Research On The Somaesthetic Thought Of The Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic

The Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic is the earliest and most abundant medical classics in China.It is the source of Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM)theory.Its appearance marked the formation of the theoretical system of TCM.This book not only reflected the medical achievements of ancient China,but also extensively absorbed the outstanding research results of Chinese literature,history,philosophy and many natural subjects during the time from the Warring States Period to the Qin and Han dynasties,integrated into an encyclopedia of life,containing rich aesthetic thoughts.Especially on the topic of body,The Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic provided a systematic theoretical framework and thus can serve as an important intellectual resource for exploring somaesthetic thought of ancient Chinese.But so far,the aesthetic researchers has paid little attention to the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic.The somaesthetic value of The Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic has not been enoughly attended to,and the relevant research results are still fairly weak.To this end,this thesis attempts to systematically combing and exploring the somaesthetic thought of the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic,based on the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic writing itself,by means of using Schusterman's “somaesthetics” as the theoretical viewpoint and method.The close connection between the body and nature and society is the ideological foundation of the aesthetic thought of the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic.The Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic examines human body in the context of nature and society.The body produces and operates in the vast background of nature,closely related to nature,and manifests the “correspondence between man and heaven”: the body and nature not only share the same structure and rhythm,but also communicate with each other.The body and the society are closely related,too: the orientation of social value has a potential impact on people's physical condition;the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic emphasizes that before implementing medical treatment the doctor should know about the status of the patient,in order to find out the cause of disease and to adopt different treatment methods in a targeted manner;the social composition is similar to the human body structure.The body aesthetic paradigm of the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic possesses three important features,such as the combination of form and spirit,the correspondence between the body surface and the internal body,and multidimensional perception.In terms of relationship between physic and spirit,the body of the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic is a unity of form and spirit;in terms of the body's own correspondence,the body appearance of the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic is corresponding to the internal body,and the beauty of the body appearance is external sign of the health of the body;the body has a multi-dimensional perception,which gives the body a fundamental position in aesthetic activity.The aesthetic pursuit of the body concept of the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic includes beauty of appearance,beauty of experience,and the “Internal seeking”.The beauty of appearance is first and foremost related to health,including beauty of face and body shape,beauty of manners and beauty of spirit.These beauty are based on the principle of “judging inside by the outside appearance”,and are the specific indications of the internal health and moral character of the person.In the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic,the looking,hearing,asking and touching during the the doctor's consultation,the perception beyond the senses,and the rituals in the impartation between the teacher and student all contain rich body experience,reflecting the the aesthetic realm of “oneness of people and me” and of “oneness of heaven and man”.“Internal seeking”,closely related to the aesthetic experience,is a way of experiencing the body and the universe,throughout the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic.The functional appeal of the somaesthetics of the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic includes the positive effects of the body on the individual,social and environmental levels.For the individual,physical improvement helps to strengthen health and extend life,to ameliorate humanity,to improve aesthetic experience and transcend the limited life;for society,physical improvement helps to maintain equal and harmonious interpersonal relationships and to promote social harmony as well as stability;for environment,physical improvement helps people reduce their desires and reduce unnecessary consumption of natural resources.Additionly,when the sensitivity of body consciousness has been improved,man will experience their own integration with nature and care for nature more.The Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic puts forward the practical goal of somaesthetics.Physical improvement should follow some basic principles,including spiritual adherence,compliance with the heavens,reconciliation of yin and yang,and early diagnosis and treatment.The Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic gives a number of methods that can be manipulated for improving the body.It is divided into two categories: health and healing: health is the physical improvement that mainly points to oneself,including emotional health,daily health,diet,music health and exercise,Etc.Treatment is mainly to improve the body of others,including wishing,soup,poison,stone therapy,acupuncture,moxibustion,massage and guiding.The somaesthetic thought of the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic has important contemporary value.Excavating and combing the somaesthetic thought of the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classics,on the one hand,helps to expand the Aesthetic history research,and on the other hand,it helps to enrich the construction of aesthetic theory.In addition,the somaesthetic thought of the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic has important enlightenment to the current society: in view of the increasingly serious physical and mental division of the current society and the reality of malformed somaesthetic conception,the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic's aesthetic wisdom is of great significance for reflecting on the current aesthetic culture,deepening the domestic somaesthetics research,enhancing people's body consciousness and helping cultivate healthy aesthetic conception of body.The somaesthetic thought of the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic has both support and transcendence for Schusterman's “somaesthetics.”In terms of focusing on the basic status of the body,advocating the meliorative cultivation on the body,and stressing on physical practice,the somaesthetic thought of the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic has a high degree of fit with Schusterman's “somaesthetics.” However,the emphasis on the “spirit” level and the emphasis on “making the body fitting the heaven” make the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic have a profoundness beyond Schusterman's “somaesthetics”.