Hanfeizi Utilitarian Aesthetic Thought

Han Fei-zi inherited the morality theory of Lao-zi, according to the logic of morality deducing law, he turned Taoism school's non-action philosophy into a fully active philosophy, which provided the philosophical foundation for his utilitarianism aesthetic thinking. In human nature judgment, just like Xun-zi, Han Fei-zi also thought the human nature was evil, and he was trying to forcibly eradicate the humanity evil by law, which was contrast to Xun-zi' s changing the human nature by etiquette education. According to this legal philosophy, Han Fei-zi highly praised the natural and the sincere and honest humanity, and repeled all the decoration. At the same time, in his view, the literatre and etiquette of Confucian was not only useless to the socity, but also a threat to the political stability. Based on this judgment, literature and art, and all the beauty, was denied because of the departure from the philosophy origin and the confrontation to the society politics.Han Fei-zi' s aesthetic is a kind of anti-aesthetic. The acute conflicts between the beauty and the law made him abandon the beauty and turn into the law. However, Han Fei-zi had discussed a series of views on the beauty from the standpoint of utilitarianism anti-aesthetc, and attempted to promote a healthy and orderly society by a evil means. Thus, it can be believed that the anti-aesthetic of Han Fei-zi generated a untique aesthtic by a opposing each other and yet also complementing each other logic.The first part of the paper expounds the philosophy origin of Han Fei-zi' s utilitarianism aesthetic thinking. Han Fei-zi' s philosophy originated in Taoism school. Taoism school laid special emphasis on the essence of the morality, and moved towards the freedom to nature; Diffent...