论中国美学的天下体系

On Tianxia/World System of Chinese Aesthetics

近十余年来,学术界对于中国传统天下观念的讨论,多涉及传统政治制度、边疆史地及国际秩序等问题,但事实上它却是个美学概念。从历史看,这一观念是从中原出发对世界的想象性建构,其地理和时空认知的诗性或审美特性要远远压倒科学性。在天下这一时空架构之内,中国文明的进程基本可描述为诸种审美要素不断被植入其中的过程。这种植入主要包括三个环节:一是通过五色、五味、五音等的空间配置,使人关于周边世界的认知经验审美化;二是通过对自然生命本性的体认,使其通达于音乐,从而预设出一个乐感洋溢的宇宙;三是通过礼乐教化建立人文化的审美体系,借以伸张出一种审美化的制度理想。所谓中国美学的天下体系,就是这种自然想象与人文再造的交互形式。体认这一体系的审美特性,将为目前学界关于天下观的讨论提供必要的前提和背景;同时也有助于中国美学研究摆脱现有窠臼,成为与中国文明等量齐观的概念。

The academic treatise on Tianxia, the traditional Chinese world concept in the last decades is engaged mostly with political system, history and geopolitics of frontier region, as well as international relation. Nevertheless,Tianxia is virtually a concept of aesthetics. From a historical perspective, the idea of Tianxia is an imaginative construction of the world with the central plains as the departure point, of which the poetic and aesthetics merits prevail far over the scientific one. Chinese civilization can be described basically as a process incorporating various aesthetics momentum,in which three procedures play the kernel roles: aestheticizing the perception of the surroundings through the configuration of five colors,five tastes and five notes; formulating a world imbued with musicality through a deep understanding of music deriving from the realization of the nature of being; upholding an ideal of aesthetized institutions through a humanistic aesthetics system established by the edification in rites and music. The Tianxia system of Chinese aesthetics is such an interactive form of the imagination of nature and humanistic reconstruction as elaborated above. Realizing the aesthetics quality of Tianxia provides a necessary basis for the present academic discussion on the notion of Tianxia, and avails Chinese aesthetics research casting off from the existing stereotype, becoming a concept equating to Chinese civilization.