-Interview with Mr. Ye Lang, Vice President of Chinese Aesthetics Society
Xu Bihui
Editor's note: With the coming of the new century, colleagues in the aesthetic field are thinking about some issues: how to take the aesthetic road of China in the new century, how to position aesthetics in the new century and how to grasp aesthetics in the past century. A few days ago, at the invitation of the editorial department of philosophical trends, our reporter visited Mr. Ye Lang, vice president of the Chinese Aesthetic Society, with these questions. With the consent of Mr. Ye, we publish part of the interview here, hoping to arouse readers' further thinking. The title was added by the editor.
Xu bihui: the 2th century has passed, and it can be a unit both politically and academically. So, in your opinion, what are the achievements and shortcomings in aesthetics in the 2th century? How can we develop aesthetics in the 21st century according to the summary of its experience and lessons?
ye lang: my initial idea is that the 2th century is basically a process of introducing western cultures and communicating with them. China's aesthetics in the 2th century can be divided into three stages. The first stage is aesthetics represented by Wang Guowei, and the second stage is aesthetics represented by Zhu Guangqian and Zong Baihua. The third stage is after the reform and opening up. The whole process is a process of moving forward. We should continue to advance this process in the 21st century.
China's aesthetics from modern times, Wang Guowei, Liang Qichao, Cai Yuanpei, Zhu Guangqian and others, have a tendency of * * *, that is, trying to integrate Chinese and western aesthetics. In doing so, they also made a public declaration in this regard. For example, Zong Baihua once said, "The world culture in the future must be newly created by combining the advantages of the two cultures." This is what was said 7 years ago. Mr Zong also said that it is most suitable for China people to do this. Because China's writing is very difficult, it is difficult for western scholars to grasp China culture. Therefore, in this matter, China scholars can make their own unique contributions. Wang Guowei also said that, and they are doing it. For example, Wang Guowei's Poems on Earth and Comments on a Dream of Red Mansions all explain China's literature from the western academic point of view. Zhu Guangqian's On Poetry explains China's poetry with western aesthetic theory. In fact, Zhu Guangqian and Zong Baihua have gone one step further than Wang Guowei. Wang Guowei, Zhu Guangqian and others all have a characteristic. On the one hand, they study China, on the other hand, they introduce the West. Marxist aesthetics was introduced from the Soviet Union in 195s. There are two sides to this problem. The basic viewpoints of Marxism are of course important to us. But as far as aesthetics is concerned, everything imported from the Soviet Union at that time is still worth discussing. They can be used for reference, but they cannot be rigid. At that time, a negative effect was to deny all the work done by the older generation of scholars. From Wang Guowei to Zhu Guangqian, their efforts to integrate China and the West were interrupted. After the reform and opening up, this tradition was continued. There are many excellent things in China's traditional culture, but there is not enough theoretical research.
Xu bihui: can you talk about this in detail? China's traditional aesthetics is really unique in the history of world aesthetics, and has contributed to world culture in its unique way. However, it is undeniable that in today's world, western discourse has an absolute advantage in terms of language and way of thinking. China's aesthetics, as an understanding of beauty and art based on agricultural social economy and China's traditional philosophy of harmony between man and nature, has two different ways of understanding and grasping aesthetics and art compared with the aesthetics of modern epistemology, which is based on industrialization and divided into subject and object as the philosophical basis and premise. So, where is the possibility of modernizing China's aesthetics? Under such an era background, how to inherit the excellent aesthetics of China tradition?
ye lang: of course, culture is a reflection of certain economy and politics. However, some parts of culture, such as philosophy and aesthetics, are fundamental problems of life, humanity, life, existence, history and universe, and the thinking on these problems is not completely restricted by the economic and political conditions of that era. We can still learn from Confucius' research results on human nature today. It can't be said that his achievements are worthless today. Scholars in the era of big industry may not have studied human nature more deeply than those in the era of small farmers. At this point, humanities and natural science are different. Natural science is constantly improving. The latter results include the former. Philosophy is different. We can't say that the scholars in the 21st century must be more intelligent than Laozi, nor can we say that the philosophical thinking of people in the Song Dynasty must be more advanced than that of people in the Tang Dynasty. It can only be said that each era has its own thinking and answers to some problems that are faced by human beings. The new era has provided new things. But you can't say that you must be better and more progressive than Lao Tzu. The answers provided by Laozi at that time will always be valuable. In this sense, some contents of China's philosophy, aesthetics and culture are always valuable. But it can't be said that the ancients provided ready-made answers to our questions today. Marx's Das Kapital was the highest wisdom in his time. It is always worth reading and studying. But you can't say that Marx has provided answers to all economic problems. Of course not. We should have our own answers today. Every era has its own answers to its own problems, but the crystallization of human wisdom in the past era can always be used for our reference. Marx and Lao Tzu are all the same. Marx's books have eternal value, and this eternal value is not for us to copy them and use them as dogmas. But let us learn, refer to and absorb its wisdom. Laozi, Confucius and Marx are all like this.
