| In recent years, with the studies of “body” becoming globally popular in the academiccircle, Somaesthetics has risen and drawn a wide attention. In China, there is Taoism thatbelieves one should experience and feel his unity with Tao via his body. For now, from theangle of body, the studies of the aesthetics in such unity are insufficient. And this papertries to provide with its readers a new and appropriate interpretation of Taoism Aestheticsfrom that angle, taking Sima Chengzhen as the case——Sima Chengzhen is Taoist thinkerin early Tang Dynasty. And this is an attempt to study “body”, respond to the rise of Somaesthetics, and extend the interpretations of “Taoism Aesthetics”.In this paper, analyses are conducted on the base of related historic facts. And theframe of the entire paper is built under the logic of from body to body exercises and then tothe essence of body cultivating. And it will begin with pointing out it that body means awhole that unites form with spirit and is based on the philosophy of Qi in ancient China. Itcan be said that body has a very important place in the Chinese culture that is characterizedby self-cultivating. And Taoism’s concept of body puts “body cultivation” as its core,taking it as the base of the aesthetic idea of having an immortal body and spirit.And this concept can be divided into three parts, accordingly the origin of thebody,the concept of form,and the concept of spirit. Sima Chengzhen, having inherited theTao-Qi theory, believes that a man’s body is formed by Qi. And when it comes to theconcept of form, he claims that Qi is the base of form and walks away from the traditionalTaoist form concept by Shang Qing Taoist School that believes “spirit maters”, with themedical theories represented by those from classics such as Huang Di Nei Jing and NanJing. And he holds the view of “Spirit is based on Tao” when there comes the concept ofspirit, attempting to build up his theories of “a clean and peaceful spirit”.It is believed by Sima Chengzhen that the place for body-cultivating should be thoseblessed spots and the time, when it comes to the form, should be those momentsappropriate. And when it comes to the spirit, he holds that, the time for spirit cultivatingshould be all the day and night. His main form cultivating method is “Absorbing Qi”. Thismethod is mainly about “Qi without body” and concentrates on the nurturing of lung and kidney. It points out the direction in which Qi flows into one’s body and is a rigorousmethod. The main spirit cultivating method of his is sitting from peace into meditation. Bydoing this, he tries to free himself from his own form and spirit, and feel the unity of himwith Tao. This method by him aims to be “From Meditation into Tao”. It is influenced bythe “Sitting in Meditation” theories of Zhuangzi, Guo Xiang, Cheng Xuanying, etc. and ituses “the way into peace from worries” in the classic of Tong Meng Zhi Guan from TiantaiBuddhism School as reference. By stressing peace, this method provides an approachableway to “sitting in meditation” and thus helps realize the Spiritual Peace in the Taoistmeaning. Sima Chengzhen is good at playing Gu qin, and playing it is also his importantway into his Somaesthetics fairyland.According to Sima Chengzhen, the essence of body cultivating pins itself to thephilosophy of “communicating with gods and spirits around”——a reflection of thosecharacters of primeval wizardry cultures, and inherits the thoughts of understanding andreturning to Tao as well as the philosophy of Qi that holds the belief of “Qi unites it all”.This idea is the base of body cultivation. And I shall say, body cultivation still has a role toplay today. By putting up the concept of “body cultivation”, Sima Chengzhen gives thepictures of his pursuit of a immortal life and ultimate freedom, as the ideal body in his eyesis that of the immortal. And what he chases is also the upmost pursuit of Taosim. |
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