Synthesis philosophica, Vol. 36 No. 2, 2021.
Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.21464/sp36205
Is the Unity of Goodness and Beauty the Distinctive Feature of Confucian Aesthetics?
Xiaowei Fu
orcid.org/0000-0001-8479-6349
; Sichuan International Studies University, China Zhuangzhi Road 33#, Lieshimu, Shapingba, 40000 Chongqing, People’s Republic of China
Yi Wang
; Sichuan International Studies University, China Zhuangzhi Road 33#, Lieshimu, Shapingba, 40000 Chongqing, People’s Republic of China
David Pickus
; Shandong University, Qingdao, 650 Laurel, #105, Highland Park, IL 60035, USA
Abstract
The proposition that the unity of Beauty and Goodness (meishan heyi 美善合一) is the distinctive feature of Confucian aesthetics was too easily taken as axiomatic by aestheticians and accordingly presumed it to be the theoretical foundation of Confucian aesthetics and education. In contemporary Chinese academic circles, this stance has received such overwhelming support that an implicit consensus has emerged, giving the appearance that there is hardly any need for a philosophical argument to justify or otherwise challenge the original proposition. To advance a new point of view by returning to the ancient texts, we will show that in old Chinese the characters 美 and 善 are synonymous, and that the aesthetic thoughts of Confucius and early Confucians are more often expressed with the term yue (樂) than mei (美), while their idea of the relation between beauty and goodness is put forth with the terms li (禮) and yue (樂), instead of shan (善) and mei (美). We then attempt to prove that the two most frequently quoted proof texts for presuming that there is a unity of goodness and beauty in the ancient tradition, specifically one passage from the Mencius and another from the Analects, are in fact not about the union of beauty and goodness. We conclude with a brief account of the significance of this argument for the study of Chinese and world aesthetics.
Keywords
unity; beauty; goodness; Confucian aesthetics; Confucius; mei 美; shan 善; li 禮; yue 樂
Hrčak ID:
280203
URI
Publication date:
20.1.2022.
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