Abstract
A comparative study of the aesthetics between Fang Dongmei and Xu Fuguan may reveal that their common aesthetic idea is the aesthetic identification between the Nature and the human, but they hold different understanding in the dominating-dominated role in the interactive relation between the Nature and the human. For Fang Dongmei, the Nature is the dominant, and a metaphysical axiology is built around the Heaven. For Xu Fuguan, the human is the dominant, and a humanist axiology is built around humanism. From the methodological perspective, Fang Dongmei’s aesthetics unifies Confucianist and Taoist philosophies while Xu Fuguan's aesthetics interprets Taoist thoughts through Mencius. Fang Dongmei and Xu Fuguan provided two different modes for Sinologists, with Xu's mode focusing on the objectification of the self and Fang’s focusing on the integrity of the human into the Nature. These two modes represent the two trends in Chinese aesthetic research as the lyrical approach and the phenomenological approach.
First Page
111
Last Page
121
Recommended Citation
Xu, Cheng. 2013. "A Comparative Study of Aesthetics between Fang Dongmei and Xu Fuguan." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 33, (3): pp.111-121. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol33/iss3/2
