The Research Of Wangbi’s Yi-ology Aesthetic Thoughts

Under the historical background of political instability and the decline of Confucian Classics, the ideological and cultural forms began to turn to Neo-Taoism, a philosophical sect in the Wei (220-265) and Jin (265-420) dynasties. During the Zhengshi period, He Yan founded the ontological Neo-Taoism which advocated "nihil" preliminarily and put forward some theoretical perspectives such as "the Fusion of Confucianism and Taoism"," Saint Is Nameless" and so on, making him one of the representatives of the Voices of Zhengshi Period. However, his Neo-Taoism ideology was still so crude that it lacked theoretical depth. On the basis of He Yan, another scholar Wang Bi built his system of Neo-Taoism with the main contents of the theory of Lao tse and the Yi-ology by mixing Confucianism and Taoism. As one theoretical source and connotation of Neo-Taoism, Yi-ology is an important philosophical foundation of Wei-Jin aesthetics. There are important aesthetic concepts and categories in Yi-ology and a possibility and inevitability of mixing the two theoretical forms, and the inner link of them provides the theoretical basis of putting forward the concept of "Yi-ology Aesthetics". If so, the connection between Wang Bi’s Yi-ology thoughts and Zhouyi’s aesthetic thoughts form the connotation of Wang Bi’s Yi-ology aesthetics. As an important part of his whole Neo-Taoism thoughts, Wang Bi’s Yi-ology concepts contain rich and profound aesthetic thoughts. Based on clarifying Wang Bi’s Yi-ology thoughts and Zhouyi’s aesthetic thoughts, this article will analyse the junction point of them and discuss the aesthetic thoughts that consist in Wang Bi’s works.The aesthetics of Zhouyi were germinated from Classic of Yi and developed in Appendices of Yi, which included important aesthetic theories, concepts, categories and propositions, such as Life Aesthetics, the Beauty of Tolerance and Kindness, the Interaction of Yin and Yang, the Aesthetic Formalism of Wen, etc. Many of them has become the sprout and root of Chinese aesthetic and art theories.With the ways of moral principles, Wang Bi cleaned up the malady of image-numerology of Yi. Then he built his Yi-ology system by mixing Confucianism and Taoism and clarifying Fundamental and Incidental, Nonbeing and Being. His system includes ontology and methodology of Yi-ology, the former one involves "Venerate Fundamental to Promote the Incidental" and "Grasp the One to Command Everything" and the latter one involves "Explaining the Yi-ology by Taoism " and " Grasp the Symbols and Forget the Words "The Yi-ology aesthetic of Wang Bi is based on the two above-mentioned aspects. It is the reflection of his Yi-ology thoughts and the absorption, transformation and transcendence of Zhouyi’s aesthetic thoughts. Totally speaking, it includes "The Discrimination between Word and Idea","The Principle of Feelings and Nature"" The Relationship between Form and Spirit" and " To Be Simple, Unadorned and Natural".