The aesthetic description of literature in traditional Chinese aesthetic culture is Daogen Wenzhi.

Analysis: The root of Tao and the branches of literature are Tao as the root and literature as the branches and leaves. Zhu Xi’s aesthetics in the Southern Song Dynasty. "Tao is the foundation of literature, and literature is the branches and leaves of Tao." (Volume 139 of "Zhu Zi Yu Lei") He believes that Tao and literature have a master-slave relationship, so only its root is Tao, so it is originated from All texts are Taoist. The sages of three generations all wrote from this heart, and writing is the Tao (ibid.).

Aesthetics in traditional Chinese culture:

The sociology of art in the Pre-Qin and Han Dynasties was baptized by the "rational spirit of the Pre-Qin", and the aesthetic consciousness of ritual and music culture centered on human taste and political and religious ethics. , finally established.

The concept of "wen" in ancient China is no less aesthetic than "beauty". They constitute the two basic categories of Chinese aesthetics.

"Beauty" retains the characteristics of practicality; "Wen" has a super-utilitarian tendency from the beginning.

Confucius said: "Benevolence is the beauty."

Mencius supplemented Confucius's "benevolence is the beauty" with "righteousness as the text".

Xunzi believed: "Human nature is evil, and those who are good are fake." Evil can be made good through the guidance of "propriety". Therefore, "without hypocrisy, one's nature cannot be self-beautiful."

Mozi's point of view: "It is not good to have fun." It means to have a full stomach first and then talk about beautiful things. Mencius denounced him as a beast.

Han Feizi believed: "The flourishing of rituals and music will lead to chaos in the law, and extravagant writing will lead to the loss of the country. Art and aesthetics are the enemies of governing the country."

Laozi said: "The sound of great music is great. , the elephant is invisible."

Zhuangzi said: "The beauty of heaven and earth cannot be expressed."

In Lao Zhuang's view, true art is natural (not man-made). The creation of "Tao", the real aesthetic is the experience and observation of Tao. Taoist Tao, in a sense, negates Confucian virtue (benevolence, justice, etiquette, and music). There is something metaphysical about it, but not "after physics" in the West, but "after ethics."

Dong Zhongshu’s New Confucianism established a theological teleology of “the unity of nature and man”.

Since then, the empathic attitude of blending mind and body has become the main aesthetic method of Chinese literati, the empathetic approach of integrating scenes has become the main law of Chinese artistic creation, and artistic conception has become the main theme of Chinese aesthetics and Chinese art. aesthetic category. The so-called artistic conception refers to the realm of "harmony between man and nature" in artworks.