中国远古之美的总体结构、四大器物与美学特质

Reviewing Ancient Chinese Beauty as Reflected in Four Artifacts and Its Aesthetic Characteristics

中国远古之美,在器物上,主要在岩画、彩陶、玉器、青铜器上体现出来。岩画的人面像及其与宇宙的关联内蕴着中国远古之美的最初法则。彩陶的具象纹饰与抽象纹饰的转换,内蕴中国远古之美的又一法则。玉器从玦琯到琥璜到璧琮再到圭璋的演进,内蕴着天人合一的文化和美学精神。青铜器上的饕餮—兽面—神像的结构,内蕴着新的多元一体观念在审美上的体现。四大器物中美学原则的创新性出现,对中国美学有重要而深远的影响。四大器物演进从原始思维中宇宙整体之灵而来的互渗律到中国型的气的宇宙,以及由气而来的有无相成、虚实相生的思想,是中国远古长期演进的结果,在这一演进中形成了中国美学的基本法则。宇宙整体观念的演进从虚体的宇宙之灵,到(外形之)鬼与(内在之)神精灵,到天神、地祇、祖鬼、物魅的演进,在四大器物上有着对应性审美体现,这对于理解中国美学特质何以形成、内容如何,具有重要的意义。

The ancient beauty of China presents itself in artifacts that are mainly rock painting,coloured pottery,jade and bronze.The human face of rock paintings and their association with the universe contain the original principles of ancient Chinese beauty.The transformation from concrete patterns to abstract ones in painted pottery embodies another principle of ancient Chinese beauty.The development of jade shapes from jue guan(玦琯)to hu huang(琥璜),cong bi(琮壁)and finally gui zhang(圭璋)gives expression to the cultural spirit of unity of heaven and human.And the pattern of Taotie(a glutton-beast deity,饕餮)on bronze ware embodies a new concept of diversity and unity in aesthetics.The innovative tendency of aesthetic principles in the four major artifacts has a significant and profound impact on Chinese aesthetics.The changes in the patterns and shapes of the Chinese ancient artifacts are in the end the development of Chinese ancient culture:from the mutual infiltration law of the spirit of the universe as a whole in primitive thinking to qi(气),the universe of Chinese type,and from this view of qi universe to the idea of the interdependence between being and non-being and between reality and void,thus resulting in the basic principles of Chinese aesthetics.From the ethereal spirit of the universe to such jing ling(supernatural beings,精灵)as tangible gui(ghost,鬼)and intangible shen((deity,神)and to tian shen((spirit-insky,天神),di qi(spirit-on-earth,地),zu gui(ancestors'spirit,祖鬼)and wu mei(goblin,物魅),the development of view of universe as a whole has its corresponding aesthetic manifestations in the four artfacts,which we may enable us to better understand how the characteristics of Chinese aesthetics come into being and why there are such meaningful interpretations.