When it comes to aesthetics, we must talk about a person and a book, Li Zehou and his "The Course of Beauty".

Li Zehou, a famous philosopher and aesthetician, was honored as a "spiritual mentor" by young people during the "aesthetics fever" in the 1980s.

In his book, Li gives an overview of the entire history of Chinese aesthetics, and unlike general works on art history, he does not focus on the appreciation of specific works, but rather organically combines the phenomenon of aesthetics and the historical process from an anthropological perspective, and puts forward the thesis that the development of art and aesthetics originates from real life.

Li Zehou said that in traditional Chinese culture, the highest realm of life is expressed in the aesthetic realm. It is a state in which man and nature, heaven and earth, and the universe become one.

For the Chinese tradition, aesthetics is close to religion. In the Chinese experience of life, beauty is not just something to be admired and watched; art can be something that is free from political means, something that confronts and regulates reality, or it can be more positive and expansive.

In China, beauty in life is a way of life, a kind of transcendental spiritual freedom.

Li Zehou said: Religion is to believe in destiny, philosophy is to contemplate destiny, while literature and art and beauty are in direct expression of destiny.

Chinese culture does not believe in a personal god, but in the power of human beings themselves.

What is beauty and what is art? Alain de Botton says in The Consolation of Art: Art is to be regarded as a tool.

Tools are extensions of the body, and because of our physical inadequacies, they are a necessity. We need to cut, but lack the ability to do so, so we must use a knife to fulfill that need. We need to carry water, but lack the ability to do so, so we must fulfill such a need with a bottle.

Like other tools, art extends our God-given ability to compensate for some of our innate weaknesses, except that the weaknesses are mental rather than physical, and we can call these weaknesses mental deficiencies.

So what are some of the things that our minds and emotions need to do but can't? What are some of the mental flaws that art can offer help with?

Alain de Botton identifies seven flaws: memory, hope, grief, regaining balance, self-knowledge, growth, and appreciation.

This is a perspective that stands in the future and looks backwards. Use this tool in specific life-growth scenarios to refine the personality.

As Nietzsche said, we are all unfinished men. We use the tools of art and beauty to help us grow in order to become what we want to be.

Chinese culture is all about generalization, finding patterns in big data, finding the "soul" and the "way".

Western culture is deductive, looking for methods in actual operation, looking for "form" and "technique".

Regardless of the cultural background, the pursuit of art and beauty is something rooted deep in our souls.

Some primitive peoples didn't even have writing, but they invariably had art.

Darwin, once came to a desert island, saw a group of natives naked, shivering in the cold wind. Darwin immediately took out some red cloth and asked them to make a dress. Who knows that these natives immediately tore these red cloth into strips of cloth, tied to the hands, feet and waist, and then danced. This was an eye-opener for Darwin. It turned out that they would rather be without clothes than without art or beauty. There are many such examples.

In fact, art was pretty much the first to be born in human culture and civilization, much earlier than science and philosophy, and almost second only to tools.

As Li Zehou said, art and beauty, are expressions of life. I think it's more an expression of man as an intelligent creature, distinct from other creatures.

Yi Zhongtian said: The true meaning of beauty is to enlighten wisdom. Throughout the thousands of years of Chinese history, a lot of wisdom has been passed down through those beautiful works of art. Architecture, painting and calligraphy, utensils, jewelry and so on, each piece of fine play, are hidden in the profound Chinese culture and wisdom.

Take the Chinese flower arrangement I am studying as an example:

Proportion, from Hetu Luoshu;

Color, from yin and yang;

Orientation, from the Bagua Palace ......

Not to mention, the historical characteristics of the various dynasties that are revealed in the flower arrangement and the expression of the illustrator's state of mind.

There is no doubt that we have entered an era where beauty has become a thing to be consumed. Therefore, aesthetic ability will be a very important ability of the new era of talent.

All human beings are similar, but when viewed through the lens of art and beauty, they are very different.

As a descendant of China, the deep-rooted Chinese aesthetics, more or less should learn a little bit of it~