「直覺」與中國文藝美學——由宗白華讀柏格森《創化論》說起

“Intuition” and the Aesthetics of Chinese Literature and Art: On Zong Bai-hua’s Reading of Henri Bergson’s L'évolution créatrice

自1913年柏格森被介紹到中國，藉由《創化論》等著作中譯，以及期刊專號的推助，一時之間關於「直覺（intuition）」、「綿延（duration）」、「真時（concretetime）」的討論蔚為風潮。柏格森的觀點，尤其影響在歐戰與二戰間，反思物質文明的新人生觀，以及中國文藝美學的現代性的論述。
本文以宗白華為線索，討論「直覺」在當時中國學界的論述面向，首先談到精神與物質如一線兩端，如何相互拉鋸而成「生命動勢」；其次探問如何擺脫「描述性科學」，而描述「流動的直覺形式」；進而發現當時古籍與新學聯手，由中國形上學的「生生」之理，尋求貫穿宇宙、生命與藝術之間的「節奏之力」；最後討論中國畫的水墨線描，正是以相對於科學透視、立體寫實的內在而能動的視線，建構屬於中國藝術的現代性。

From 1913 onward, Henri Bergson’s philosophy was introduced into China through the translation of the work L'évolution créatrice as well as some featured reviews in various journals. Within a short period of time several of Bergson’s central concepts- such as intuition, duration and concrete time- quickly became of great intellectual interest. Bergson’s ideas were particularly influential during the interwar period in the formation of a new philosophy of life that emphasized critical reflection on material civilization. His ideas also influenced greatly the construction of aesthetic modernity promoted by Chinese art critics.
This essay will take Zong Bai-hua’s reading of Bergson as a central thread. It will discuss the different perspectives regarding Bergson’s concept of “intuition” that were prominent in Chinese intellectual circles of the time. The first part will be a discussion on how the spiritual and the material are like the two ends of a thread and how the “force of life” is brought into being through a process of wrestling between the two. The next part will be on how it is possible to describe the “the fleeting forms of intuition” without relying on “descriptive science.” The third part tackles the issue of the blending of traditional scholarly works and modern new learning, in which through the auspices of the notion of a “vital” principle that emerges from Chinese meta-physics, a search is made for a “rhythmic force” which runs from the cosmos to our life and our art. To conclude the essay, I will discuss the visual lines of Chinese ink painting, which can be understood as a set of inner active visual lines. As a way of seeing contrary to that developed under a scientific perspective and three-dimensional realism, these lines are arguably the foundation on which Chinese art constructs its modernity.