I think China's aesthetics, especially Wang Fuzhi's aesthetics, are very profound. But we don't study enough now. Wang Fuzhi's many propositions are very profound. For example, we are now debating whether there is a difference between art and non-art. What is art and what is not art. But our traditional aesthetics in China thinks that there is a difference. Wang Fuzhi said, the difference lies in whether it can be? quot; Xing ". This contains valuable ideas. Wang Fuzhi also emphasized the immediacy of aesthetics, namely, "present quantity" and "feeling at the touch without thinking about comparison". It's super logical. These are all very valuable. Wang Fuzhi is very important in China's aesthetics. He has many important things that we haven't explored yet.
Xu bihui: can you talk about your future research plan?
ye lang: that's what I want to do next. The first is the study of the basic theory of aesthetics. The foothold is the traditional culture of China and the aesthetic tradition of Peking University. Of course, we should also absorb western modern and contemporary things. Absorb the basic ideas and methods of western modernity. Clean up the basic theory of aesthetics and write a textbook of aesthetic principles.
Besides the basic theory, what I want to do at the same time is to study China's aesthetics and art deeply. One is to revise the Outline of Chinese Aesthetic History in an all-round way. Another job is to write a history of China's art criticism. The heritage of China's art theory is extremely rich, such as painting, calligraphy, music, drama and so on. In the past, we had a good history of China's literary criticism, but the history of China's artistic criticism as a discipline has never been established. Now we should fill in this blank. The third thing is the study of ancient art in China. Especially religious art. A few years ago, I was the head of the departments of philosophy, art and religion, which prompted me to have an idea: to connect the three fields.
Xu bihui: do you mean religious art or the culture embodied by religious art?
ye lang: either culture or religious art. There are two parts: one is the religious world in China's ancient novels and poems. Many of China's novels are about religion, such as A Dream of Red Mansions and The Journey to the West. They wrote about religious ideas and religious life. There are many novels that are not well-known, but they also contain religious content. There are also many things related to religion in poetry. For example, the poems of Wang Wei and others show a kind of Zen meaning and interest. The second is the study of China's religious art. There are countless Buddhist temples and Taoist temples in China, and there are many grottoes, in which there are Buddha statues, stone carvings, wood carvings, and so on, as well as new cultural relics excavated from the underground. Such as Sanxingdui and Qingzhou Buddha sculptures, such as Dunhuang art, are all very good, but few people study them from the perspective of religious art. How do artworks embody religious ideas? How does religious concept affect artistic creation? If you can study these problems thoroughly academically, it will be very noticeable internationally. This project is called? quot; On-the-spot investigation of religious art in China ". The former one (religion in literature) is relatively easy to do. Is the work in the study, looking up information, theoretical analysis and thinking. The latter one needs field work. This is hard, time-consuming and laborious, and requires a lot of money.
in addition, some other things can be produced around the above. For example, I want to write some popular works about aesthetics and life. Like Mr. Zhu Guangqian's Talking about Beauty. Popular things are the hardest to do. You must first make a thorough and comprehensive study by yourself, and then express it in clear and unobstructed language. It is necessary to explain it in simple terms. This is the hardest thing to do. I think if I have time, I hope to do some work in this field. If this can be done, there will be a third stage.
Xu bihui: your plan is mainly about the study of specific art history and aesthetic history issues. So, is this just your personal academic interest, or do you think that from the perspective of general scholarship, China's aesthetic research should also do more specific art history research?
ye lang: it is very difficult to advance the study of the basic theory of aesthetics. This is true of any subject. It is difficult to advance the basic theory at all. In specific departments, it is relatively easy to apply basic theories to study specific problems. Moreover, China just lacks such specific research. Many problems can't go deep. One of the important reasons for the development of Chinese painting and Peking Opera is the lack of theoretical analysis.
