探詢孔子的生活美學並尋繹其對通識教育工作者之啟示

What Confucius's Life Aesthetics Inspire General Educators

過往許多人解讀孔子言論、思想，都做了錯誤的解釋，只是文言翻白話罷了，根本不明瞭孔子；孔子之思想、個性、情操，乃至愛好等等咸有其主軸，並且「一以貫之」，其出處行藏處處充滿了美感。歷經兩千五百多年，欲探得孔子之真面目、真精神，洵非易事。孔子之人品風範是當今知識份子之典範，要如何方能「不失真」地精彩描繪孔子之生活，呈現孔子的整體形象，以見其真貌、真精神？除了充分的文獻解析之外，尚要進行「掃霧」的工作，掃除歷代以來被扭曲、誤解之處；復次，要掌握孔子的「生命基調」，在解析其行徑、言論時，庶幾可免於偏差，相信能深層契入孔子之生活與精神。孔子嘗言：「七十而從心所欲，不踰矩。」經由學思、教學、仕途、旅遊，厚實了他生活的情操及生活的藝術，體察、塑造了詩意的人生觀，讓他更具超越凡俗的能力，提昇了生命的層次，不論外在境遇如何，悉能適應造化而漸不受影響，並常有美感心境之體現。孔子是已達審美最高境界的人，也是人格完善的人，他已將情感力量轉化為高尚行為；由感性的人成為審美的人，再轉成理性的人。本文擬經由多面向論證孔子重視美的感知，其生活中咸是美的呈現，本文並將尋繹、爬梳孔子生活美學之質素，整理出對通識教育工作者之重要啟示，希能使通識教育工作者幡然自省並思改圖、效仿，以提昇靈性、感性、直覺的層面，豐富其生命經驗，並將美的感知融入教育活動之中，使學生也能達到美感敏銳化，內心獲得淨化，與人為善，與人同美。

There used to be many false interpretations of Confucian discourses and thoughts because those are simply translations from literarily classical Chinese into modern use without taking into account his own thinking, personality, sentiment as well as his preferences. All of Confucian thoughts are, in fact, fraught with sense of aesthetics. It is not an easy task to make a comprehensive survey of Confucius, who lived two thousand five hundred years ago. How could we people, living many generations later, understand such a unique person, whose moral quality is the paragon of modern intelligentsia? How could we represent his true image and spirits? First, scholars should do defogging, which unravels and clears misconceptions that have existed for a long time, in addition to literature review in full measure. Next, mastering Confucius's keynote of life prevents doing researches on him from being irrelevant. Thus we can make more sense of Confucius's spiritual life. Confucius once said, ’When I am seventy, I can do whatever I want but just don't violate any rules.’ By means of academic thinking, teaching, doing public service, or travelling, he enhances his noble sentiment, develops his unique arts of life, shapes his own poetic philosophy, and enables him to transcend the secular without being affected by the circumstances. That is how he cultivates his aesthetic state of mind. Confucius, who has reached the highest level of appreciating beauty and who has perfect personality himself, has transformed human emotions into lofty conduct. He has also became from a perceptual man to a person who appreciates beauty and then to a rational person. This study aims to prove, from different aspects of Confucius's life, that he places importance on sense of aesthetics and that his life was actually an embodiment of aesthetics. This research also investigates Confucius's aesthetic elements which inspire general educators. This helps general educators improve and elevate their spiritual, perceptual, and instinctual beings. Their life experiences will be enriched and their new understanding of aesthetics should help them refresh teaching activities, sharpen their students' sense of aesthetics and ultimately purify the inner minds.