Men go abroad to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long course of rivers, at the vast compass of ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.

   (St. Augustine)

Nowadays, more and more people go out and travel around, thus making the traveling enterprise common and prevailing almost in every corner of the world. Practically in China, this enterprise occupies a lion’s share of the tertiary industry in recent years. Regarding the major attractions for travelers, many of them are basically natural landscapes dotted with culturescapes. They are so appealing to those who love to return to nature for sightseeing as an aesthetic activity or social therapy against the suffocating over-civilization and endless urbanization. Consequently, aesthetics of nature has got somewhat revived by virtue of “stepping out into the open” for natural beauty as Theodor W. Adorno’s once put it. [1] By “stepping out into the open” is it intended to experience the superiority of natural beauty over that of art. For natural beauty is the only beauty that arouses a direct interest and agrees with the refined and solid way of thinking of all people who have cultivated their moral feeling. Moreover, according to Kant, “A man who has taste enough to judge the products of fine art with the greatest correctness and refinement may still be glad to leave a room in which he finds those beauties that minister to vanity and perhaps to social joys, and to turn instead to the beautiful in nature, in order to find there, as it were, a voluptuousness for the mind in a train of thought that he can never fully unravel. If that is how he chooses, we shall ourselves regard this choice of his with esteem and assume that he has a beautiful soul, such as no connoisseur and lover of art can claim to have because of the interest he takes in his objects.” [2] Here in this case the cultivation of “moral feeling” and the nurture of “a beautiful soul” are thus facilitated by steeping out of the over-decorated room into the open air to contemplate “the beautiful in nature”.

  When returning to nature, most travelers tend to be feeling in different degrees like what Tao Yuanming describes poetically as follows: “Long being kept in a sophisticated cage, now feeling released upon return to nature.” This indicates that they are personally freed from the life pressure and invisible imprisonment when moving out of crowded cities and social nets, and mingling themselves up with beautiful natural environment. In addition, it implies that those who are able to discover and appreciate natural beauty seem to enjoy a “fine soul” in a Kantian sense, and then capable of restoring one’s “real self” in Emerson’s vision. This paper attempts to look into sightseeing from the perspective of a threefold aesthetic experience and heaven-and-human oneness attributed to practical aesthetics. Practical aesthetics itself was initiated by Li Zehou in 1950s and further developed from 1980s onward via relevant modifications and critiques. Its key substance is condensed in the Meixue sijiang (Four Lectures on Aesthetics) published in 1989. [3] By principle, it is based on the sources of Chinese thought with reference to Western philosophy, so to speak in brief.

Three Levels of Aesthetic Experience

There are at least three levels of aesthetic experience with regard to the appreciation and contemplation of natural landscape. In the case of the travelers as aesthetic subjects who go sightseeing in the world of nature, they tend to be simultaneously delighted with the beautiful scenery of high mountains and running rivers, splashing waterfalls and moonlit lakes, green trees and colorful flowers, singing birds and flying butterflies, etc. Right on the spot with a first glance, they are most likely to be obsessed with the colors, shapes, sounds and spatial images that please such faculties as the ear and the eye. The ear is the organ of hearing and the eye the organ of sight. As primary aesthetic faculties, they are working to perceive the beautiful in appearance. That is to say, they enable the travelers to observe and enjoy firstly a kind of sensual pleasure drawn from the external aspects of the object looked at. This is usually seen as the initial stage of aesthetic experience that features the pleasing of the ear and the eye (yue er yue mu). [4] Yet, it does not mean the aesthetic experience on this occasion is exclusively attributed to these two organs. The matter of fact is that the appreciation of natural landscape is usually an all-sensory perception, involving all the fives senses (sight, hearing, smelling, taste and touch) and even ESP (extrasensory perception) as well. We human beings are so sensitive that we can hardly enjoy any apparently good-looking environment that bothers us with an unpleasant smell, for instance. Being an elementary level of aesthetic experience, it is immediate, intuitive and momentary, chiefly characterized by physical beauty, sensory pleasure, joyful feelings and emotions, or a delightful state of mind. In practice, travelers have an easy access to this kind of aesthetic experience as is available to all those whose sense organs are in normal condition. At this stage, some people are satisfied enough, but some others are not yet. So they explore further and detect more.

