2.Origin and Evolvement of Aesthetics in Qualities and Related Chinese Characters

The ancient people valued virtues more than appearance.As Tang Junyi once said，“The most beautiful thing in the universe is the beauty of the virtue”. And Zhang Yanyan once said，“Beauty is defined as the natural way in which things exist in the world.It was defined as the natural expression of the truth in life in Taoism and the reflection of good personalities on the appearance in Confucianism.” A lot of legendary sto﹣ries about the ancient emperors such as Yao，Shun and Yu emphasized the“virtues and capabilities”as the primary qualities in the primitive times，so as in the Zhou and Shang Dynasties.In Gao Qiu of The Odes of Zheng of the Book of Songs ，it was chanted again and again that，“His lamb’s fur is glossy，truly smooth and beautiful.That officer，rests in his lot and will not change.His lamb’s fur，with its cuffs of leopard﹣skin，looks grandly martial and strong.That officer，in the country will ever hold to the right.How splendid is his lamb’s fur！How bright are its three ornaments！That officer，is the ornament of the country.”The main idea of this poem is that a man，whose lamb’s fur was as glossy as the oil，was upright and kind.He was such a righteous man that he could even sacrifice his life for his honor.His robe made of the lambs’fur was decorated with leopard﹣skin cuffs，showing that he was a man of power and perseverance.He was in a good position to rule a country properly deserving the title of“the true re﹣spectable man in the country”.His lamb’s fur was clean and glorious，well﹣decorated by three pieces of leopard skins.The poem paid great tributes to an official who was upright，resilient and respectable through praising his cloths and robes.As Li Dahua once said，“The matter of virtues and morals became the common focus of people since the very beginning of the Zhou Dynasty when Emperor Zhou replaced his predecessor.”It resulted from the diminishing effect of“the God”.The rulers in Zhou Dynasty thought that one half of their political legitimacy relied on the God and another half depended on their own virtues.Thus，there was a saying goes like“the God is so impartial that he only offers assistance to those of great virtues”.

However，Hsun Tzu made his point in the article The Nonexistent Connection Between One’s Appearance and Fate in Hsun Tzu that good﹣loo﹣king men were not always reliable，and instead only men of great virtues were truly noble.He said，“In ancient times，emperors Xia Jie and Shang Zhou were both good﹣looking and strong men.They were so powerful that they can even defeat a hundred of people in a war.However，they both ulti﹣mately lost their lives and the country，and were regarded as the most shameful emperors in the whole country.Nowadays，whenever people re﹣ferred to someone as bad，they would set them as examples.Their fate was not exactly determined by the outstanding appearance.It was due to the lack of knowledge of someone who believed in the connection between one’s appearance and fate that such a conclusion of the two’s fate was drew.In today’s world，there are disruptive youngsters in the neighbor，all good﹣looking and fond of being dressed in bizarrely﹣designed clothes，tend to dress themselves and make facial expressions like women.It was be﹣lieved that all women in the world would like to marry this kind of men and no girl in the world would like to have anyone like them as her fiancé.However，there was numerous women out there wanting to elope with them，even discarding their families and relatives，even though the king would not choose them as officials in the court，nor would the elderly brother cherish them as the younger brothers nor would anyone make friends with them.In some cases，this kind of men would be caught by officers and got decapita﹣ted in public.Then all of them started to remorse about their deeds，howling loudly.Again，their fate had nothing to do with what they looked like.It was again up to those who were lack of knowledge and believed in the connection between one’s fate and one’s appearance to draw a conclu﹣sion of their fate.Speaking of which，judging someone by his appearance or by his thinking，which side would you take？”In this article，Hsun Tzu tried to prove the value of“virtues”and“capabilities”with a lot of evidence.His point was：those good﹣looking but immoral men such as Shang Zhou and Xia Jie would be disdained by all the people，since they brought ca﹣lamity to the country and the people；however，those plain﹣looking but vir﹣tuous men like Emperor Xu Yan，Confucius and the Duke of Zhou would enjoy a good fame forever.And it also proved how ridiculous that the ap﹣pearance﹣based fortune﹣telling theory was！

The“Learning of Aesthetics”in the Zhou Dynasty successfully culti﹣vated a lot of noble men with good manners and great knowledge.The rea﹣son why Confucius became the teacher of his generation was that he was a man with an outstanding virtue.A detailed description of such virtue was given in the first essay in Analects of Confucius ，“Our master is benign，up﹣right，courteous，temperate and complaisant and thus he gets his informa﹣tion.” It meant that Confucius enjoyed all these virtues.In Book of Rites ： Meaning of the Ceremony of Capping ，the virtue was mentioned frequently，for example，“The basic standard for a person to be regarded as a grown﹣up is that he knows manners and etiquettes，which means that one must have elegant appearance and figure，good manner and polite conversation…and only when receiving the Confucian capping ceremony and got an official name that one started to be seen as a grown﹣up.”In other words，one can only be regarded as a grown﹣up when he acquired all these virtues men﹣tioned above，attended this ceremony and got an official name.

One’s beauty of virtue originated from the purity and richness of his heart and reflected his deeds，which was the integration of body and mind.Mencius maintained that virtue can be seen from one’s deeds in his daily life，“A noble man’s virtue was rooted in his heart and reflected on his face，extending to his whole body and the body can act good deeds auto﹣matically without being told to do so.”In other words，all the virtues such as kindness，uprightness and manners were all rooted in his heart，reflected on his face and extended to the whole body.

