中国早期美学中的海洋认知和发现

The Cognition and Discovery of the Ocean in Early Chinese Aesthetics

近代以来,基于对中西文明特性的差异化认知,人们习惯于以西方文明的海洋属性来反向定义中国,将它称为“乡土中国”,将它的文明称为“黄土文明”,但事实上海洋的维度在中国历史上从未阙如过,而且被以审美的方式组入到了关于传统国家地理空间的建构之中。这种建构涉及对海洋的哲学定位、海内与海外的划分、四海的排布等环节。总体而言,它是在赋予原本无序的世界一种合理秩序,并使其自洽化,由此形成的海洋认知则具有鲜明的“按照美的规律造型”的性质。对于宽泛意义的中国美学史研究而言,这种海洋观念至少显现出三重价值:一是它的四海观念对陆基的中国起到了边饰作用;二是它的海洋想象为中国美学提供了一个开放性系统;三是海洋观念向现实实践的下贯,为传统形态的“美丽中国”建设提供了持久的范型。

Since modern times,with the recognition of differences between Chinese and Western civilizations,China has often been defined in contrast to the maritime nature of the West,it is called“Rural China”with its civilization labeled as“Yellow Earth Civilization”.Yet,the maritime dimension has never been absent from Chinese history;rather,it has been aesthetically woven into the construction of China’s traditional geographical space.This construction includes the philosophical positioning of the ocean,the division between“hainei”(srounded by sea)and“haiwai”(within the oceanic area),and the pattern of the“sihai”(four seas).In essence,it seeks to impose a coherent and orderly structure on a previously chaotic world,embodying a distinctive form of oceanic cognition shaped by aesthetic principles.For the broader study of Chinese aesthetic history,this oceanic concept reveals three key values:first,its notion of the“sihai”serves as an embellishment for land-based China;second,its oceanic imagination introduces an open-ended system to Chinese aesthetics;and third,its influences upon reality and practice offers a lasting paradigm for building a“beautiful China”in its traditional form.