  As they contemplate the landscape longer and deeper, there would reach the second stage of aesthetic experience. It is depicted to be pleasing to the mind and the mood (yue xin yue yi) in Li Zehou’s terminology. During this process, faculties of understanding and imagination come into play, enabling the contemplators to go beyond the external aspects of the object and venture into its internal aspects in a cognitive sense. Outwardly, they draw from the physical Schein or form something meaningful in connection with aesthetic value judgment. Inwardly, they gaze at the object through a mind’s eye, and subsequently nurture an agreeable mood along with a poetic impulse. Thus, they tend to feel themselves into the beautiful as such, and even transform it into a picture or poem so as to express their appreciation and gratitude. This is why a beautiful landscape is often depicted as picturesque in its allegorical significance.

  Compared with the preceding level of an immediate and transient kind, the second level of aesthetic experience is of more profundity and longer duration. For it stays in the memory due to its involvement of some insights into an imagined vision out of an existent image (xiang wai zhi xiang), and an idealized scene out of a visual landscape (jing wai zhi jing). Here at this moment, “the language of the scene is transfigured into the language of emotion” (yi qie jing yu jie qing yu) according to Wang Guowei’s observation. The language of this kind is assumed to contain certain amount of magic power, helping the travelers to get released to varied degrees from worldly cares, pressures, tensions, depressions and other negative sentiments by substituting them with aesthetic detachment or enjoyment. For instance, they are liable to feel relaxed as they are counting the wild flowers in blossom instead of the fallen leafs on the ground, and become enlightened when they come to realize the associated significance of natural freedom as is manifested through the free motion of a bird flying among trees or a fish swimming in waters. Talking about a fish, we are easily reminded of a relevant fable in The Book of Zhuangzi as follows: When strolling along a river with his friend Shi Hui, Zhuangzi happens to see a fish jump out of the water and then dive into it again. He is delighted to assume that the little creature is so happy to move like that. On hearing this, Shi Hui denies this assumption with a counterargument. Logically, Shi Hui maintains that Zhuangzi cannot know whether the fish is happy or not simply because he himself is not the fish, and therefore cannot feel what the fish really feels. Empirically, Zhuangzi defends himself by means of his personal observation of an empathic kind. Neither of them can convince the other by words, but their dispute leaves a larger space of imagination about the harmonious interaction between natural and human beings. The fable itself is highly metaphorical and suggestive, constantly posing a subject matter for poetry, painting and even gardening. An offhanded example is found in the Garden of Harmony located inside the Summer Palace. There you see a small stone bridge over a water pond that is called “The Bridge of Knowing the Fish” (Zhi yu qiao) with a particular reference to Zhuangzi’s story. In order to figure out its hidden message, we need to trace back to the fact that Zhuangzi always attempts to equalize all things in the universe (qi wu). He therefore treats all beings alike, including humankind. He himself is not the fish, but he can feel what the fish feels according to his emotional projection or empirical inference. Apparently, he finds the fish happy as a result of his self-identifying contemplation and psychical response. Actually, he himself becomes happy when seeing the fish move around so freely. The fish stirs up his happy mood and he, in turn, projects his happy feeling into the fish. Such an interaction between Zhuangzi and the fish seems to be inter-subjective by principle and aesthetic in kind. And the experience of this kind reflects the essential traits of what pleases the mind and the mood (yue xin yue yi), in which the aesthetic transposition or empathy exerts an important part.

