中华审美范畴的“妙”及其性别人类学释义

“Miao”(妙) as a Category of Chinese Aesthetics and Its Interpretation in Gender Anthropology

范畴问题,无论研究古代中国美学,还是构建当代中国美学,都绕不开。“妙”是中华美学史上的基元性范畴,其作为审美范畴早已超越单向度女性美评价术语的范围,获得了远比评价女性体态之美的“妍”“姣”“嫣”“婷”“婧”“娑”等词语更为广阔的使用空间,也比后者更多地拥有了一种形而上的普适性质;与“妙”这一范畴关联密切的是体现生命意识的基元性范畴“道”——既是中华美学和艺术标举的最高境界,也是老子哲学的核心。先秦老子的道论,从形而下的生殖语义看,是“以经验为基础”(女性生殖之事象);从形而上的哲学语义看,是从经验层面“升华为一般”(产生万物之本体)。正是这种基于感性又超越感性的双重变奏,成就了作为审美本体范畴的“道”和作为审美评价术语的“妙”。从性别研究角度看,无论在字形构置还是表层语义乃至深层内涵上,“妙”跟中华本土渊源流长的崇尚雌柔的民族文化心理有着千丝万缕的关联,这一点从与之相近的“好”和“美”等范畴亦能见之,故其成为华夏美学体系中的重要范畴绝非偶然。

The issue of category can not be escaped both in the study of ancient Chinese aesthetics and in the construction of contemporary Chinese aesthetics."Miao" is a primitive category in the history of Chinese aesthetics. As an aesthetic category, it not only remains in the field of female evaluation but also has surpassed the limit as a term of onedimensional evaluation of female beauty and obtained a far wider room than the terms being more frequently used to evaluate the beauty of female bodies, such as "Yan"(妍),"Jiao"(姣),"Yan"(嫣),"Ting"(婷),"Jing"(婧),"Suo"(娑). Thus it enjoys a kind of metaphysical universality than the latters do. What is more closely related to "Miao" is the primitive category "Dao"(道),which is both the highest realm of Chinese aesthetics as well as artistic enumeration and the core of Taoist philosophy. From the perspective of gender studies,"Miao" has all kinds of connections with the long-history Chinese national psychological culture which advocates feminine tenderness. This can be told from those related categories such as "Hao"(好)and "Mei"(美).Therefore, it is by no means fortuitous for "Miao" to become an important category in the system of Chinese aesthetics.