五千年中国艺术的文化基础

The Cultural Basis of the Five-Millennium Chinese Art

从认识全球数千年来艺术的主要传统出发,讨论中国艺术传统的基础是什么,是这些年来大家愈来愈关心的问题。但这上下涉及4000～5000年,东西横贯欧亚大陆,在这篇短文中,只能表达一种提纲式的思考内容。

Large or small change has taken place in various traditions of art across the world.Three major systems, however, have existed since the 7th century A. D. They are the Christian Euro-centric, Western system; the Islamic tradition active in the middle east; theethic-oriented, Confucianist-based Eastern system centered in China. Chinese art shows astrong secularism due to the separation of state from religion. A Chinese outlook of beautyand tradition of art quite different from those of the other two cultures are explained joint-ly by China's multi-nation state system with the Hua-Xia people as the major part,herdespotism at whose core laid monarchism,her uniformed language and ritualistic social hier-archy,and in particular,by the whole Confucianist ethic system. A reflection on this 5-millennium history of Chinese culture,its tradition and the basisof Chinese art is needed not merely for a precise positioning of traditional Chinese cultureand art,but also for their future development. It is also necessary for a self acknowledge oftheir value on the part of contemporary Chinese.