燕闲之美:明清香橼饮食美学摭议

Aesthetics of Leisure Appreciation:On the Citron Diet in Ming and Qing Dynasties

发达的商业与开放的心灵,为明清士人和市民阶层的燕闲生活提供了可能性,文人士子抬头追寻理想人格、下沉关注生活美学,香橼饮食美学在这样的社会氛围下,绽放出前所未有的光华和诗意。随着对“以礼为美”的等级制礼法的僭越和商业能量的膨胀,明代饮食风潮由俭入奢。文人士子经由“身闲”感官欲望的冀求满足,获得了极致的香橼饮食格物美感经验。香橼饮食走向了绚烂的繁复和精致,香橼以“玩好之物”的形象成为文人身份、才华和品味的表征。晚明文人则将无目的、无功利的隐逸、心闲赋予了香橼饮食,追寻淡味、俭朴和复古,实现香橼饮食自由、性灵、不造作的本真意境。明清香橼饮食审美以“身闲”“心闲”二境,实践了身为饮食语境下“多余之物”的美学突围。

Developed commerce and open mind provided the possibility of a leisure life for literati and citizens in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Metaphysically, literati pursued the ideal personality, and physically,they paid close attention to life aesthetics. In such social atmosphere, the citron diet aesthetics blossomed out with unprecedented brilliance and poetic flavor. With the rebellion against the hierarchical etiquette and the expansion of commercial energy, the diet trend in Ming Dynasty changed from frugality to extravagance.Through the satisfaction of “leisure” sensory desire, literati and scholars gained ultimate experience from the taste of citron foods. Citron diet moved towards gorgeous complexity and refinement, and citron, as a recognized “stunner(wan hao zhi wu)”, became a symbol of literati's identity, talent and taste;In the late Ming Dynasty, literati endowed the citron diet with the meaning of seclusion and leisure, pursued light taste, frugality and retro style, and worked on achieving the original artistic conception of citron diet, which would lead to freedom, spirituality and nature. Via “body leisure” and “mind leisure”, the aesthetic appreciation of citron diet practiced an aesthetic breakthrough in the diet context of Ming and Qing Dynasties, and got rid of the impression of “a needless thing”.