Xu Bihui: You once said that your revised Outline of the History of Chinese Aesthetics is somewhat different from the past in some basic theories, and some advances have been made. Can you tell me what it is mainly reflected in?
ye lang: for example, aesthetics studies aesthetic activities and their nature. In the past, our thinking mode was the dichotomy of subject and object, which did not conform to the nature of aesthetic activities. Aesthetic activity is not cognition, but an experience. Experience is not a dichotomy between subject and object. Most thinkers in ancient China did not study aesthetics in the framework of dichotomy between subject and object. We didn't pay enough attention to these in the past. Because we have such a framework in our own minds, of course, it will be affected when we study and absorb the achievements of the ancients. If your mind is closed in some ways, you can't read it, and you will turn a blind eye to some valuable things in the book. Because your vision is not wide enough. One of the achievements of the reform and opening up for more than 2 years is that it has opened our horizons and opened our minds. Deng Xiaoping proposed to emancipate the mind, and the Sixth Plenary Session just finished recently once again proposed to emancipate the mind, which I think is very important. It goes without saying that the construction of our country needs ideological emancipation. Academic research should especially emancipate the mind.
Xu bihui: there is a view that the concept of subject and object is actually a concept of modern western philosophy, and the limitations of this concept are very great. As long as it is used, it will inevitably have an impact, that is, the subject generalizes the aesthetic relationship through the concept of object, which will inevitably lead to the engulfment of the aesthetic subject to the object, leading to the aesthetic object being regarded as serving the subject, and the subject is above the object. Because the connotation of the concept of subject and object means that the subject engulfs and enslaves the object.
ye lang: this is a problem. I think beauty is an image, an aesthetic image. This image is in my mind, and your mind is different from mine. Then don't worry about it? Scratching? Suspect Zhu Lang and restore the finger shape? What's more, I'm afraid I won't be able to kill you forever? Mode? What's wrong with you? Zhu Lao mu Cai Qin? D, what's the matter? Hey, k? Reading? Where can I stop the invasion and restore my ambition? Hey? Eye-pounding? Invasion of swallowing and swallowing, to choose D. What's wrong with swallowing and swallowing? I am embarrassed? Fade away? What's the matter with you? Zheng Zheng? "Acyl coal is fed into D cavity, so it is beautiful."? Is the emperor sad? D, what's the matter? I beg your pardon, Mr. Xin, but I'm sorry. Are you here? Hey? Xin jun?
Xu bihui: when you talk about aesthetics, you can't just study it from epistemology. So, how do you position aesthetics as a discipline? What should be its research method?
ye lang: I think four things are certain: first, aesthetics is a humanities subject. What is the humanities? The object of humanities research is the spiritual world and the cultural world. The spiritual world is internal, while the cultural world is external and unified. What are the connotations of spiritual world and cultural world? It is the meaning world and the value world. That's what aesthetics studies. It is important to be clear about this. Finally, aesthetic research should be combined with life and point to the meaning and value of life. We should pursue higher life value and more meaningful life by studying aesthetics. Secondly, aesthetics is a theoretical discipline. The object of its research is perceptual activities, but it is a theoretical discipline in itself. It needs the training of theoretical thinking. Thirdly, aesthetics is an interdisciplinary subject. It relies on many neighboring disciplines. Because aesthetics is related to philosophy, literature, art, psychology, anthropology, culturology, cultural history and so on. Aesthetics should borrow multi-disciplinary means, knowledge and methods. Therefore, people who study aesthetics should have a wider knowledge. Fourthly, aesthetics is a developing discipline, and it has no mature system so far. Some disciplines, such as geometry, have long had a mature system. So is political economy. Classical political economy has a complete and mature system in Marx. Although it shows some shortcomings now, it is a mature and complete system. Aesthetics doesn't. There are no foreign countries in China. This feature makes us unable to stick to a system in studying aesthetics, open our minds and absorb new things at any time. One is to absorb from the history of aesthetics, and the other is to absorb from contemporary academics.
These four characteristics lead to the method of aesthetic research, that is, we should pay attention to training our theoretical thinking ability, pay attention to the humanistic connotation of aesthetics, have a wide range of knowledge, especially rich knowledge of art direct experience and art history, and have an open research mentality to absorb new things at any time. That's why aesthetics is not easy to do. There is no ready-made system for reference. But that's the fun of it. You can leave your first footprint. There are many places where you can make new discoveries and create new things. Of course it's hard. As I said before, it is very difficult to advance the basic theory. Therefore, I think we should advocate using aesthetic theory to study some specific problems. This is not just a study of simple works. It will be of great significance if we in the field of aesthetics can solve such problems that are rich in content but have not been solved for a long time and are worth exploring in the 21st century. This kind of research, in turn, will certainly be conducive to the promotion of the basic theory of aesthetics. For example, if we develop something new about religious art, it will definitely promote the basic theory of aesthetics.
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