Four Lectures on Aesthetics is about how to define aesthetics, the essence of beauty and aesthetic feeling, with special emphasis on aesthetic process, structure and form. Finally, talk about several kinds of accumulation involved in the form layer, image layer and meaning layer of art; The book is clear in logic and contains many basic concepts.
The course of beauty begins with the beauty contained in ancient totems, and goes through the hideous beauty in the Bronze Age, the rationality in the pre-Qin period (the complementarity of Confucianism and Taoism), the romance of Chu and Han (the tradition of Qu Sao), the demeanor in Wei and Jin Dynasties (the theme of human feelings), then the localization of Buddhism, the youth in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the ambition of China and Tang Zhiyun, and finally the artistic conception of mountains and rivers in the Song and Yuan Dynasties and the literary trend of thought in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The whole book takes "time line" as the clue and different periods as the theme, and makes a profound analysis that is not limited to "at that time".
Huaxia Aesthetics describes how the aesthetics contained in China's tradition of rites and music and Confucianism and Taoism complement each other, and then discusses the affectionate embodiment of the beauty of Chinese children, the metaphysical pursuit of beauty, and some changes in modern aesthetics; Most of its contents are summarized by aesthetic "plates" embodied in traditional culture, and rich examples are given.
The History of Beauty is the first book written. In my opinion, it has the highest gold content among the three aesthetic books, and it is especially recommended. Let's share some experiences. I hope my friends can also think of Mr. Li Zehou's works in their spare time.
"1" Understand the connotation of beauty after reading Three Books on Aesthetics
A flower in the deep mountain, was it beautiful before it was discovered? Can it be evaluated as beautiful? What about a stone on the high mountain? This involves the object of beauty (what kind of things can be "beautiful") and the essence (what kind of characteristics can be "beautiful"), as well as whether beauty is subjective or objective, and how beauty comes from its roots.
Mr. Li Zehou believes that "beauty" has three levels. Things and nature belong to the first two levels, and the essence of beauty is the third level. The expression and form of natural things are not the existence of beauty before human beings, but also have aesthetic attributes; It is not because the subject perceives it or projects emotions on it that it becomes beauty; Not only do they have some isomorphic correspondence with human physiology, but they become beautiful; However, because they conform to the objective material and social practice of human beings, their expressions and forms are isomorphic.
Therefore, the author thinks that beauty is the unity of truth, goodness and beauty, and it is the unity of regularity and purpose; Beauty is always material and practical. "It is the whole social and historical practice of mankind that creates beauty". When talking about "from dynamic process to static achievement" and "historical scale" of social beauty, Mr. Li Zehou made a profound exposition on the essence of the above beauty, which was very enlightening. For example:
Social beauty first exists, appears and manifests itself in the conquest and transformation of nature by various living, industrious and indomitable people, and in other aspects of social life (such as revolutionary struggle). Lofty, magnificent, funny and tragic are the concrete and different forms of this contradiction. Reflected in art, sublimity and grandeur precede beauty, and the appreciation of the latter and its characteristics such as weakness, elegance, lightness, youth and fluency is precisely the result of the subject's powerful practical strength and the conquest of natural objects.
Four lectures on Li Zehou's aesthetics, P70.
Why can ruins be beautiful? Why does anyone want to see it? Because it records the hard history of practice, freezes the imprint of past life, and makes people feel a deep sense of history.
Four lectures on Li Zehou's aesthetics, P7 1.
"2" Read Three Books on Aesthetics and know the form of aesthetics.
At present, the medical beauty industry is booming. In order to have a good face and delicate curves, many women set foot in it for the purpose of "beauty". If Mr. Li Zehou saw it, would he think it was really beautiful? According to its aesthetic psychological structure and aesthetic form analysis, it certainly belongs to the specific form of beauty, but it can only be evaluated at the first two levels of aesthetic form at most.
Mr. Li Zehou divides people's aesthetic ability into three levels from low to high: "pleasing to the eye", "pleasing to the heart" and "pleasing to the mind". Generally speaking, pleasing to the eye is a kind of sensory pleasure based on physiology but beyond physiology, mainly to cultivate people's perception ability. Generally speaking, it is to cultivate people's emotional mind under the functional configuration of understanding and imagination. However, it is on the basis of morality to reach a certain super-moral perceptual realm of life. From this perspective, "please yourself" or "be beautiful for yourself" cannot be included in the third (hierarchical) aesthetic form.
Although the author gave different levels of evaluation on the aesthetic ability of the three, he always stressed that they could not be viewed separately. Strictly speaking, all three contribute to and mark the growth of human nature and the maturity of the soul.
First, for the level of "pleasing to the eye", whether it is daily life or works of art, whether it is green mountains and green waters, birds and flowers, dusk and sunset, the Yangtze River, green fields, spring breeze, willows ... these seemingly simply appeal to the sensory pleasure of eyes and ears, but they still contain more or less the different pleasures brought by the viewers' different life backgrounds, social and cultural backgrounds, experiences and upbringing. Moreover, with the passage of time, the evolution of civilization and people themselves, the pleasing scope, objects and contents will continue to show an expanding trend.