  The appreciation of nature is undoubtedly open to further findings from an aesthetic perspective. It is therefore assumed that above the second level of aesthetic experience is the third one in sequence. For in some cases you would make the utmost use of such psycho-aesthetic functions as sensuous perception, imagination, understanding and feeling altogether when contemplating the landscape you are obsessed with. If by any chance you happen to come up with a sudden enlightenment, you will be liable to approach the third level of aesthetic experience that is said to please the will and the spirit (yue zhi yue shen) and then result in the pleasures of lofty aspiration and moral integrity. At this stage, you are supposed to be completely enlightened all of a sudden of your real being in an ontological sense. Your personal perception of space and time appears exceptionally enlarged to the extent that it can accommodate all things under the sky. One the one hand, you are well in the position to move out of your small and finite “I” and into the big and infinite “We” by identifying yourself with the whole world of nature or the entire universe; and on the other, you have become highly aware of the eternal from the momentary, and of the infinite from the finite. In a word, you are feeling yourself into the oneness between you and the universe as a whole. Your will (zhi) and spirit (shen) are thus exalted or sublimated up to a super-morally transcendent realm. Hypothetically under such circumstances, you have not only attained a kind of absolute spiritual freedom and independent personality, but also go beyond the moral values in pursuit of super-moral ones. In the former case, according to Zhuangzi, you would “interact only with the spirit of Heaven and Earth” for a happy excursion, which enables you to “accompany all things to rove about with a free and easy mind” in one sense, and in the other, to “step onto the clouds, ride on the sun and moon, and wander around out of the four oceans.” [5] In the latter case, according to Confucianism in the main, you would strive for self-perfection by assimilating the Heaven and the Earth in the following modes: The Heaven moves eternally and energetically, therefore the superior man must model himself upon it in order to make himself stronger and more resolute. The Earth begets and carries all things on itself, the superior man must learn from this example in order to develop his full virtue and offer selfless service to others. [6] So long as the spiritual and moral dimensions aforementioned were fulfilled, the superior man would have become a free and universal being who claims the virtue of “loving all people and treasuring all things” (ren min ai wu) with neither discrimination nor reservation. In this regard he could be adequately acclaimed as a fully cultivated person of “a beautiful soul” in an aesthetically and morally integrated sense if we have really a fancy to describe it in Kant’s terminology. 

  Regarding the three levels of aesthetic experience described above, it is noticeable that the initial level is commonplace and easily attainable to those who go sightseeing in nature either for leisure or relaxation. As for the second and the third levels of aesthetic experience, there arise some requirements on the landscape contemplator. What is indispensable above all is definitely a special affinity for nature. This affinity is structurally sustained by such merits as adequate cultural literacy, aesthetic taste and spiritual pursuit. And functionally, it is claimed to reinforce human interaction with and appreciation of nature in general and natural beauty of landscape in particular. Comparatively, the intermediate level of experience in appreciating Nature implies an aesthetic transposition and even a personification of the object from a psycho-cultural viewpoint. Its effect is inclined to stay with the subject for a long period of time. The third level of experience in this regard is characteristic of the sublime with some mystical features from a moralistic and even religious perspective. Its effect at its best helps remold and perhaps transform the mentality, the spirit, and even the personality of the subject who is not merely morally cultivated but super-morally sublimated to the full extent.

Aesthetic Effects of Heaven-and-Human Oneness

In Chinese culture, the affinity between human and his surroundings is closely associated with the conception of tian ren he yi that threads throughout the entire history of Chinese thought. The conception itself consists of four basic characters or elements: tian, ren, he and yi. According to one of the two main interpretations, [7] tian refers to heaven or sky that is metaphorically used for the world of nature composed of heaven or sky, earth and the myriad things; ren refers to humankind; he means the act of integrating; and yi means oneness as a kind of inseparable and harmonious interrelationship. A literal translation of tian ren he yi could be “heaven and humankind integrated into oneness.” As a result of economical wording, it is usually termed heaven-and-human oneness in accord with my personal preference. As heaven in this case stands for nature, the translation can be altered as nature-and-human oneness if in need. Logically, such oneness is inferred on the basis of the conventional belief that humankind is the product and part of nature even though being the highest of all species in existence. When talking about this oneness, it does not mean nature and humankind are radically identical. Instead, they differ from and even oppose to one another on many occasions. However, what is meant by such oneness is to stress their possible unity and interdependence rather than their difference and opposition. By so doing, it is intended to create a harmonized co-existence rather than a hostile conflict between the human race and nature. It is right in this sense that the idea of heaven-and-human oneness is being rediscovered and transvaluated by virtue of an instrumental rationality or pragmatic reasoning against the background of ecological crises and environmental problems confronted nowadays.

