aesthetic ideology.Yi-Fa's connotative meaning is first treated in sight of historical and cultural context and academic envirornment of Qing dynasty.The chapter then turns from the new angle of psychological motivation to consider the aesthetic ideology of Yi-Fa.In particular.it traces the relationship between Yi-Fa and "no hard and last rules to write well" as well as "writing for conveying truth".Yi-Fa's causal association with psychological superiority and psychological sense of security is also discussed in this chapter.The third chapter.Spirit and Qi are beautiful,examines "comprehending spirit from reading aloud" of Tongcheng School deduced from "Spirit and Qi,words and expressions and syllable" of Liu Dakui and indicates the ideology's character of logicians,that is.laying emphasis on the thyme sense of ancient Chinese prose.It focuses first on the historical and cultural origins and then,taking Liu Dakui as a precursor,analyzes respectively the succession and development to Spirit and Qi of the representatives,which include Yao Nai.Yao Ying,Mei Zengliang.Zeng Guofan,Zhang Yuzhao,etc.The fourth chapter,"Realm is beautiful",explores Yao Nai's aesthetic ideology.It first defines the meaning of "realm" and turns to Yin-Yang and Softness-hardness and its important position in the theory of Chinese classical aesthetics style.Section two of this chapter focuses on the beauty of universal responsibility of argumentation,textual criticism,and art as well as its reveal to the feature of comprehensive expression of Qing Dynasty,its open and tolerance.And then the significance of the teaching methodology of simulation,similarity and drop is discussed in the third section.It praises highly the identity of Yao Nai as an educator first and states briefly that this methodology belongs to the artistic skills of the formless,which plays an important role in the aesthetic way of nature unity,unity of art and Tao as well as unity of meaning and Qi.The fourth section argues the beauty of "romantic charm" from the perspective of combination of practice and theory of ancient Chinese prose creation,The fifth chapter,Discourse analysis of Tongcheng School's aesthetics,turns from the discussion of beauty to the dispute of speaking right by taking Foucault's discourse theory as a reference to disclose ferociousness of power as well as display the motivation it contains,Section one probes into the literary inquisition caused by Dai Mingshi's aesthetic discourse and reveals the cruel scene which is aroused by the game of political,historical and literary voice.The subtle relations of discourse power between Fang Bao's Yi-fa and his master work.Notes in Prison,are explored in Section two and Liu Dakui's control of discourse power is discussed in Section three by analyzing his theory of "Spirit and Qi,Words and Expressions,Syllable","Particular Abilities" and "Twelve important ideas" according to his appeal strategies to aesthetic discourse power in his Literature Theory Essays.Section four discusses Yao Nai's discourse power strategies contained in his "argumentation,textual criticism,and art" and concludes that the discussion of power of academic discourse is in favor of the booming of academics and Section five proves origins and causes of different evaluating discourse from "Orthodox" to "Tongcheng Fallacy".The sixth chapter develops the analysis of the historical significance and contemporary value of Tongcheng School's aesthetic discourse by tracing Foucault's discourse analysis.The chapter contends that Tongcheng School's aesthetic ideology is a panoramic discourse pattern which includes natural discourse pattern of Tao.ethics discourse pattern of Confucian.aesthetic discourse pattern of essayists and containment discourse pattern of culturists.etc.and it unlocks a new vision for a better understanding of Tongcheng School which contributes finally to a better evaluation of the historical significance and contemporary value of it.