[Author: Cai Yuanpei | reposted from: Cai Yuanpei's aesthetic anthology | Click: 1375 | Update: 2007- 1-9 | Entry: Xie]
Man's life is nothing more than the activity of will, and will is blind, and the closer observer it relies on is knowledge; Therefore, it is emotion that is used for distance and side view.
The expression of will is behavior. In the behavior, it is most common to avoid death by self-hygiene, and to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages; This kind of behavior can only be guided by common sense. Furthermore, it aims at the life and interests of all people, and its own life and interests depend on it. This behavior, on the one hand, is out of intellectual concern, knowing that everyone is dead, and one can't be an only child; Everyone is hurt and no one can benefit alone. On the other hand, it is also driven by emotion. It is unbearable for a person to sit and watch everyone die, and it is unbearable for a patent to watch everyone get hurt. Furthermore, if necessary, I am willing to give up my life to save everyone's death; I am willing to sacrifice my own interests for the harm of everyone, forget the difference between everyone and me, and forget the relationship between life and death. This great and noble behavior is entirely out of emotion.
Everyone has feelings, but not everyone has great and noble behavior, which is because the emotional driving force is weak. It needs to be cultivated to become weak and strong and thin and thick. The tool of edifying is the object of beauty, and the function of edifying is aesthetic education.
How does the object of beauty cultivate feelings? Because it has two characteristics: one is universality; The second is detachment.
A spoonful of water, one person drank, others didn't have a penny; If one person has enough space, others will not be able to stand side by side; This material incompatibility encourages the differences between people and me and selfish care. The object of turning to beauty is very different. Everything that has a qualitative relationship between taste, smell and skin feeling is not based on beauty; Aesthetic feeling can only be aroused by vision and hearing transmitted by photography and sound waves. Thus, the concept of "the world is public" simply came into being. Famous mountains and rivers, everyone has a tour; Sunset and bright moon make everyone enjoy it; Everyone likes the statues in the park and the paintings in the art gallery. Qi Xuanwang said, "Being happy alone is not like being happy with others"; "Without happiness, you will not be happy without others"; Tao Yuanming called it "appreciation of strange books"; This is the proof of the universality of beauty.
Flowers of plants are only for the preparation of fruits; As for plum, apricot, peach and plum, flowers are the poet's favorite. Flowers specially used for enjoyment have the function of being selected by others and cannot bear fruit. Animal feathers, so keep out the cold, people have the habit of making fur and knitting; However, the feathers of egrets and the tails of peacocks are designed for decoration. If only the palace could keep out the wind and rain, why carve and paint? If only utensils can be used, why should they be patterned? If only words can convey meaning, why do you need poems with special tones? It can be proved that the function of beauty is beyond the scope of utilization.
It has the universality of breaking people's prejudice and the detachment of revealing interest relations; Therefore, at an important juncture, there is a spirit of "wealth can't be lewd, poverty can't be moved, and powerful people can't bend"; What's more, there is the courage to "kill yourself to be benevolent", not "to survive and harm benevolence"; This is completely independent of knowledge, but because the cultivation of feelings comes not from intellectual education, but from aesthetic education.
Therefore, in order to make use of the needs of health, it is essential for us to have an ordinary occupation; After work, I have to read literature, listen to music and visit art galleries to reconcile my knowledge and feelings. Only in this way can I know the value of life.
According to Cai Yuanpei's manuscript