Looking at China's ancient materialization theory, empathy of aesthetic creation is its typical performance feature.
In Zhuangzi's fable, Zhuang Zhoumeng Butterfly is Zhuang Zhoumeng Butterfly. Zhuang Zhou and Hu Die are divided into two different grades. Therefore, "week and must be divided." Liu Wu, a close friend, explained the meaning of "there must be points", saying, "Those who are lifelike are butterflies, and those who are graceful are weeks. The soul meets the butterfly and the shape meets the week. Therefore,' there must be points'. However, if the butterfly is dreamt by Zhou, then Zhou is also a butterfly, and butterflies are also weeks, which are inseparable, that is, the so-called' one out is right, one out is also due' and' one out is also there, one out is also there'. Attending here put forward "the soul meets the butterfly, and the shape meets the week" to show the difference between the butterflies in the week. The words "soul to soul" and "form to form" also came from Zhuangzi? The theory of everything: "His sleep is also soul-to-soul, his sleep is also open, he is connected with it, and he fights with his heart every day." "Soul communication" and "shape connection" are intended to reveal the difference between dreams and senses. Liu discusses the difference between Zhou and butterfly from this angle, mainly focusing on the difference between spiritual feelings and the real world. This seems to be in contradiction with Zhuangzi's unified thought in his dream, but it is actually unified. Zhou and butterfly not only show the difference between dreams and feelings, but also realize the unity of dreams and feelings. They are materialized under the action of the subject spirit, reaching the highest state of "heaven and earth coexist with me, and everything and I are one" (the theory of everything). It can be seen that "spiritual communication" is a kind of spiritual and emotional activity, which directly acts on Hu Die and endows others with thoughts and emotions, thus realizing materialization. This has something in common with the theory of empathy in the history of western aesthetics. However, due to the huge differences in traditional cultural backgrounds, there are many differences in their specific connotations, which we should not ignore. "Harmony between Heaven and Man" gave birth to China's ancient aesthetic empathy theory, with Zhuangzi as the source and Dong Zhongshu as the wave. He expounded the connotation of the emotional initiative of objective images from the perspective of the induction between man and nature, and thought that the emotional thoughts of all things could trigger people's emotional thoughts, which developed the ancient materialization theory. He corresponded people's emotional changes with the changes of the four seasons, which initiated a theoretical analysis of the literary phenomenon of sad autumn hurting spring, and its aesthetic significance was extremely far-reaching. Although he thinks that heaven (nature) has will and emotion, he is sure of the unity of man and nature. Mysterious elements exist, and kindness and sincerity exist at the same time. When it is used to explain literary phenomena, mysterious things begin to be indifferent, replaced by vivid and realistic empathy theory dominated by the subject.
Materialization has realized the empathy of aesthetic creation under the cover of the concept of "harmony between man and nature", especially highlighting the aesthetic value of emotion. In Dong Zhongshu's thought about the unity of man and nature, we have been able to feel this, but it is a bit stiff. In Shi Shuo Xin Yu, the emphasis on the aesthetic value of emotion is more distinct, and both the emotion of things and my emotion have more pure aesthetic significance. "The World Says New Yu Yan" says: "When an essay enters Hualin Garden, it says,' You don't have to stay away from your heart. When you are in the forest, you will have your own ideas, and you will feel that birds, animals, birds and fish are coming to your relatives. Gu Changkang returned after the meeting and people asked about the beauty of mountains and rivers. As the old saying goes,' A million stones compete for beauty, and a million valleys compete for flow, and vegetation covers them. If the clouds flourish, Xia Wei will flourish. 15 Hao Pu's thoughts in bamboo slips were influenced by Zhuangzi, who moved everything with emotion, and all animals and fish had feelings; It is because they have feelings that they are close to others. This natural affinity is very tempting, even birds, animals, birds and fish can understand each other, so what troubles and loneliness do people have? Gu Kaizhi's praise of rocks, valleys, grasses, trees, clouds and chardonnay is more poetic. In his eyes, these inanimate things are full of the feeling of life and show the charm of beauty. Here, the aesthetic value of emotion is improved and consciously transferred to the object, so that the opposition between the object and me disappears. "The object is myself. "
However, some ancient works do describe objects as spiritual, which is the result of the ancients' integration into things and rich imagination. In this process of imagination, people are in an active position. This can't be the absolute initiative of the west (the absolute initiative of the west includes absolute contempt for things and extreme concern for the subject). It happened on the premise of respecting things, and there was nothing but me. In this way, the difference between China's ancient theory of materialization and the western theory of empathy is very obvious. This difference comes down to cultural differences. In the Tang Dynasty, Li had an incisive exposition on aesthetic empathy:
