What are the characteristics and contributions of Tang and Song Dynasties in China's aesthetic system?

What is beauty? This is a very mysterious topic: because the honey of A is the arsenic of B, different times, different regions and different people have different criteria for judging beauty. For example, in recent years, some history lovers have analyzed that history is actually a dark woman. According to wuyue's aesthetic standards, stone is a beauty, but in the eyes of contemporary people, stone is not beautiful.

Between the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, the difference was only fifty-three years. However, in the past 53 years, the differences between the Tang and Song Dynasties have made people feel as if they were separated from each other. Because the gap between Tang and Song Dynasties is too great, for example, in terms of aesthetics, the aesthetics of Tang Dynasty is mainly elegant, while that of Song Dynasty is mainly minimalist. The aesthetics of Tang and Song Dynasties have their own merits, which can be called two parallel flowers of China's aesthetics.

The elegance of Tang dynasty

According to Dunhuang frescoes and other related materials, most of the beauties in the Tang Dynasty were slightly fat, and the elegance of ladies dominated the aesthetics of the people in the Tang Dynasty. This aesthetic orientation influenced the aesthetic concept of the whole Tang Dynasty.

For example, the paintings in the Tang Dynasty are mainly based on materials, and the theme is mainly ladies' paintings. In such paintings, the ladies of the Tang Dynasty often give people a plump impression. Moreover, the makeup of these ladies is mainly pearls and jade. Even in the Tang Dynasty, this kind of decoration was regarded as the standard. For example, there is a description in Tang poetry: when a beauty washes and dresses, her hair is covered with pearls. (From Fu Guiqu) Moreover, almost all the ladies in the pictures of ladies in the Tang Dynasty have an elegant temperament and demeanor. This temperament and grace can touch people's hearts and souls through the back of the paper.

In terms of hue, the paintings in the Tang Dynasty are also dominated by red and green. This artistic habit not only affects painting, but also affects related fields such as porcelain. Tang Sancai, for example, is a model. After all, red meant wealth in the Tang Dynasty. Red and green undoubtedly make people feel atmospheric and noble.

Zhou Dunyi, a poet in the Song Dynasty, mentioned in The Love Lotus that people in the Tang Dynasty loved peony very much. Because peony itself has elegant attributes. The love for peony just reflects the elegant aesthetic tendency of the Tang people.

In terms of music, the typical music of the Tang Dynasty is "Qin Wang Broken Array Music" and "Colorful Feathers". Although the former gives people the feeling of longing for death, the latter gives people a beautiful and gentle idea. However, these two kinds of music have one thing in common: high-end and atmospheric, which is also the embodiment of grace. After all, only the graceful atmosphere of the Tang Dynasty society can lead to music like "The King of Qin breaks the array" and "Colorful Feathers".

There is a theory about the emergence of aesthetics: aesthetics is closely related to life. The reason why people in the Tang dynasty take graceful and restrained as the main tone in aesthetics. Mainly lies in two points:

First of all. The national strength of Datang is far stronger than that of any previous dynasty: neither Qin and Han dynasties nor Wei and Jin dynasties can be compared with the strength of Datang. Under the background of strong national strength, the elites (nobles) in the Tang Dynasty often have a much higher style than those in the previous dynasty. Because of the unprecedented national self-confidence (after all, the Tang Dynasty is a country from all corners of the country), in this atmosphere, the aesthetics of the Tang Dynasty nobles will also tend to be elegant. Moreover, because the Tang Dynasty absorbed the artistic achievements of Qiuci and other western countries, these artistic atmosphere also influenced the aesthetics of the nobles in the Tang Dynasty to a certain extent, which also made the aesthetics of the Tang people tend to be graceful rather than monotonous to a certain extent.

In a word, the aesthetics of Tang people is the product of Tang society and times.

Simplicity in Song Dynasty

The aesthetics of the Song Dynasty is quite different from that of the Tang Dynasty. Song people's aesthetic pursuit of minimalist style.

In terms of painting, most of the paintings of Song people are ink paintings, which are characterized by drawing landscapes in black and white. Although ink painting is mainly black and white, it is also unique in artistic achievements. In addition, the porcelain works of Song people are mainly monochrome. The achievement of Song porcelain is even slightly better than that of Tang Sancai.

Even the most popular architectural lamp of the Great Song Emperor, its color tone is very monotonous. However, the more monotonous, the more aesthetic features of minimalism can be displayed.

Therefore, the paintings and porcelain of Song people give people the impression that they are approachable on the basis of minimalism. This is different from the graceful aesthetics of the Tang Dynasty. The aesthetics in Tang Dynasty makes people feel rich, while the aesthetics in Song Dynasty makes people feel peaceful.

In addition, the landscape painting in Song Dynasty gives people a sense of oppression. But more landscape paintings are from the perspective of civilians, giving people a more subtle feeling.

In terms of music, the representative music works in Song Dynasty are folk music systems. This is an unprecedented product in the history of China. No matter the music of Han and Tang dynasties, its representatives are emperors and nobles, while the music of Song Dynasty is mainly citizen music. And the characteristics of citizen music can also be reflected to some extent? Minimalism? Attribute, after all, civic culture is much simpler than aristocratic culture.

In literature, the poems of Song people are different from those of Tang people in subject matter. For example, the poems and songs in the Tang Dynasty often take grandeur as the main style, especially frontier poems. The poems of Song people are often based on their own chanting. For example, the words of Liu Yong and Li Qingzhao are typical. But compared with Tang poetry, Song poetry pays more attention to some delicate emotional descriptions.

In fact, there is a huge gap between the aesthetics of the Song people and that of the Tang Dynasty, mainly because there is a huge gap between the Tang and Song societies.

In the Tang Dynasty, the discourse and dominance of aesthetics were in the hands of nobles. According to the "History of the Old Five Dynasties", in the later Tang Dynasty, Feng Dao, the prime minister of the latter Tang Dynasty, was also ridiculed by the lower-level bureaucrats who came from a well-known family because of his poor family. It is not difficult to see that the concept of family status still had some residual consciousness at least in the early years of the Five Dynasties, and the scene in the Tang Dynasty can be imagined. The aesthetics dominated by nobles, coupled with the powerful national strength and obedience of the four foreigners in the Tang Dynasty, formed the high-end, graceful and atmospheric aesthetics in the Tang Dynasty.

In the Song Dynasty, after five dynasties and ten kingdoms wars, the right to speak was completely lost, and the imperial examination system was really implemented, making it very easy for civilians to realize class transition through the imperial examination. Therefore, the scholar-bureaucrat class is gradually dominated by children of civilian origin. On the other hand, the formation of civil society also gives people a certain right to speak. In this context, the aesthetics of the Song Dynasty dominated by civilians came into being.

In addition, due to the constant border troubles in the Song Dynasty, this frustration also affected the aesthetics when literati created works of art such as calligraphy and painting. Therefore, many works of art in the Song Dynasty often give people a desolate beauty, which also affects the aesthetic concept of minimalism in the Song Dynasty to some extent.

Graceful atmosphere has the advantages of graceful atmosphere, minimalism and exquisiteness. Therefore, there is no difference between aesthetics in Tang Dynasty and aesthetics in Song Dynasty. The aesthetics of Tang and Song Dynasties can be called two wonderful flowers of China's aesthetics.