柏拉图：艺术是距离现实的第三重模仿 Plato: Art is Imitation That is Three Steps Removed from Reality

有人说西方哲学是对柏拉图的一系列的注解。柏拉图对西方文化的影响无疑是十分巨大，包括对艺术与艺术理论的巨大影响。

柏拉图发展了他的两个世界观的现实：不断改变的物质世界与永恒与不变的理念世界。理念世界是绝对、独立、理性与超越的。理念世界永远不变，是我们所看到的物质世界的主要自然事物的因。

美、公正与圆圈都是柏拉图的形式或理念的例子。很多个别的事物都具有圆圈、公正或美的形式。对柏拉图而言，这些形式是完美的理想，它们同时比客观物体更为真实。他称它们为‘真正的实在’。世界上的物质现象的实在只能限于它们对真实世界的模仿。

在柏拉图看来，不断变换的物质世界是完美、理性、永恒、不变的本质世界的劣等腐朽模仿本。美丽的花朵、夕阳、音乐或情爱都不过是美丽理念的不完美模仿品。在这个现象不断改变的世界，你可能有机会捕捉到醉人心弦的完美的短暂一刻，但是它必然会消失。它只是永恒的完美的线索。

艺术是模仿。但是，模仿什么？艺术模仿日常生活里的事与物。就是说，艺术作品是理念的模仿的模仿。所以它是距离现实的第三重模仿。以画一张床为例，它模仿物质世界里的床，而这物质世界床本身就是理念世界里的床的劣等模仿品，虽然它比艺术床较为好些。只有理念床才真正的存在。

所以，艺术作品比起日常经验更加虚幻。它们充其量不过是娱乐，而在最坏的情况下是危险的妄想。柏拉图关心艺术的认知方面，觉得既然它与真理有数重距离，它有歪曲知识的效果。他提议把诗人与剧作家驱赶出他的理想王国，或至少审查他们所写；同样的，他要求音乐与绘画经过严格的审查。他认为艺术强而有力地塑造个性。所以，为了保护理想社会里的理想公民，艺术应该受到严格的控制。

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It is said that all of Western philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato. Plato's influence on western culture is undoubtedly a very strong one, and this includes a strong influence on the arts, and on theories of art.

Plato developed a two-world view of reality, the changing physical world and the eternal and changeless world of Forms, which is absolute, independent, rational and transcendent. The world of Forms never changes and yet causes the essential nature of things we perceive in the physical world.

Beauty, Justice, and The Circle are all examples of what Plato called Forms or Ideas. Many particular things can have the form of a circle, or of justice, or beauty. For Plato, these Forms are perfect Ideals, but they are also more real than physical objects. He called them the ‘Really Real’. The world of physical appearances only has reality to the extent that it succeeds in imitating the Forms.

Plato saw the changing physical world as a poor, decaying copy of a perfect, rational, eternal, and changeless original. The beauty of a flower, or a sunset, a piece of music or a love affair, is an imperfect copy of the form Beauty itself. In this world of changing appearances, while you might catch a glimpse of that ravishing perfection, it will always fade. It’s just a pointer to the perfect beauty of the eternal.

Art is imitation. But what does it imitate? Art imitates the objects and events of ordinary life. In other words, a work of art is a copy of a copy of a Form. It is therefore three steps removed from reality. A painting of a bed, for example, is the imitation of a bed in the physical world that itself is an imperfect (though less so) imitation of the Form or Idea Bed, which is all that really exists.

Therefore, the works of art are even more of an illusion than are ordinary experience. They are at best entertainment and at worst a dangerous delusion. Plato was also concerned with the cognitive aspect of art, feeling that it has the effect of distorting knowledge since it is several steps removed from truth. He proposed sending the poets and playwrights out of his ideal Republic, or at least censoring what they wrote; and he wanted music and painting severely censored. The arts, he thought, are powerful shapers of character. Thus, to train and protect ideal citizens for an ideal society, the arts must be strictly controlled.

和实生物，同则不继 Harmony is Fecund, Sameness is Barren



Shi Bo 史伯

华人传统和谐的观念指向和而不同。西周末年的思想家史伯与郑国的桓公的一次交谈中谈到西周的衰败时，就很详细的解释了这个看法。这谈话记录在于公元前四世纪所编辑的历史叙事书《国语》中的《郑语》。

今日中国创造和谐社会的努力中，就广泛研究了史伯的看法。史伯的和谐观点强调异而不是同。

下面是史伯给予郑桓公的忠告：

夫和实生物，同则不继。以他平他谓之和，故能丰长而物归之。若以同裨同，尽乃弃矣。

故先王以土与金、木、水、火杂，以成百物。是以和五味以调口，刚四支以卫体，和六律以聪耳，正七体以役心，平八索以成人，建九纪以立纯德，合十数以训百体。出千品，具万方，计亿事，材兆物，收经入，行姟极。故王者居九畡之田以食兆民，取经入以食万官。周训而能用之，和乐如一。夫如是，和之至也。

于是乎先王聘后于异姓，求财于有方，择臣取谏，工而讲以多物，务和同也。声一无听，物一无文，味一无果，物一不讲。

王将弃是类也而与剸同。天夺之明，欲无弊，得乎？

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The Chinese traditional idea of harmony means unity in diversity. This idea was fully elaborated by Shi Bo, a thinker lived in the Western Zhou dynasty in a conversation he had with Duke Huan of the state of Zheng to explain the reason for the decline of Zhou dynasty. This was recorded in the classical book Discourses of States, a collection of historical narratives probably compiled around fourth century BC.