Immersed in literary and artistic creation, any kind of image will arouse the empathy of literary and artistic workers, and the process of empathy is a process full of imagination, which embodies the respect of literary and artistic workers for everything. Li's "follow one's inclinations" is a creative expression of subjective initiative in literature and art. Although it is essentially different from the connotation of Rips' "the object is me", it is similar in form. This can be regarded as an oriental explanation given by the ancients for the phenomenon of aesthetic empathy in the process of materialization. It further shows that in the process of materialization, the images of subject and object are integrated. Only in the shadow of the subject's emotion can the image be full of vivid artistic interest and have real aesthetic significance. Things change with each other: the highest realm of materialization lies in the integration of subject and object. There is no essential difference between ancient materialization theory and western empathy theory. The difference lies in their attitude and interpretation of things. Westerners like to know people and things with a scientific and calm rational attitude. China's attitude towards people and things in ancient times was emotional, idealistic and emotional. This is caused by the cultural differences between China and the West. The reason why objective images are full of emotion is the result of the "moving in" of writers and artists, rather than the emotion of the images themselves. Although China believed in sentimentality in ancient times, under the control of this concept, the objective images were described so humanely, but this is the "feeling" of the ancients: "If you feel birds, animals and fish, you will come to relatives." If we ignore this point, we can't correctly understand China's ancient materialism.
An important difference between materialization and empathy lies in the understanding of the realm of subject-object integration. In the theory of empathy, "the object is myself" attaches great importance to "I" and emphasizes its leading role. Rips said: "The pleasure of physical condition will only be felt when I pay attention to it. To say that something is pleasant means that when I look at this object with my eyes, I feel a sense of pleasure. However, the pleasure I feel when I pay attention to my physical condition or the process of organ activity can never be equated with the pleasure I feel when I focus on the aesthetic object without paying attention to the process of organ activity. In short, A can't be equal to non-A "20 people's understanding of pleasure is accompanied by their physical condition, that is, pleasure is always related to the subject itself. Ripps believes that although people sometimes "focus" on aesthetic objects, there is always a great "I" at the mercy. Therefore, empathy, as a kind of pleasure, is also an aesthetic creation activity that I have been paying attention to, and I have always existed. China's ancient theory of materialization emphasized the non-ego from the beginning. The so-called "broken heart" is to be completely selfless. Zhuangzi emphasized the non-ego when discussing Xin Zhai, but further, he felt that Xin Zhai was not enough to express the realm of non-ego, so he added a "sit-forget" to express it with Confucius' high face: "Falling limbs, being smart, being out of shape, gaining wisdom, and being in harmony with one another are called sit-forget." ("Zhuangzi? Master) "Sit Forget" completely despises self and puts it in a cruel and heartless situation. Zhuangzi's emphasis on spiritual fasting and forgetting is to complete his "exogenous" life accomplishment, which forms a complete life accomplishment level with "exogenous" (abandoning utilitarian gains and losses) and "exogenous" (ignoring the whole world). Inadvertently deepened the theory of literary aesthetic creation, and self-forgetting is the basis of mutual transformation between things and me. Only on this basis can materialization reach the highest level of aesthetic creation.
In the practice of literary and artistic creation in ancient China, all those who pursue the mutual change between things and me are based on the premise of no self. When Wang Sengqian stated his feelings about calligraphy creation, he said: "The magic of calligraphy is the best, followed by form and quality, and those who have both can win over the ancients. In a word, is it easy? You should forget your heart in the pen, your hand in the book, your heart and hand, and your book and pen. It is said that you can't ask for it, and the test will be obvious. " 2 1 To reach the highest level of calligraphy creation, it is necessary to "forget your heart, forget your hand, forget your pen and forget your book", which is self-forgetting and the temporary sinking of the subject. In the Qing Dynasty, Xu Zeng once sighed: "There is nothing in the body and nothing in the heart. I am carefree and forget myself in the forest by the water, and poetry flows out from this realm. Isn't that good? " From this point of view, the mutual transformation between things and me based on no self is the highest realm of materialization.