New discoveries of natural beauty--adaptability, taoism and pleasure.
During the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties, landscape poetry and landscape painting rose at the same time. The appearance of this pair of sister arts shows that people's understanding of natural beauty has developed to a new stage, and people's artistic creation reflecting natural beauty has also developed to a new stage.
Judging from China's ancient aesthetic thought of natural objects and artistic creation of reappearing natural beauty, I think it can be roughly divided into three stages: the Neolithic period of primitive society is the embryonic stage; Yin, Zhouzhi, Qin and Han Dynasties were the stages of "Bide"; After the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Dynasties, it was a parallel stage of "moral excellence" and "relaxation".
There is no written record of how people in primitive society view natural beauty. The social situation recorded in ancient books during the Yao and Shun period of the Yellow Emperor is only speculation of later generations and does not conform to the historical truth. It is more scientific for us to analyze the works of art depicting natural objects from the perspective of historical materialism and according to primitive society. Painted pottery in the Neolithic Age is painted with animal patterns and plant patterns, and the exquisite plant patterns have been appreciated by artists thousands of years later.
From the perspective of aesthetic consciousness, it shows that in the late primitive society of China, from hunting to agriculture, people's strength was more displayed in production, and natural scenery was bound to become people's aesthetic object and artistic expression object. The images of animals and plants depicted on pottery are creatures that people came into contact with in the process of production and labor at that time.
They are the objects of people's labor and the necessities of people's life. Painting fish is only the image of an isolated fish, and there is no river and lake scenery connected by fish and water; Painting plants is also out of the plain and hilly environment where they are bred. This phenomenon shows that the natural beauty appreciated by people in primitive society cannot go beyond their production scope. In other words, what they think is beautiful and willing to describe is their production results.
Why didn't people in primitive society describe the natural scenes of animal and plant life? As people's natural aesthetic ability is gradually improved, their aesthetic vision is gradually expanded, and the field of artistic creation reflecting natural beauty is gradually opened up. Primitive society is the embryonic stage of human understanding and reappearing natural beauty.
During the Yin, Zhou, Qin and Han dynasties, people's aesthetic thoughts on natural objects and artistic creation reflecting natural beauty entered a new stage, that is, the stage of "comparing virtues". Different natural objects, beauty and ugliness, are basically no longer divided by the objects or achievements of production practice, but are related to people's spiritual life and moral concepts, that is, beauty and ethical goodness.
There are "gods" and "traitors" in evaluating the beauty and ugliness of natural objects. (Zuo Zhuan: "Let the people know that God is treacherous." ) "God" is a good animal, so it is beautiful, and "rape" is an evil animal, so it is ugly. The patterns on bronzes, whether animals exist in real life or imaginary animals, are inseparable from people's moral standards of right and wrong. Dragon and phoenix represent goodness and beauty as a compliment; Gluttony and gluttony represent evil and ugliness and are condemned.
Bronzes often have the image of sheep, which is a symbol of good luck and is no longer a beast that tames animals in primitive society. The lotus crane pot in the Spring and Autumn Period collected by the Palace Museum is interpreted by historians as the image of a crane spreading its wings and flying, which is a symbol of ideological emancipation during the transition to feudal society. I thought it was to express people's wishes for life through the longevity of cranes. Although Ma Tao and Ma Shi in the Qin and Han Dynasties affirmed the beauty of animals themselves, they still focused on practical utility as a manifestation of commemorating meritorious deeds. There are invisible whip shadows on horseback.
Jade articles in the Yin and Zhou Dynasties were engraved with mountains and rivers patterns that were not found in primitive social paintings. There are also mountain-shaped decorative patterns on the emperor's coronation. Birds, animals and plants are described in The Book of Songs. These natural scenery are subordinate in arts and crafts, and in poetry, the author uses metaphors and excitement to express his thoughts and feelings. Qu Yuan's Ode to an Orange seems to be devoted to describing the beauty of natural objects, the essence of which is to praise people's noble sentiments through oranges.
From the Yin Dynasty to the Qin and Han Dynasties, compared with the natural aesthetic consciousness of people in primitive society, people's natural aesthetics broke away from production utility and developed into spiritual utility, which is a progressive phenomenon in the evolution of aesthetic thought.
There are often descriptions of natural objects such as mountains and rivers, which praise the strength of the country and the prosperity of cultural relics.