艺术的“政治”生产与儒家审美理想——《乐记》“审乐以知政”思想探析

“Political”Production of Art and Confucian Aesthetic Ideal——Analysis of“Examining Music Is to Know Politics”in The Records of Music

作为中国古代重要的音乐理论著作,《乐记》提出“审乐以知政”观念,将政治视角作为审视音乐的重要视域,使音乐的本质、形式和价值以政治的、伦理的方式“生产”出来,显现艺术的政治运作规律。具体而言,乐的生成包含“乐由中出”和“乐由天作”两个层次,其生产制作贯穿着道德教化、社会伦理内容,潜在通向了礼。乐的形制表现为“异文合爱”,即通过合规律性和合目的性的文采、节奏、声律等结构形式,使人具备平和的德性,充满特定的政治隐喻。乐的功能在于“和民声”,呈现调和民性、移风易俗、安定社会的价值取向。这一切体现了儒家的审美理想,即通过音乐的社会功能,追求一种礼乐兼济、美善统一的人格理想境界,使社会伦理秩序转化为个体内在的自觉要求。由此,《乐记》建构起从美学到政治的艺术生产模式,凸显了儒家政治美学的鲜明特征。

The concept of“examining-music-is-to-know-politics”has been put forward in The Record of Music,as an important music theory work in ancient China,which takes the political perspective as an important vision to examine music,so that the essence,form and value of music can be“generated”in a political and ethical way,showing the political operation law of art.Specifically speaking,the generation of music includes two levels:“music comes from the heart”and“music comes from the heaven”.Its generating process has been experienced the moral education and social ethics,potentially leading to the etiquette.The form of music is expressed as“harmony from different rhythms”,that is,it makes people have peaceful virtue through the structure of literary style and rhythm in accordance with regularity and purpose,which is full of specific political metaphor.The function of music lies in“harmony with the voice of the people”,presenting the value orientation of harmonizing people’s nature,changing customs and stabilizing society.All of these reflect the aesthetic ideal of Confucianism,that is,through the social function of music,it pursues an ideal state of personality in which both rites and music are combined and beauty and goodness are unified,so that the social ethical order can be transformed into the self-conscious requirement of the individual.Therefore,an artistic generation mode from aesthetics to politics has been constructed in The Records of Music,which highlights the distinct characteristics of Confucian political aesthetics.