Cheng systematically discussed the patriarchal social standard thought of Confucianism and the cosmic natural standard thought of Taoism in China's ancient human studies and aesthetics.
Mr. Cheng used "beyond nature" and "beyond self" to discuss the two trends of aesthetics: "beyond nature" and "beyond self". The former inevitably calls for human subjectivity to transform the objective world, while the latter calls for human inner freedom to transform the subjective world. The former is tendency and practice, while the latter is inclined to morality.
In Mr. Cheng's view, both Confucianism and Taoism "transcend themselves" to gain the meaning of their own existence, and both of them point to the moral level, which is the unity of Confucianism and Taoism.
When discussing Confucian aesthetics, Mr. Cheng first thought that Confucianism was human science. He demonstrated the necessity and possibility of advocating benevolence by Confucianism from the pros and cons of Mencius' theory of good nature and Xunzi's theory of evil nature, and the rationality of defining benevolence as the core of Confucianism, and positioned the role of Confucianism as "based on moral attributes, social rationality and human self-restraint." Then, his Confucian personality is summarized as "self-denial and self-courtesy" and "hiding with property" to realize moral self-restraint. When Confucian humanism is put into practice in aesthetics, Mr. Cheng thinks that the essence of Confucian aesthetics lies in righteousness, beauty is not in things, caring for people, caring for people's spirit and caring for people's inner ethical personality. The function of beauty lies in virtue. Beauty is the expression and connotation of the external practice of the subject's ethical personality.
Confucian aesthetics is a kind of good aesthetics, and the concrete expression of beauty lies in goodness. Goodness lies in "benevolence". The purpose of "self-denial" is to "reciprocate", and "doing" means "using" to be good. The so-called "prosperity in poetry, standing in ceremony, and success in music" is just a means. Beauty lies not in these contents, but in the moral and ethical structure behind them. "Beauty, the prosperity of sound volume; Good people are also beautiful. " Confucianism is the representative of the collective spirit of social ethics and the cultural product of social rationality. It is a physical and mental constraint on human's "transcendence" and individual sensibility, and it is a great denial for human to achieve Confucian ethics.
When discussing the aesthetics of Taoism, Mr. Cheng pointed out the aesthetics of Confucianism. First of all, he summed up the Taoist viewpoint with "human appearance is empty". He believes that Taoism completely denies Confucian humanism by "denying man" (denying benevolence, denying culture and denying man's basis). After Taoism denies everything, it must have its own new demands. The aesthetic return of Taoism to "the realm of heaven and earth" and "heaven and earth people" is reflected in the aesthetic realm of "Tao is a thing, only vaguely indifferent" and also an aesthetic realm of "experience", which is reflected in the aesthetic ideal of "indifferent to infinity, all beauty follows", thus establishing the aesthetic system of Taoism. Its "three abandon three essence", "embrace elements, less selfishness and less desire" lies in returning to nature, "removing metaphysics", reaching an unconscious state, conforming to heaven and "doing nothing without doing anything" The beauty of Taoism lies in "inaction" and "nature", that is, the beauty of freedom and freedom. Things, people, thoughts and words are not beautiful. The so-called "elephant is invisible, its voice is loud, and its way is hidden and nameless".
The practical aesthetics of "self-denial and courtesy" and "using things to hide things" of Confucian aesthetics maintain the possibility of social practice by restricting individual sensibility, thus achieving a harmonious aesthetic ideal. Taoist aesthetics achieves an aesthetic ideal of "heaven" by denying everything of human beings, that is, defeating everything of human beings. Their final destination is an ideal free kingdom. The ideal of Confucianism and Taoism is to seek a way out for reality, and the result is the same goal, which is the rejection of individual sensibility and the denial of "being human". Confucianism defines human as "benevolence" and Taoism defines human as "nature". The former denies realistic people by ethics, while the latter brings people into nature and denies their essential attributes.