The Philosophical-Aesthetic Thought of Ancient China on the Unity of Arts: A Daoist Perspective

The subject of this scientific research is the unity and internal correspondence of various types of traditional Chinese art in the context of the philosophical-aesthetic doctrine of Daoism. The work focuses on studying the ontological prerequisites for the syncretism of Chinese national artistic creation, which are determined by the fundamental propositions of the Daoist worldview. Within the scope of the specified subject, the general regularities and universal principles that unify music, poetry, painting, and calligraphy as the main media of Chinese artistic culture are examined in detail. Special attention is devoted to the analysis of inter-artistic isomorphism, its correlation with the holistic cosmology of Daoism, and the concepts of the unity of all existing things in nature. The structure of the research subject also includes the study of the specific characteristics of the functioning of music as a basic ontological model of the universe in the Daoist tradition, the mechanisms for transferring its aesthetic laws to other artistic forms, as well as the connotative content and practical application of key Daoist aesthetic categories that form the general artistic paradigm of Chinese culture. The methodology is based on the philosophical-aesthetic and cultural-historical analysis of classical Daoist and Confucian texts, as well as the comparison of aesthetic categories across different types of art. This is the first comprehensive analysis of the interconnection and isomorphism of various types of art (music, poetry, painting, and calligraphy) from the perspective of Daoist philosophical-aesthetic thought. Previous works in this field were either confined to individual types of art or failed to consider their unity in the context of Daoist ontological foundations, which renders this research original and necessary for deepening the understanding of Chinese artistic culture. In addition, the research has identified key Daoist aesthetic categories – emptiness, non-action, naturalness, gentleness, and simplicity – which are universal to all the analyzed types of art and form a general aesthetic paradigm. These categories determine the specific features of artistic expression in each field, ensuring their internal consistency and syncretism, as well as explaining the uniqueness of Chinese art in the global cultural sphere.