  What I am trying to say here is about how to appreciate nature from the perspective of heaven-and-human oneness. Based on what it implies as is aforementioned, I would rather look upon the notion of such oneness as a meta-aesthetic Geist that helps to shape one’s aesthetic attitude, and also as the highest state of spiritual cultivation that helps to develop one’s aesthetic sensibility. When it is applied to the appreciation of nature or contemplation of landscape as an aesthetic activity in particular, it is thought to enrich and enlighten one’s aesthetic experience from the initial stage of sensory pleasure and satisfaction up to the third level of spiritual enlightenment and sublimation. All this is facilitated by the conception of heaven-and-human oneness as it is conducive to three interactive modes at least.

  First and foremost, the conception itself features the oneness between nature and humankind in a holistic sense. Ontologically, nature is believed to be eternal and beget all beings and things alike; accordingly, humankind is part of nature and one species only instead of the so-called measure of all things. This outlook is fundamentally influential in the psychology of Chinese people and conducive to a harmonized synthesis between nature and humankind. Accordingly, each individual is usually compared to the small “I” along with an inner world, and the entire nature or universe is likened to the big “We” along with an outer world. The former is limited and finite, whereas the latter is unlimited and infinite. When the two are harmonized into one, the small “I” is then located into the big “We,” the inner world synthesized with the outer world, the limited and finite transformed into the unlimited and infinite. In other words, when you as an individual identify yourself with the boundless nature or universe, your mind can be expanded enough to understand and accommodate all things under the sky. You are then no longer confined to your isolated self and narrow vision. Instead, you are freed from all these confinements and narrowness as you have become part of the whole. From this viewpoint, you make no distinction between things and simply see others as part of your being. It is only in this sense that one can be said to have attained his “spiritual freedom from all entangles” (xuanjie) according to Zhuangzi.

  In The Book of Zhuangzi, for instance, we read an interesting story about a dream of a butterfly. Right in the dream, Zhuangzi identifies himself with the butterfly. He is feeling so happy that he even forgets himself. When awakened, he is still feeling lost in the dream, unable to realize whether he has dreamed of the butterfly or vice versa a moment before. Hence, he cannot distinguish himself from the butterfly even though he has the intention to differentiate the two sides involved. He then calls this experience as a “transformation of things” (wu hua). Metaphorically, the story reveals an important message in that it exposes the true meaning of the oneness between humankind represented by the dreamer and natural beauty exemplified by the butterfly. Such oneness makes no distinction among things but features a transformation of things. That is to say, things are not distinguished from but transformed into each other. This being the case, the dreamer not only feels himself into but also identifies himself with the butterfly. Symbolically, the human spirit and the natural phenomenon are integrated into one; aesthetically, the subject and the object are synthesized into one; ontologically, the small “I” and the big “We” are harmonized into one. All this kind of oneness embodies a free interaction and harmonious union between humankind and nature. It is particularly so at the third level of aesthetic experience in the contemplation of natural beauty or landscape as is presented above.

  Secondly, the appreciation of nature is largely determined by two factors: one is the emotional and the other is the scenic. The aesthetic experience in this case is deepened and enriched by virtue of an interfusion between the two factors. The emotional factor comes from the moved traveler as an aesthetic subject, while the scenic factor from the beautiful landscape as an aesthetic object. This interfusion is only possible when the former projects his emotion and even vital force into the latter. In Chinese aesthetics, such interfusion between emotion and scene (qing jing jiao rong) is assumed to be the most essential drive for both aesthetic experience and artistic creation. By means of this interfusion, a lifeless rock can be transfigured into a living being, and likewise a wild flower can be personified as a maiden image, and a huge tree can be transformed into a rising giant, etc.

