On Liu Zongyuan's Thought Of Tourism Aesthetics

Liu Zongyuan's life was not a smooth one. He lived in the Mid-Tang Dynasty, during which three religions were popular Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. Undoubtedly, this situation would cause some influence on Liu's mind. In terms of his core idea, Liu favored the philosophies of those wisers like Yao, Shun and Confucius. Liu advocated the integration and unity of Confucianism and Buddhism, aiming at the revival of Confucianism. He believed Buddhism and Confucianism had something in common. Therefore, based on such ideological tolerance, Liu thought there must also be overlapped fields between Confucianism and Taoism. By experiencing life and combining the essence of the three philosophies, Liu generated his own unique ideas. This feature was reflected in his landscape poetry. These works suggested such Confucian morality as "applying what is experienced", Taoist morality as "respect for the nature" and Buddhist morality as "mind" Specifically, Confucianism inspired Liu's positive attitude toward salvation and his strong people-basis conception; Taoism influenced his attitude toward life—to be light-hearted and generous; and his devoted study of Buddhism led to such understanding that the Buddha has the power to relieve sufferings and feelings of emptiness. Such integrated thoughts and open attitudes toward aesthetics not only had an impact on his poetry writing, but also contributed to his theories about tourism motivation, aesthetic approaches and levels.By tracing his travels in the two regions of Yongzhou and Liuzhou, after Liu received the degradation of position, it showed that the poet's mind had been changing all the way. When encountering great difficulties at work, Liu experienced a deep feeling of sadness and loneliness. As a result, he resorted to traveling so as to free himself from pains. In doing so, Liu enjoyed the landscape and managed to get rid of various bindings surrounding him.Liu began to shift the emotions depicted in his poetry onto the descriptions of the nature and landscape, during the time when he felt lonely and depressed.In terms of aesthetics, Liu chose "far-reaching mood" and "broad view" as the major aesthetic subject. According to his understanding, the former encouraged a broad sight and an open mind, the latter a clear mind in the procers of sightseeing. He thought that opinions about "Whether the environment is beautiful is Judged by human being", and that mountains or rivers became tourist attractions only if there were such viewers that had discovered their beauty with admiration before they made them well-known in words or otherwise. By appreciating the sights, viewers would obtain both physical and emotional amusement, subsequently, their mind going brightened. In the viewers'eyes, nothing other than landscape appreciation could bring them great joy. Such aesthetic experience is an advanced process of combining outward physical experiences with inward mental experiences, and finally reaching "the unification of the viewer and his surroundings". Liu's aesthetic theory of perfection contributed to the development of chinese classical aestho-psychology in regard to tourism. Based on the philosophy of "regarding the individuals as the foundation of a society", and "pursuing the original nature of the existence", Liu proposed the three principles of landscaping—benefiting the people, conforming to the original appearance, and preserving the natural state. His tourism aesthetic thought, has given instruction in the development of modern tourism and landscaping.