Wang Fu-chih Aesthetic Thought

WangFuzhi is the comprehensive expression of Chinses classical culture .The author finds during the process of collecting, arraying data that he has an abundant aesthetic education thought. So centring on his pursuit of ideal personality and the realm of life, I have deeply probed into his aesthetic education thought and aesthetic education view in all aspects. WangFuzhi thinks that the gas is source of the universe. So the gas condenses and turns into human. The gas includes the first principle of all things, which produce the humanity. The gas is called God as the source from which everything derives. Human and his humanity all come from the gas. This makes it possible that everyone is unified with God and Gog's conduct after born. God is the best, most real, most beautiful thing. WangFuzhi's final purpose of training human is to make people have the best morals, define the regularity of all the things, that is to say, to have moral character of God, reach the realm of highly free and aesthetic life, reach the realm of the harmony between man and nature. WangFuzhi runs through the pursuit of the realm of this ideal life in the course of life all the time. He insists on the theory of humanity that is always changing and developing. He think that the forming of the humanity is not only because the acceptance to which God's will entrusted to, but also influenced by education, factors of environment and custom, ect. So he emphasizes education and training in order to turn human into saints. The forming of ideal personality and realization of its social utility are the important sources of beauty. Through educating and training, people pursue the limitless thing with the limited life, thus proving one's own value constantly, from which people obtain happiness and satisfaction too, then the emotion promote people to the pursuit of the realm in ideal life. In a word, aesthetic education factors permeate through social education and self-education, and follow the course of man's life all the time. WangFuzhi thinks that perfect humanity includes two parts: perceptual and reason. He pays attention to emotion, thinks that emotion is awarded by humanity and perceptual desire is awarded by emotion. He thinks that he offers emotion the proper satisfaction and coordination, that can make the perceptual desire get rational development and proper control, which enables the perfect and harmonious humanity to form finally. So he pays attention to the aesthetic education which act on emotion. He considers that in the course of seeking knowledge and training morals, only push of the emotion can make man be diligent whole-heartedly with pleasure. Then man can make the pursuit to knowledge and ethical interiorize demand for heart consciously, so all inherent and external pressure and fettering melt in aesthetic and free realm. WangFuzhi also probes into the concrete way of aesthetic education—by poem and...