(Studies in Ethnic Literature) 1983
This article examines aesthetic consciousness among the Naxi people as reflected in Dongba scripture texts. It first explores Naxi concepts of natural beauty, showing how religious "texts" express admiration for nature—sun, moon, flowers, and clouds—while mountains, formed effortlessly by nature, are considered the highest aesthetic object among lifeless things. Among living creatures, the tiger is deemed most beautiful, its patterned markings mythologically bestowed by a sacred crow in exchange for meat, with each pattern carrying symbolic meanings (marital happiness, fertility, harvest, victory) linking natural beauty to social values. The article then discusses Naxi perceptions of human beauty, rooted in origin myths where white and jade-green colors signify beauty while black signifies ugliness. Male beauty is associated with physical stature, female beauty with facial charm, both bestowed by deities—heavenly gods governing male strength, earthly gods governing female loveliness—reflecting gendered aesthetic-religious beliefs still echoed in Naxi/Mosuo folklore about goddesses controlling women's fertility and appearance.
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