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The Great Semblance Is Invisible—Lao tzu and Chuang tzu’s Cognitive Aesthetics



Author(s)

ZHANG Xian-jun

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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2016.08.002

Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China

In the paper I will research Lao tzu and Chuang tzu’s cognitive aesthetics based on the generalized cognizance. Lao tzu and Chuang tzu are the representative figures of Taoism in pre-Qin period, they fully affirm the natural and human nature, naysay affirm human social, cultural and moral, cancel the traditional music, naysay affirm material, they pursue art which is eligibility natural and completely abandon the man-made things, esthetical state according with Tao. They think the great voice is no sound, the great semblance is invisible, the no sound voice and invisible semblance are insight native beauty which are associated with a specific aesthetic feeling but surpass the limited aesthetic feeling, all is the highest state of art and beauty, reach this level, in fact, has entered the Tao. In order to reach this state, they asked people to cleanse away inner desire and external disturbance, keep simplicity, abandon knowledge and wisdom, keep heart bright and clean, forget everything in order to contact the natural law with the nature, the nature’s mystery runs automatically, the sounds of nature sound itself. About the invisible semblance aesthetic, they put forward the concepts such as gain its meaning but forget the word, illocutionary force.

 cognitive poetics, Lao tzu, Chuang tzu, Tao