Transforming Social Traditions: A Proposition in the Ancient Chinese Aesthetic Ideology

In the ancient Chinese society, transforming social traditions was a subject of political instruction to which both the rulers and the thinkers paid much attention at all times. The development of this proposition in the Chinese aesthetical history underwent four phases as follows:In the pre-Qin Dynasty, based on the theory of evil humanity, Xun Zi insisted that music should make the most of its natural feelings and harmony to avoid the limitation that the ritual introduction laid special stress on changing humanity by compulsion. Xun Zi, taking music as an aesthetic ideology, brought forward the ideological proposition of transforming social traditions.At the turn of the Qin and the Han Dynasty, the proposition developed into the Confucian classical theory of music in Yue Ji (On Music), and its ideological characteristic became more prominent theoretically. At the same time, the proposition was modified and explained afresh by virtue of Taoism in Lv Shi Chun Qiu (The Spring and Autumn Annals of Mr. Lv) and Huai Nan Zi.(Writings of Prince Huainan).In the Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu put forward his universe view of harmony between man and nature, as well as his theological teleology of Heaven/Man communion. He exaggerated and intensified the functions of ritual and musical introductions, especially musical, which gave rise to the prevailing prophecy and superstition in the last year of the Western Han Dynasty. The proposition of transforming social traditions was correspondingly theologized. Therefore, the rulers could seek unity ideologically with the help of the theological power. Bai Hu Tong (Comprehensive Discussions in the White Tiger Hall) was the code formulated by the rulers of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Wherein, the proposition of transforming social traditions was regarded formally as a piece of policy of literature and art, and became an official ideological proposition. The intensification of its ideology turned gradually to the acme.In the Three Kingdoms period and the Jin Dynasty, Ji Kang advocated the Taoist theory of natural humanity and pointed out that music only took harmony as it was. Music can naturally change the customs of people through purifying individual feeling gradually with no purpose, no god, and no decree from the central government. As a matter of fact, Ji Kang's musical theory weakened the ideology of the proposition of transforming social traditions.To sum up, the development of this proposition in the aesthetic history generally shows the basic image of the theory of the aesthetic ideology from the early ancient times to the middle ancient times.