Engagement with Beauty in Hong Kong

Throughout the course of Western history philosophers have argued for the centrality and importance of (see review in Diessner, Parsons, Solom, Frost, & Davidson, 2008). However, aesthetics and are highly valued in many, if not all, cultures (Brown, 1991, 2000), and as the positive psychologists Haidt and Keltner (2004) have written, every' culture has standards of beauty... (p. 550), albeit, those standards have great variation across cultures. Indeed, the great philosopher of the East,Confucius, put forward the idea of integrating and goodness, cultivating goodness from beauty (Ames, 2010, p. 25). particular, we are interested in four kinds of beauty: natural beauty, artistic beauty, beautiful ideas, and especially moral (which is combination of inner and the of virtuous behavior).Confucian scholars have explicitly related the moral of human character to harmony in the home and order in the nation. Myers (2000), in his American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty, attributes the following to the Confucian Book of Rites:If there be righteousness in the heart,there will be in the character.If there be in character,there will be harmony in the home.If there be harmony in the homethere will be order in the nation.If there be order in the nation,there will be peace in the world, (p. 23 5)And in Mencius, it is recorded:Confucius said: ?It is the degree of humaneness in village that determines its beauty. If you choose not to abide in humaneness, how will you ever attain wisdom?' (6A:7); again showing the importance of moral in traditional Chinese philosophy. it also notes the importance of natural beauty: Mencius said, The greenery on Niu Mountain was once beautiful, but since it was near large city, it was attacked by lumberjacks. How could it retain its beauty (6A:8)?In regard to musical/artistic beauty, Confucius is recorded in Analects as stating, The Master said of the Shao music, 'It is thoroughly beautiful and thoroughly good' (3.25).Beauty, especially in the guise of the concept glory, has been an important concept in the sacred religious texts of both the East and the West. Note that glory and have much conceptual overlap in sacred texts; the Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary (Gove, 1993) statesglory: 4a(l): great or splendor (p. 967). text that has been highly influential in China, the Buddhist Dhammapada (Buddha, ca. 300BCE/1993), it is written At all times, by day and by night, the Buddha shines in his glory [great (Ch. 26, n. p.). the Bhagavad-Gita (Arjuna, ca. 3U00BCE/2UUU) of Hinduism is -written, Fain would I see, as thou Thyself declar'st it, Sovereign Lord! likeness ofthat glory [great beauty] of Thy Form wholly revealed. O Thou Divinest One (Ch. ll,n.p.)! From the Psalms of Judaism, Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the of holiness (Bible, 29:2, KJY). InChristianity, And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory [great beauty], the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth (Bible, 1:14, KJV, ca. 50CE/n.d.). From the Muslim Qur'an (Muhammad, ca. 63UCE/20UU), And he said, 'Truly do I love the love of good, with view to the glory [great beauty] of my Lord' (38:32). the Baha'i Seven valleys (Baha'u'llah, ca. 1860CE/1978), In every face, he seeketh the of the Friend (P-7).The psychology of appreciation of beautyCosta & McCrae (1992) have framed openness to aesthetics as specific trait within the broader trait of openness to experience, and describe it as, a deep appreciation for and beauty. They are moved by poetry, absorbed in music, and intrigued by art (p. 17). this trait tradition, and following the lead of Peterson and Seligman (2004; cf. …