  Originally, the theory of such interfusion is derived from and based upon the notion of heaven-and-human oneness. In other words, it is the harmony between humankind and nature that makes the interfusion possible, for the harmony of this kind works to humanize the scene via the emotion on the one hand, and objectify the human emotion through the scene on the other. Consequently in this case, the emotional factor is neither purely subjective nor a psychological phenomenon because it is mixed up with and concretized by the scene. Correspondingly, the scenic factor is neither purely objective nor a natural landscape because it is fused with and humanized by the emotion. It is at this moment that the language of the scene has turned out to be the language of the emotion as is mentioned with a particular reference to the second level of aesthetic experience. Incidentally, the projection of the emotion into the scene is not enough in the pure sense of heaven-and-human oneness as an aesthetic attitude. It usually requires a twofold process of projection in an interactive way, that is, the aesthetic subject can project his emotion, wish, and ideal into the aesthetic object, and meanwhile, the aesthetic object can project its image, vitality and natural spirit into the aesthetic subject. Such reciprocal interaction can be all the more inspiring, dynamic and even creative. It is thus adept to please not merely the mind and mood (yue xin yue yi), but also the will and spirit (yue zhi yue shen). In addition, it would lead to a sudden enlightenment and illumination of what things are and what you can become.

  Thirdly, according to Daoism par excellence, one of the key aspects of heaven-and-human oneness is often characterized by a “free and happy excursion” (xiao yao you). Specifically, it assists you to “let your mind rove with things” (shen yu wu you), “ride on things to travel with a free and easy mind” (cheng wu yi you xin), and “interact alone with the spirit of Heaven and Earth” (du yu tiandi jingshen xiang wanglai). Such excursion is certainly not realistic. It is by nature spiritual, imaginative and nothing more than a wishful thinking. Nevertheless, it would serve to extend the imaginative power and nourish higher ideals. Apart from being appealing to artistic creation, it would offer an imagined compensation for what is lacking in reality, and an idealized fulfillment of what is impossible but wishful in life. Accordingly, you may employ such imagination to make your excursion more idealistic and enjoyable as you expect.

  All in all, the notion of heaven-an-human oneness can help to nurture a strong affinity for nature and possibly develop a more positive attitude toward beautiful landscape. When putting this notion into practice, you would “take the specific aspects of the universe and life for an object of contemplation. You appreciate and play with its color, order, rhythm and harmony, and thereby you may perceive what reflects the deepest dimension of your soul. Then you will become capable of transfiguring a physical scene into an imagined one, transforming a visual image into a symbolic one, and turning the highest human soul into an objectified or corporal one. This is what is called ‘the artistic realm’ (yi shu jing jie)”. [8] Ostensibly, this poetic depiction goes hand in hand with the poetic wisdom originated from the conception of heaven-and-human oneness. Yet, the artistic realm in this regard is not merely relating to aesthetic value judgment and creative possibility. It is in fact recommending an artistization of human existence par excellence. Such artistization corresponds to the spirit of Chinese philosophy and aesthetics as a whole. It could be deployed as a walking stick not only to appreciate nature and other things in all, but also to enjoy life as such even by drawing some pleasure from bitter and harsh conditions (ku zhong zuo le).

Notes

[1].    Theodor W. Adorno, Aesthetic Theory (trans. Robert Hullot-Kentor, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997), pp. 63-64.

[2].    Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgment (trans. Werner S. Pluhar, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1987), [300], pp. 166-167.

[3].    Li Zehou. Meixue sijiang 美学四讲 (Four Lectures on Aesthetics, Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 1989). The Chinese version of this book is reprinted by other publishers in China. It is already translated in Korean and Japanese. Its English version is rendered by Professor Jane Cauvel and has come in print in 2006 (Cf. Li Zehou and Jane Cauvel, Four Lectures on Aesthetics, Lanham et al: Lexington Books, 2006). This is one of the few writings on aesthetics in China that features an individual, philosophical and transcultural view as a result of creative transformation by virtue of Chinese sources and Western methodology.