Secondly, for the level of "pleasing the heart and mind", people can often feel many profound things through calligraphy, painting, music and literary works. It is different from direct sensory pleasure, and it can constantly cultivate their temperament and mind through time and space recollection and deep experience, which is also the "most common, largest and most common form" in aesthetic experience.
"Looking at Qi Baishi's paintings, I feel not only the plants, fish and insects, but also the comfort and joy of fresh and wild spring life; Listening to Tchaikovsky's music, I feel not only the symphony, but also the touching sadness of life that Tolstoy said:' tears and suffering in Russia'. Because of this, you may linger on these seemingly meaningless plants, fish, insects and stereos. When reading a poem, watching a painting or listening to a symphony, we often unconsciously feel more profound things through limited perceptual images, and understand the infinite and internal content of daily life from limited, accidental, concrete images that appeal to the senses and audio-visual, thus improving our minds. "
Four lectures on Li Zehou's aesthetics, P 143.
Thirdly, the author thinks that "both ambition and spirit are happy" is the highest aesthetic ability of human beings, so it has a sense of loftiness. However, since it is aesthetic ability, it cannot be separated from emotional foundation. It is still an emotional mobilization, an ultimate emotional mobilization, so as to reach a state of "forgetting me" and "forgetting feelings" and pursue higher "purpose" and "regularity", which is beyond the limitations of human beings.
This joy of ambition and spirit seems to be a participation in God's cause, that is, a purposeful understanding of the laws of the universe. In the west, it is often associated with a sense of belonging to God, thus moving towards religion. In China, it presents a spiritual realm of "harmony between man and nature". * * * The same thing is that human beings, as perceptual life, will eventually die, and individual life is in a limited time and space. Therefore, people seek to transcend this limitation, pursue the individual existence beyond this sensibility, and look forward to and seek the eternal ontology or the eternity of ontology; The difference is that in the west, this immortal noumenon is eternal God, thus pursuing the immortality of the soul, transcending perceptual time and space and entering a pure spiritual eternal noumenon. In China, he did not pursue this spiritual noumenon that transcends time and space, but sought to achieve transcendence and immortality in this time and space, that is, to seek eternity in perceptual life and existence at this moment, which is "the unity of heaven and man" with the universe (the whole nature).
Four lectures on Li Zehou's aesthetics, P 147- 148.
"3" read Three Books on Aesthetics and understood the evolution of beauty.
Is it a bronze art with rough lines and strange patterns, or is it more beautiful with exquisite craftsmanship and vivid expression? Which line and color in plastic arts can be evaluated as a more advanced aesthetic form? What are the historical and cultural characteristics of western castle architecture and oriental quadrangle architecture in aesthetics? Gorgeous words are beautiful, or far-reaching significance is beautiful? What are the reasons for the differences in poetic style, painting school and artistic works between the prosperous Tang Dynasty and the late Tang Dynasty? Are there any aesthetic differences between the similar literary styles of Su Shi and Tao Yuanming? How did China's painting (landscape painting) change from "lifelike" to emphasizing pen and ink and interest? How did critical realistic novels come into being in the late feudal society of China? ..... and so on, are systematically discussed in The Course of Beauty, and there are also many concrete examples in Huaxia Aesthetics.
Mr. Li Zehou likes to use the word "accumulation", which itself gives time power and embodies the importance of the process. Macro-heavy history will accumulate to individuals, social things can gradually accumulate natural things that adults are used to, and rational cognitive ability and judgment ability can gradually accumulate into perceptual evaluation and moral choice evaluation. When analyzing the evolution of beauty, the author turned his eyes to ancient times, and began to analyze the different expressions of beauty on the time axis of human history from ancient times, and made a comparative and panoramic analysis combining the social and cultural background at that time and the position of the researchers in the times, so that people could understand the different aesthetic feelings under different concepts and images.
Beauty is a natural form of accumulating social content. So "beauty lies in form, not in form; There is no beauty without form (natural form), and only form (natural form) is not beautiful. "It is also for this reason that we need to understand the' social content' of that era when we look at the carrier of beauty in different eras. Let's briefly talk about some interesting "points" in the evolution of beauty discussed by Mr. Li Zehou:
First, bronzes. Bronze ware in its prevailing era could not be aesthetically evaluated by people at that time. They bear the awe, awe, imagination and worship of ancient ancestors to nature and the unknown. Those artifacts are "both the embodiment of terror and the god of protection", and they represent the power of people in the wild times to push forward the wheel of human history with these beliefs or fears. The Gu Zhuo of those artifacts and the simplicity of the patterns make people easily feel the powerful force of "historical inevitability" and have an atmosphere that guides human destiny. It is conceivable that people at that time could not regard it as an aesthetic object, let alone evaluate its aesthetic value.
