Beauty and Human Existence in Chinese Philosophy

Description

Preface Acknowledgments Contents 1 The Pictographic Character and Totemism The Pictographic Character for Beauty The Big-Goat Image: Flavor and Taste The Goat-Man Image: Rituality and Spirituality The Dynamic Beauty: Two Totemic Symbols 2 The Pottery and Bronze Art The Expressive and Significant Form The Ferocious Beauty The Grotesque Beauty The Symbolic Beauty The Chime-Bells and the Galloping Horse 3 Ethos of the Rites-Music Tradition The Beauty of Music and Rites The Multifunction of Music The Performance of Rites for Harmony The Aesthetic and Moral Interaction Cosmological and Quasi-Religious Implications 4 Confucian Ideal and Equilibrium Harmony The Beauty of the Ideal Personality A Further Enhancement of the Ideal Basic Methods of Personality Development A Dual Expectation of Artistic Perfection Equilibrium Harmony as Beauty Moderation of Emotional Expression An Integrated Interpretation of Poetry A Moralized Principle a Priori An Extended Scope of the Literary Mind Three Modified Theories of Poetic Beauty 5 Critique of Mohist Utilitarianism A Challenge to Confucian Values Against Music and Negative Utilitarianism For Music and Positive Utilitarianism Reflections on the Opposing Views From Joy-Consciousness to Optimistic Spirit 6 Daoist Pursuit and Spontaneous Naturalness The Beauty of the Daoist Personality The Pragmatic Way of the Sagely Person The Spiritual Freedom of the True Person The Mind-Heart Excursion for a Good Life The Beautiful and the Ugly Beautiful Words Versus True Words The Great Beauty of Silence Contemplative Attitude and Mutual Production Spontaneous Naturalness as Beauty Soundless Music and Stylistic Creation 7 Beyond Poetic Sentimentalism Personality Beauty of Qu Yuan Grotesque Imagery as a Tour de Force Expression of Heart-Felt Emotions A Sentimental Concern in Question 8 Chan Buddhism and Subtle Void The Idea of Chan as Dhyāna The Poetic Wisdom of Gāthā Sudden Awakening and Chan Sense Subtle Void as Beauty The Poetic Art of Chan Realm 9 The Water Allegory and Waterscapes The Hidden Stream The Water Allegory The Moral Symbolism The Beautiful Waterscape The Majestic Waterscape The Musical Water Sounds 10 The Art of Painting Landscape The Synthetic Beauty The Six Rules A Hierarchy of Five Levels The Four Attainments and the Three Distances The Three Steps of Painting Landscape The Absence of Self and the Presence of Self 11 The Rise of Modern Chinese Aesthetics Fragmentary Account Systematic Framing Intellectual Enlightenment Transcultural Rediscovery Theoretical Incorporation Comprehensive Praxis The Poetic State Par Excellence The Theory of Art as Sedimentation 12 How-to-Live Concern and Fourfold Engagement The How-to-Live Concern The Structure of Human Capacity Beyond Aesthetic Engagement Illuminate the True Through the Beautiful Furnish the Good Through the Beautiful Make Life Worthwhile Through the Beautiful Create the Beautiful According to the Proper Measure Epilogue References Index