Abstract
Aesthetics as a discipline was constructed under the system of Western philosophy,and then introduced into Chinese intellectual field. In terms of conceptualization of ideas,perhpas the concept of "happiness (le)" can be understood as equivalent to the Western concept of aesthetics. Aesthetics as a discinple in opposition to logic was established by Baumgarten,but its origin was rooted in Plato's concept of "beauty" and Aristotle's "form" in the four-cause elements. Western culture has a materialistic pursuit which emphasizes the essense of the objects as the expression of intuition of existence, and this pursuit in the form of rigorous examination of objects shows as ontology/metaphysics. Idea is an independent structure and the four-cause ide-ology is an associative structure. The former exhibits as the deepening of the root for the building of the body, which leads to the claim that the entire Western philosophy is a footnote to Plato. The latter exhibits as the expanding of the root for the manifestation of the form, which leads to the phenomena that mimesis dominates the aesthetics in the West for over 2000 years. When introduced into Chinese culture, the former points to the virtue claim in Chinese thought built on the sages while the latter points to the Confucians triple associateve disposition philosophy constructed on poetry (shi), rituals (li) and happiness (le) . Chinese philosophy of happiness (le) is rooted on the spirit of virtues of the sages, and is built on the associative strucure of poetry, rituals and happiness.
First Page
4
Last Page
14
Recommended Citation
Lao, Chengwan, and Meng Qi. 2012. ""Poetry-Rituals-Happiness" in Chinese Thought and Aesthetics as a Discipline." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 32, (4): pp.4-14. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol32/iss4/1