Shi Bo’s idea of harmony, which is extensively studied by China today in their effort to create a harmonious society, underscores the fertility of the kind of harmony that maximizes difference.

Below is the advice given by Shi Bo to Duke Huan:

While harmony is fecund, sameness is barren. Things accommodating each other on equal terms are called blending together in harmony, and in so doing they are able to flourish and grow, and other things are drawn to them. But when same is added to same, once it is used up, there is no more.

Hence, the Former Kings blended earth with metal, wood, fire, and water to make their products. They thereby harmonised the five flavours to satisfy their palate, strengthened the four limbs to protect the body, attuned the six musical notes to please the ear, integrated their seven orifices (senses) to nourish their hearts and minds, coordinated the eight (various) sectors of the body to complete their persons, established the nine main visceral meridians to situate their pure potency, instituted the ten official ranks to organise and evaluate the bureaucracy. This has resulted in having thousand grades of things, producing tens of thousands of ways of doing things, operating billion events, managing tens of billions of financial matters, collecting thousands of billions of tax revenues, working on numerous actions. Therefore the King possesses vast area of land for his subjects to produce food, and collects tax revenue to pay the court officials their remunerations. And harmony and pleasure prevailed to make them as one. To be like this is to attain the utmost in harmony.

In all of this, the Former Kings took their consorts from other clans, required as tribute those products that distinguished each region, and selected ministers and counsellors who would express a variety of opinions on issues, and made every effort to bring things into harmony. There is no music in a single note, no decoration in a single item, no relish in a single taste, no comparison with single thing.

Now the King of Zhou does not accept diversity of ideas, and instead adopts autocratic leadership style that favours telling people what to do. This has led the heaven to deprive him of his intellectual ability (to understand the meaning of harmony). And he still thinks that Zhou will not decay. How is it possible?

子曰：君子和而不同 Confucius Said: The Exemplary Person pursues Harmony, Not Sameness

华人的一个世界的世界观意味着人与自然世界有着直接与紧接关联。人生经验的目的就是要在构成世界的各种不同元素这取得和谐。

和谐与耕耘和谐在古代中国哲学中占了重要的地位。和谐从最具体与眼前开始；就是说，从个人来透视。强调的是有个人之修身为出发点，达到家庭、社会、政治与世界的秩序。

和谐的本质可以烹饪艺术来解释。中国的烹饪要求好的烹饪必须把所有的原料调和，同时要保留每一种原料的颜色、质地与味道。要成为一个好厨师，一定要是个好的安排者。每一种原料的味道都要调和（和谐）。没有调和就没有味道。菜式的颜色与质地的展示要十分重要。

《吕氏春秋》对烹饪艺术如此描述: ‘调和之事，必以甘酸苦辛咸，先後多少，其齐甚微，皆有自起。鼎中之变，精妙微纤，口弗能言，志弗能喻，若射御之微，阴阳之化，四时之数。’

所以，子曰：‘君子和而不同；小人同而不和。’

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The Chinese one-world world view means there is a direct and immediate affinity between the human being and the natural world and the purpose of human experience is to get the most harmony out of the various ingredients that constitute the world.

Harmony and cultivation of harmony therefore occupy a prominent position in Chinese ancient philosophy. The harmony begins from what is most concrete and immediate, i.e. from the perspective of any particular human being. The emphasis is on personal cultivation as a starting point for familial, social, political, and cosmic order.

The nature of harmony is explained by relating it to the culinary arts. The art of Chinese cooking requires that good cooking depends on the blending of various ingredients and at the same time for each ingredient, retains its own colour, texture, and flavour. In order to become a good cook one must first be a good matchmaker. The flavours of the ingredients must be blended with harmony. Without this harmony there is no taste. The use of colour and texture in the presentation of the dish was also stressed.

In Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Lu, the art of cooking described as follows:

‘In combining your ingredients to achieve a harmony, you have to use sweet, sour, bitter, acrid and the salty, and you have to mix them in an appropriate sequence and proportion. Bringing the various ingredients together is an extremely subtle art in which each of them has its own expression. The variations within the cooking pot are so delicate and subtle that they cannot be captured in words or fairly conceptualise. It is much like the fine skill of archery, transformation of yin and yang, and changes of seasons.’

Therefore Confucius said: ‘The exemplary person pursues harmony, not sameness (uniformity).’