The Study Of Tang Junyi’s Aesthetics

Tang Junyi insists on philosophical integration between China and west, and makes the most excellent achievements among the modern Neo-Confucians. He’s honored as’Giant of cultural universe’ because of his achievement in the creative transformation of Confucianism. Aesthetics based on theory of empathy is not only Tang Junyi’s most philosophical contributions in the modern Chinese intellectual history, but also contains many potential philosophical resources which are increasingly valuable in contemporary theoretical context. Study on this theme can explore new theoretical horizons, highlighting the significance of aesthetics in contemporary Confucian study and arouse the vitality and creative power of Confucianism. By connecting all parts of Tang Junyi’s philosophy and introspecting it transcendently, this paper tries to analyze Tang Junyi’s aesthetics from the comparative horizon between Chinese and western philosophy in order to explore the comprehensive value of his philosophy.This paper is constituted of four chapters. The fist chapter introduces the historical formation of Tang Junyi’s philosophy from crisis awareness, intellectual responsibility and Views of Academic Transformation. The second chapter intorduces Tang Junyi’s philosophical goal, methods and narrative way, and ananlyze the basic principle of his philosophy. The third chapter insists on the theory of empathy. It starts from the metaphysical foundation, then interprets the philsophical connotation of the theory from the inter-exlaination between Chinese and western philosophical. It also concentrates on the feeling dimension of empathy and makes clear the differences between empathy and sympathy. The fourth chapter illustrates Tang Junyi’s aesthetics based on the theory of empathy in the comparative context between Chinese and western aesthetics. It pays more attraction to Tang Junyi’s intellectual innovations in the reconstruction of Chinese asethetics. The conclusion comes to summarize Tang Junyi’s theory of empathy and aesthetics.It also introspects Tang Junyi’s aesthetics in the post-metaphysical context in order to highlight the constant theoretical significance and revelation of his thoughts on the concept of Intersubjectivity.