The 2024 Annual Papers of the Shanghai Federation of Social Science Associations:

Logical Structure of Category System in Chinese Aesthetics

Abstract: There is a unique category system in Chinese aesthetics. Being a knowledge structure which is unique for Chinese culture and is related to aesthetics, it is a logic network with four dynamic dimensions. It includes the following contents: (A) One logical starting point, i.e., Wuji (the Non-Ultimate). (B) A double philosophical ontology, i.e., the essential Wuji of absolute none, and it combines with a secondary Taiji (the Great Ultimate) of relative none, by Wuji as “firstly ontology” and Taiji as “secondary ontology.” (C) There are three humanistic mainstays, namely, the “Dao” (the Way) of historical-philosophical significance, the “Qi” (the Vitality) of cultural significance, and the “Xiang” (the Image) of aesthetic and phenomenological significance, and they are the three-in-one. (D) So it is a fundamental structure of category groups respectively governed by Dao (the Way) – Qi (the Vitality) – Xiang (the Image) as well as their merge. The categorical system of Chinese aesthetics has the characteristic of orderly and deeply thinking-in-poetics and poetics-in-thinking, full of life consciousness which is unique in Chinese culture.