[4].    Liu Xiang (c.77-6 B.C.) is the first to put forth the idea when talking about the beauty of voice and that of dressing, etc. His statement concerned can be rendered as follows: “Those who are properly dressed and has good manners please the eye. Those who have a nice voice and respond well in conversations please the ear. Those who like to develop good hobbies and abandon bad ones please the mind. People find it pleasing to the eye when seeing the superior man [or lord] properly dressed with good manners. People find it pleasing to the ear when hearing the superior man [or lord] speaking properly and responding timely. People find it pleasing to the mind when observing the superior man [or lord] exercising the virtue of human-heartedness while abandoning the vice of non-human-heartedness. The above three aspects are kept in the mind, circulated through the body, and demonstrated in the action and non-action.” Cf. Liu Xiang, Xiuwen 修文(Cultivating Culture), in the Shuo yuan 说苑 (Selected Essays from Schools of Thought in the Han Dynasty), vol. 19. Li Zehou, a contemporary philosopher of distinction in China, develops this idea in view of aesthetic activity and corresponding experience of common practice. Li continues to argue that “Aesthetic experience has different levels. The most common of them is associated with the pleasing of the ear and the eye (yue er yue mu 悦耳悦目). The above state is associated with the pleasing of the mind and the mood (yue xin yue yi悦心悦意). The highest state is associated with the pleasing of the will and the spirit (yue zhi yue shen悦志悦神). Yet, the pleasing of the ear and the eye is not equal to sheer pleasure, and the pleasing of the will and the spirit is not equal to religiously mystical experience.” Cf. Li Zehou, “Zhongguo meixue ji qita” 中国美学及其它 (Chinese Aesthetics and Other Matters), in the Meixue shulin 美学述林 (Journal of Aesthetic Criticism), Wuhan University Press, 1983, Vol. 1, p. 27. These ideas are subsequently elaborated in Li Zehou’s Meixue sijiang 美学四讲 (Four Lectures on Aesthetics) published in 1989.

[5].    Cf. Zhuang Zhou, Zhuangzi nei pian 庄子内篇 (The Inner Chapters in The Book of Zhuangzi).

[6].    Cf. Yi jing 易经 (The Book of Changes).

[7].    One leading interpretation is briefed above. Now it goes through a rediscovery and transvaluation by virtue of instrumental rationality and pragmatic reasoning in face of ecological crises and environmental problems. This trend has been prevailing ever since the 1990s among quite a number of Chinese scholars and Western sinologists who tend to read modern messages into this old doctrine. It is therefore claimed to be conceptually significant and valid in reconstructing a more healthy relationship between humans and nature for the sake of environmental protection and ecological balance. The other leading explication is different, according to which the concept of tian is said to denote heaven in a symbolic sense. In other words, it is symbolic of a system of feudal morality or ethical codes. This system is also called the Dao that is grounded on the five constant virtues known as human-heartedness, righteousness, propriety, reasonability and trustworthiness (ren yi li zhi xin仁义礼智信). The Dao is considered one as a whole and remains the same in both cases. That is to say, it can be called the Heavenly Dao (tiandao天道) when it is up to identify with the Heaven, and likewise it can be the Human Dao (rendao人道) when it is down to identify with the human. Accordingly, tian ren he yi (heaven-and-human oneness) can be replaced by tianren hede 天人合德 (heaven-and human oneness in morality). This morality-based oneness is intended to perform a twofold service at least. Firstly, it is to identify the Heavenly Dao with the Human Dao. This works not only to make them equally important, but moralize the interaction between heaven and human in spite of its mystical features. Secondly, such oneness is supposed to lift the moral system up to the sky so as to ennoble and divinize it. This helps to emphasize and reinforce the objective necessity and eternal characteristic of the moral system. Such being the case, tian as heaven is above ren as human. The former is legitimated with a metaphysical priority to determine the human conduct, while the latter is deprived of its individual subjectivity and thus expected to be a devoted follower. All this bears a hidden purpose, both ethical and political, to make people comply with this oneness under all circumstances in order to coordinate human relations and secure social order as well as stability. In a word, what the doctrine of heaven-and-human oneness in this regard emphasizes is the divinity and eternality of feudal morality rather than the unity between nature and humankind. This interpretation is inclusively peculiar of Confucianism proper due to its moral orientation and political commitment.

[8].    Cf. Zong Baihua, Meixue yu yijing 美学与意境 (The Aesthetics and the Artistic Realm), Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1987, p. 210.

（This paper was delivered at the IAA XVI Congress on “Changes in Aesthetics” in Rio De Janiero, Brazil, July 18-23, 2004. It was then revised and published on The Journal of Philosophical Frontiers in China (Springar), 2 (1), 2007.）

（作者惠寄。录入编辑：乾乾）