Therefore, far from being a ferocious mystery, it can become beauty. On the contrary, various images of people, gods or animals in later generations, although boasting of intimidation and fear, only show their emptiness and absurdity in vain. They have no bronze art, no historical force of destiny, and no human childish temperament. The more society develops and civilization progresses, the more we can appreciate and evaluate this noble and ugly beauty. ..... It is in a civilized society where material civilization is highly developed, religious concepts are weak, and cruelty and ferocity have become a thing of the past that art, which embodies the strength and destiny of ancient history, can be understood, appreciated and loved by people and become a real aesthetic object.
Li Zehou's The Course of Beauty, P4 1.
Second, China architecture. In the field of architecture, the West is mostly famous for its "castle" style, and the buildings are mainly made of stone, which is firm, majestic and towering, while China is mostly a "garden" style plane building, even for palaces and temples. The architecture is mainly made of wood, which is practical, simple and natural, and also contains the life wisdom of China people. Its rendering expresses the artistic conception of life in the real world, not the religious mystery beyond reality. The author's explanation makes people feel very reasonable:
Here, the organic group of plane buildings has actually transformed space consciousness into a time process, that is to say, unlike Gothic churches, people are suddenly thrown into a huge claustrophobic space, feeling small and afraid, and praying for God's protection. On the contrary, the plane depth space of China architecture makes people wander slowly in the continuous process of a complex and diverse exhibition hall, and feel the comfort of life and the harmony with the environment. The huge sense of space grasped intuitively in an instant has become a long-term roaming time course here. The realistic, WTO-entry, rational and historical factors have obvious advantages here, thus rejecting the anti-rational crazy consciousness.
Li Zehou's The Course of Beauty, P66.
Third, the art of line. "The Course of Beauty" begins with "the art of line", and later focuses on "the art of line" in calligraphy, painting, art, poetry and architecture. "Line" first shows an "abstract ability", which is different from all animals' intuitive and natural feelings about color, but the understanding of line is more indirect and difficult, requiring more elements and abilities such as concept, imagination and understanding. For example, the geometric decoration of ancient pottery takes the composition and circulation of lines as the main theme, which embodies the leap from "reproduction" to "expression" of human aesthetics. Secondly, "line" also represents the feeling of time, rhythm and rhythm, which is manifested in music, architecture and Tang poetry. They raise people's sensory perception of natural scenery to emotional agitation and interesting exploration; Finally, lines are also a state of movement, with a sense of life and strength, which is different from static and standardized formal beauty. China's calligraphy and landscape paintings can probably best reflect the beauty of this line, especially calligraphy, which is a kind of purified line beauty, a highly abstract beauty of life and strength, which can only be embodied after people observe the world.
China's calligraphy and the art of lines are not the formal beauty of uniform, balanced and symmetrical lines, but the free beauty of far diversification and flow. Flowing clouds and flowing water, chasing the wind with bone strength, combining rigidity with softness, and Fiona Fang's doctrine of the mean. Every word, article and picture can be creative, innovative and even personalized, without mechanical repetition and rigid norms. It is both tangible and lyrical, with both modeling (general simulation) and expression (expressing emotion). In its long development process, the latter has taken the lead and advantage. Calligraphy has changed from being close to painting and sculpture to being equal to music and dance. Moreover, painting should draw experience, skills and strength from calligraphy, not from painting.
Li Zehou's The Course of Beauty, P45.
Fourthly, Su Shi's aesthetic significance. Su Shi is probably a very pleasing image in the whole cultural history of China. He is a brilliant all-rounder, and has made achievements in poetry, writing, books, words and paintings. Perhaps more importantly, in his own creation, he vividly shows the personality, ideal, spirit and the emptiness between pursuing advance and retreat under the inherent ambivalence of the "scholar-bureaucrat" class. He has been wandering from place to place all his life, and his poems often show the attitude of retiring from society and being world-weary. Everywhere he goes, he is full of literati feelings and shows great enthusiasm for his own life situation. Su Shi gives people a state of life that can accept reality without giving up spiritual pursuit. Poetry and sentences express an open-minded attitude, and the content always shows a great beauty of insight into the law of life and understanding the true meaning of life.
The "retreat" emotion expressed in Su Shi's poems is not only a retreat from politics, but also a retreat from society. It is not the fear and sorrow of political killing, nor the specific political sorrow of "I mourn for the yellowbird, who can stop crying" (Ruan Ji), "Glory is sincere and expensive, but also pitiful" (although Su has this kind of sorrow), but the suspicion, boredom and desire for liberation and abandonment of the fundamental problem of the purpose and significance of the whole life and the world. This is of course a deeper layer than the former. It is possible to retire politically, but it is actually impossible to retire socially. ...
Li Zehou, The Course of Beauty, P 165.
In addition, the tradition of rites and music summarized by the author is complementary to Confucianism and Taoism, romantic and graceful in Wei and Jin Dynasties, artistic conception of mountains and rivers and common literature and art … all convey some emotion, strength, interest, momentum and sense of time and space, which constitute an important realm of beauty. Reading all the way is also a wonderful enjoyment. As China people, the natural closeness to China's traditional culture makes it easier for us to feel the beauty in the world!