The beauty of virtue in the Pre﹣Qin Era can be classified into two types，and one was that of the rulers and the other was that of the ruled.In a male﹣dominated society，self﹣cultivation，farmily harmony，country man﹣agement and world peace were main pursuits of men.They were even sup﹣posed to pursue“three immortalities”in their lives，including immortalities of his contribution，of his virtue and his commitment.While women were mainly in charge of“domestic affairs”，men needed to demonstrate their exterior power.For men of different classes，they were assessed with differ﹣ent kinds of virtue standards.If the virtue of the ruled class was“obedi﹣ence”，then that of the ruling class was closely related to their majesty and power.At the linguistic level，we can tell how the principle of physical aes﹣thetics was established from changes in the use of some Chinese charac﹣ters.In the Zhou Dynasty，the purpose of the rulers’learning of aesthetics was mainly about“the majesty”and“the order”，represented by such words as wei ， he ， qiang ， ling ， huang ， zhi ， ren ， kuan ， ronɡ ， gonɡ ， jinɡ ， yinɡ ， te ， yan ， xian and yi. And the most important virtue of the ruled，known as“obedience”，was represented by words like wen ， lianɡ ， shun ， conɡ ， ɡonɡ ， jinɡ ， he ， shan ， li ， yonɡ and wu.

In the Han Dynasty，men who looked powerful，acted in good manners and with good virtues were regarded beautiful，while women who were gen﹣tle，calm，polite，humble and frugal were regarded attractive.In the eighth volume of Han Shi Wai Zhuan ，a collection of commentaries based on his﹣toriographical sources collected by Han Ying，the author described the ide﹣al rulers in people’s heart as“someone who was gentle，kind，tolerant，lov﹣ing，impartial and self﹣disciplined and award others rather than punish them”.These were key features of the ideal character of the rulers.In Fa Yan written by Yang Xiong，it said，“What if the sense of rules，virtues，kindness，righteousness and manners were all acquired by one person？The mandate can guide people with the sense of rules，helping them gain a lot by relying on their virtues，treating others with kindness，evaluating things with righteousness and walking in others’shoes with his good manners.It would be complex if the five qualities took effect altogether and meaning﹣less if they got scattered.If a person can acquire four aspects of these qualities，he could be regarded as a holy person！”Dong Zhongshu，the ini﹣tiator of the“telepathy between the mandate and human”，held that the human beings，as the copy of“mandate”，were the most valuable elements in the world in that they not only physically enjoyed the quality of the man﹣date，but also spiritually connected to it.In Bloom in Spring and Autumn ，he said that，“The human body originated from rules of the mandate；the blood transformed into kindness，originated from the will of the mandate；the virtue transformed into righteousness，originated from the rule of the mandate；the things liked and disliked by men originated from warmth and cleanness of the mandate；the joy and anger originated from the hot and cold weather；the task oflife originated from the four seasons in a year.The shifts in men’s emotions，from happiness to anger and from sadness to joy，actually correspond to the changes of seasons in a year，from spring to sum﹣mer and from summer to winter.”He also proved that the human body is related to the celestial phenomena in another article“There are three hun﹣dred and sixtyjoints in human body，which is exactly the number of days in a year；the bones and flesh match the thickness of the land；the vision and hearing are like the sun and moon；and organs are like the valleys，rivers and mountains…the head is round and full，looking exactly like the man﹣date；hairs resemble the stars in the sky；the eyes and ears，with their shapes，echoing to the sun and moon；nose and mouth，which can breathe in and out，can be compared to winds and clouds；everything can be stored in mind and heart，which symbolizes the wisdom of mandate.”And he e﹣ven offered specific aesthetic standards for each part in human body，“The nature，in which the celestial and earthen events take place，can take the waist as the belt.Above the neck，the spirit in the head，like the mandate，is lofty and majestic；below the neck，there is the chest，like the soil，is rich and humble.The feet on the ground are as square as the land.”In other words，the body parts above the neck should remain energetic and respect﹣ful；the parts below the neck shall keep humble and rich；and the feet should stand firm on the ground.During this period of time，representative characters were ya ， ren ， ai ， ci ， conɡ ， min ， shen （深）， chen ， zhonɡ ， jin ， yan ， shen （慎）， qian ， xian ， yu and xiao.

As for women’s beauty of virtue，quiet，soft and obedient women were regarded as the most beautiful in traditional culture which upheld the quality of“three obedience and four virtues”.In Book of Songs ，some ad﹣jectives such as“elegant”“quiet”“calm”and“educated”were used to praise women，which exemplified the aesthetic standard then.For instance，there was a sentence saying，“Noble men tend to chase beautiful and ele﹣gant women.” Book of Rites ： Pattern of the Family mentioned how women were educated and cultivated to be obedient to men.Women were taught to be“obedient and gentle”.What they learnt were“women﹣specific affairs”such as cooking，sewing，knitting and dealing with the daily chores at home.Women then never took a single step in the outside of their own house，not to mention go to school.Their daily routine was learning about“women’s virtue”“women’s appearance”“women’s way of talking”and“women’s contribution”from the elders or their nannies.They never had access to education of manners，music，reading and writing or mathematics.They didn’t have any right to“learn the knowledge”or“take on an official job”，too.They became grown﹣up when they turned fifteen and shall marry someone when turned twenty.Their main duty after marrying someone was to take care of in﹣laws and the domestic chores.On some important occa﹣sions such as the sacrifice ceremonies，they could show up only as service staff instead of directly taking part in the ceremony，preparing the liquor，pickles and meat for the ceremony.Against this background，even noble women such as daughters of the officials or even the empresses themselves could only play a supportive role，obediently and humbly，as the“models”in the society.The representative words were nü ， rou ， jinɡ ， shu ， mei ， wan ， zhen and qin .Since the beauty of virtues of both men and women in the Wei and Jin Dynasties was exactly the same as that in the Pre﹣Qin Era and the Han Dynasty，I will not elaborate on that.