The Nature of Beauty: Focusing on the aesthetic consciousness of Taoism

Abstract

This study examines the etymology of the concept of ”beauty“ to understand the nature of it, followed by the exploration on the new context and value of beauty based on literary materials that examines oriental aesthetic consciousness. Oriental aesthetic consciousness has shifted from the Yin-Yang and the Five Elements theory of the Spring and Autumn period through Taoism and esthetical awareness of Confucianism, each representing art spirit and artification of human life, then to the 'Yi Jing psychology' which emphasizes subjectivity, desire, and pleasure. However, in the East, aesthetic pleasure was not perceived to originate from phenomena and forms. This was because the Holism perspective, which identifies the world as a whole, pursued after the invisible power 'Tao', that is, the essence of all forms and phenomena. In Confucianism, aesthetic consciousness was developed from a social and ethical perspective, and in Taoist philosophy, it was promoted from a naturalistic perspective through psychology and artistry. For this reason, Confucianism saw beauty in the essence of sublime human beings, focusing on the fundamental values of love of “benevolence” and “goodness”. And in Taoism, it aims for a more fundamental “Great beauty(大美)” and sees beauty in the world of the Tao, which is hidden behind all creations. In both Confucianism and Taoism, ‘Mi[beauty, 美]’ denied its relativity to 'Chu[ugliness, 醜]' in the phenomenon world and emphasized the vitality of the universe, and since then, it has tried to find out the reality of beauty by throwing aesthetic propositions such as ‘Ui[意]’, ‘Sang[象]’, and ‘Gyeong[境]’. Everything in aesthetic consciousness is the manifestation of the mind that perceives, and the body of existence is only made up by the mind. Beauty is only one's own philosophical and aesthetic tendency created in the course of life, and it is the creative value of life given therefrom.