The Comparative Categories Between Kant’s Sublime And Ancient Chinese Grandeur, Masculinity And Forcefulness

Kant’s theory on sublime has played a very important role in the formation andimprovement for the western theory of sublime, taking the Kant sublime category as amodel to compare to category of Grandeur, Masculinity, forcefulness from Chineseclassical literary theory for a comparative study, is feasible and meaningful.The following aspects will be analyzed particularly in the thesis:First, comparison between Kant sublime category and the grandeur category. InChinese aesthetics, grandeur as an independent aesthetic category is mounded by WangGuowei conjuring up western aesthetics theory of the sublime with Yin and Yang, hardstems and soft terms, the ancient Chinese aesthetics.Kant’s sublime realm is not the sameas the grandeur category in ancient China. First of all, from the external form, sublimeowns a steep imposing manner, while grandeur shows a magnificent appearance;Secondly from the point of aesthetic effect, sublime theory by Kant offers subjectaesthetic feelings,which is a complex mixed with pain, dread, fear, stunning,whilegrandeur, on the other hand, gives a person a kind of high energy excluding the heroicsense of pain; Finally from the point of subject, what Kant’s sublime theory reveals is theconversion process of the negative result from people’s essential strength, but whatgrandeur theory does is the positive realization of people’s essential strength by practice.Second, comparison between Kant’s sublime category and masculinity theory.As atraditional Chinese aesthetic category, masculinity, namely manly beauty, refers to theartistic style of the majestic and muscular,YaoNai’s masculinity theory is reallytypical.There are some well similarities between Kant’s and YaoNai’s, however,lookedfrom its context, the very sharp difference exists indeed between them. The former is unlike the essential source of the latter, moreover, the relationship of sublime andbeautify is also different from the one of the masculine and feminine.Third,comparison between Kant’s sublime category and the category in aforcefulness ancient China. The concepts from Grades of Poetry by Si Kongtu is forcomparative analysis with theory of Kant’s sublime. On the point of strength "great" and"vigorous",the two characteristics lie in both, and the highlight on the subject with anecessary noble soul and high passion is their similarities. The difference is that theformer emphasizes sublime as a separate category different from beauty or other category,while the latter much does the harmony among different categories.The different ways from thinking to religious and cultural origin in masteringcategory between Chinese and western lead to the difference in the theory about sublime.In post-modern society with the lost of sublime spirit, the comparative study on sublimecategory of Chinese and western still is endowed with theoretical value and practicalsignificance, letting the sublime back to its rightful place in the aesthetic practice toimprove the current human facing severe ecological problems and ethical problems willshow a very important practical significance.