Yu, Yih-hsien. "The Philosophical Aesthetics in the Book of Changes." (The 4th Annual International Oriental Aesthetics Conference, 2003): 1-18.  

Abstract

The Book of Changes is one of the Six Classics passed down by the ancient Chinese more than two and a half millennia ago, and the one with the greatest philosophical import.  The purpose of the book was not aesthetics, but metaphysical; it attempted to offer an all-embracing guideline for our understanding of the universe and human life as a whole.  From the stand point of the authors of the book, the universe is a space-time continuum where all wonders and miracles take place, and nature is a living organism in which myriad things coexist harmoniously with in the creative process.  The authors also hold a pan-realist view of axiology. Which suggests that everything in the universe has its place in the hierarchy of value systems according to its real essence, its characteristics, and its functions.  With all this the authors present a humanistic worldview.  They make human beings one of the Triadic Calibers of the Universe, the other two being Heaven and Earth.  As they witness the cosmic process, there is always something new emerging, and things are always being generated, changing, becoming, enduring and perishing by the joint work of "Heaven and Earth" (a concrete term for nature).  Nature by itself is a creative process and man's place in nature is to participate in this process by introducing civilization and cultures into the world without violating the principles of comprehensive harmony.  It is evident that the cosmological, axiological, and humanistic outlook assumed by the authors of the Book of Changes has presented a philosophical aesthetic that is worthy of our attention, for it not only reflects the classical aesthetic thought of the ancient Chinese but also dominates the later development of Chinese aesthetics, which conceives the notions of intentional images, vitality, lively rhythm, miraculous performance, spiritual freedom, and comprehensive harmony as the basic categories of aesthetics.  Its significant influences can also be seen in the renowned work of Liu Hsieh (465-520) of the South Dynasty, Carving the Dragon with a Literacy Mind, the first systematic aesthetic work in Chinese literature.  The present paper is an attempt to inquire into the philosophical aesthetics in the Book of Changes by exploring its basic elements in cosmology, ontology, and axiology, i.e. the principles of temporality and process, of creativity and novelty, of Three Calibers, and of organism and harmony, and their implications in aesthetics.  The issues of the essence and the form of beauty will also be discussed here, in relation to references thereto in the text of the book and, chiefly, in its companion, Carving the Dragon with a Literary Mind.