Abstract: As the main basic school of classical aesthetics in China, Confucian aesthetics has played an extremely important role in the development of traditional culture in China. As a representative of Confucian aesthetics, Confucius aesthetics laid an important foundation for the development of China culture and played a vital role in the formation of China traditional culture. Benevolence, as the essence of Confucius' aesthetics, is closely related to it. "Benevolence" is a theory of human nature that expounds how to be an adult. Confucius regards "self-denial and courtesy as benevolence" and "don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you" as his life pursuit and way of life. His "knowledge makes people happy, benevolence makes people happy" connects the beauty of nature with being a man, which is both profound and full of philosophy of life.
Keywords: Confucius; Ren; aesthetics
In the long history and cultural development of China, Confucianism has its special position and is rooted in people's value system and moral thought. "Benevolence" is the core of Confucius' aesthetic thought, the highest ideal of Confucius about life and society, the core of his aesthetic ideal and aesthetic system, and the realm of solving and cultivating "benevolence" in mind, Taoist quality and life.
First, Confucian aesthetics with benevolence as its essence.
Cascading pagodas are the characteristics of Confucius' aesthetic structure system, and "benevolence" is at the center of this structure and runs through it. "Benevolence" is the core of his whole ethical thought and the most basic and highest moral standard in Confucius' theoretical system. Confucius' aesthetics is an extension of benevolence, so we can also call it benevolence aesthetics. The love between parents and children generated by blood relationship is the foundation of the whole benevolence. He talked about "filial piety is also the foundation of people!" "Disciples into the filial piety, filial piety. They are sincere and believe, and they love the public and are kind. " 1 both emphasize that "filial piety" is the first essence of "benevolence" and the foundation of "benevolence". Filial piety is the obligation of children to their parents, the responsibility of brothers and sisters, and the two most important moral norms of blood relationship. This blood relationship is a heartfelt feeling, a natural expression, similar to the common feelings in the world. Such a process has completed the construction of the benevolent learning system of "loving all people and loving benevolence"
"Benevolence" is a moral standard. Confucius said, "A gentleman who is not kind has a husband, and a benevolent person has no villain." In other words, there may be "unkind people" among gentlemen, but there will never be "benevolent people" among villains. In this way, "benevolence" is a natural moral attribute. So Confucius said: "I want benevolence, I am benevolent." 3 "For benevolence, but for benevolence?" 4 "Benevolence" and "unkindness" mainly depend on the cultivation of personal ideology, which can only be improved by subjective efforts.
Second, Confucius' life pursuit of "benevolence"
"Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you" 5 tells the true meaning of the word "benevolence". It can be seen that to be a true benevolent, we must first be strict with ourselves, which is the most basic moral pursuit of being a man and the standard to measure whether a person is a gentleman. Ask someone else to do it first. If everyone can take kindness as the principle and follow the word "benevolence", then the ideas and visions put forward by Confucius can be realized. The king is benevolent and loves the people, and the people live and work in peace and contentment, and the family is harmonious and friendly. This is the highest realm that society hopes to achieve.
Confucius said, "Self-denial and courtesy are benevolence. A day of self-denial and self-denial, the world will return to benevolence! For benevolence, for yourself, for people? " 6。 To be a real gentleman, we should not only treat others equally and kindly, but also treat others with the external behavior of "courtesy". As the first of the "Six Arts", "Li" is indeed one of the moral concentrated expressions of Confucius' social ideals and aesthetic standards, and Zhou Li is the most respected etiquette of Confucius. He said: "Zhou Jian is the second generation, and he is very depressed! I am from Zhou. " He said, "I'm sorry! For a long time, I stopped dreaming about Duke Zhou! " This shows his undisguised admiration for Zhou Li. The rites of "Zhou" are obviously the rites of the aristocratic rulers of patriarchal clan system, such as casting ding, music and dance, etc., which have grades and cannot be misused. If they are misused, they will be "destroyed"
Based on this ideal of making society orderly and regulating people's behavior, Confucius adopted the method of "rites" to make people pin their spirit on restoring "rites of the week" and rebuild their morality and beliefs from the provisions of human nature, so as to save the society where rituals collapse and happiness breaks down. In Confucius' view, "if you don't learn etiquette, you can't stand." 10 ceremony is the criterion for people to settle down and live a life. The "ceremony" advocated by Confucius is a reflection of the hierarchical consciousness of slave owners and nobles, and it is a code of conduct that different classes and strata must abide by.
Three. Confucius' theory that "the knower enjoys water and the benevolent enjoys Leshan"
When talking about the appreciation of natural beauty, Confucius said: "The knower enjoys water, while the benevolent enjoys Leshan;" The knower moves, and the benevolent is quiet; He who knows is happy, and he who is kind lives long. "1 1 From the whole sentence, the wise see the same characteristics as their own moral quality from the image of water, that is, the clarity and flow of water symbolize an optimistic spirit, while the benevolent sees the same characteristics as their own moral quality from the image of mountains, which is a static beauty. The "happiness" here is a kind of aesthetic feeling, but in Confucius' view, it is not because of seeing mountains and rivers, but because the "knowledgeable" feels the water and the "benevolent" feels the mountains moving outward, that is, empathy. In other words, instead of moving the scenery, we should look at it rationally. The "knower" is in the aesthetic object of water, and the aesthetic object of "benevolent" is in the mountains. They see that they have similar temperament with the "knower" and "benevolent", so they have a feeling of love.
This appreciation of natural beauty and the resulting aesthetic concern make landscape the object of "gentleman", because "gentleman" compares landscape with morality and develops the theory of "morality". Some features of natural images of mountains and rivers can symbolize people's noble moral quality. People's spiritual quality is related to nature, and natural beauty is not a purely objective thing. It contains the association and imagination of the aesthetic subject, that is, the ideological component of the subject ideology.
Four. conclusion
Analyzing the "benevolence" in Confucius' aesthetic thought, beauty lies in the expression of "benevolence", the exertion of spiritual ability, the shining of spiritual light and the presentation of life realm. China's ancient culture has endless vitality, a long history and eternal youth. It has a lofty and great position in the world civilization and is closely related to Confucius and Confucianism. Liang Shuming, an early representative of modern neo-Confucianism, said: "The Confucius family has nothing else to do but follow the principles of nature and be lively and smooth. He believes that the universe always grows forward, and everything wants to live, that is, let it live, and it can fit in with the universe without manpower, so that the whole universe is full of commercial spring. " 12 This is the natural state of the universe, the living state that people should have, the vitality and creativity of body and mind, and the aesthetic state of people. The universe is full of commercial spring, and the spiritual world of human beings should also be full of this commercial spring, and a colorful, lofty and great spiritual realm will be generated from this commercial spring, thus creating a better world.
Precautions:
1. Learn from the Analects of Confucius.
2. Excerpt from The Analects of Confucius, Xianwen
3. From The Analects of Confucius.
4. Excerpted from The Analects of Confucius Yan Yuan.
5. Excerpted from The Analects of Confucius Wei Linggong.
6. Excerpted from The Analects of Confucius and Yan Yuan
7. The "six arts" compiled by Confucius include: ceremony, music, restraint, shooting, writing and counting.
8. From Sima Qian's Historical Records, Volume 47.
9. From The Analects of Confucius.
10. From Article 20 of Yao Yue in Chapter 3 of The Analects of Confucius.
1 1. from the Analects of Confucius.
12. Liang Shuming. Eastern and western cultures and philosophies. The Commercial Press, 19438+09938+035637
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