具身的美与赋予的美：来自汉字字形审美的行为与fMRI实验证据

Based on the previous literatures, we argue that Chinese characters can be classified into two categories, i.e., characters referred to concrete objects and abstract social meaning. Then, we proposed an integrated hypothesis: the embodied natural and social endowed beauty hypothesis, to resolve the theoretical controversies in the explanation of the nature and origination of beauty. The basic ideas of this hypothesis argue that the generation of Chinese characters are delineated according to shapes of natural objects or formatted according to the corresponding social meaning. Based on the viewpoint of embodied cognition, when Chinese characters referred to concrete objects, the aesthetic judgments of the corresponding font structures were mainly depending on the aesthetic qualities of the referential objects, that is, beauty has its corresponding morphological characteristics. For Chinese characters referred to abstract social meaning, the aesthetic judgments were affected by the positive degree of their referring meaning, which is accordance with “what is good is beauty, and bad is ugly”. Behavioral research methods and neurocognitive techniques (functional magnetic resonance image, fMRI) will be used to get converging evidences to support the embodied natural and social endowed beauty hypothesis. Two series of studies will be carried out to systematically testify the rationality of the hypothesis. The first part of the studies is about the mental and neural mechanism of the aesthetic appraisal for concrete Chinese characters (simplified and ancient Chinese characters) by using explicit and implicit aesthetic judgment task, priming paradigm, and social learning and judgment technique. The second part used Chinese characters referred to abstract social meaning to investigate the corresponding mental and neural mechanism of aesthetic appraisal, and the differences between aesthetic appraisal of concrete and abstract Chinese characters..The present study provides a preliminary psychological interpretation of the origination of the beauty of Chinese characters referring to natural objects and social meaning, and integrates the theoretical controversies of aesthetic psychology between “beauty and ugly has its corresponding morphological characteristics” and “what is good is beauty, and bad is ugly”. Therefore, it is a breakthrough in the theoretical explanations of beauty.

在充分回顾以往文献基础上，本研究将汉字区分为指代具体客体与指代抽象意义两种类型，提出基于汉字字形的具身美与赋予美假设。该假设指出，由于汉字的产生主要基于具体客体的描摹与基于对应的社会意义进行人为规定与构造两条途径，因此，在具身认知的理论背景下，当汉字作为一种视觉符号进行审美判断时，对指代具体客体的汉字字形的审美判断应该受到其指代客体的美观程度的影响，即美丑应该各有其形；而对指代抽象意义的汉字字形审美判断，则应该受到其表征意义的积极程度的影响，即好的就是美的，坏的就是丑的。基于以上假设，本研究运用行为与认知神经科学研究技术，以指代不同美观程度客体和指代不同社会意义的汉字（现代汉字与古汉字）为研究材料，对汉字字形具身美与赋予美假设的合理性进行系统验证。.本研究不仅揭示了汉字字形美感的起源问题，而且解决了“美丑各有其形”还是“美的就是好的”审美心理的重大争论，实现了理论的创新与突破。

通过对以往研究结果的分析与思考，在结合前人研究的基础上，本项目提出了基于汉字字形的自然具身美与社会赋予美假设。为了对该假设进行验证，本项目根据汉字产生的两条主要途径：基于具体客体的描摹和基于对应的社会意义进行人为规定与构造，将汉字区分为具体指代和抽象指代两种类型。来自行为与功能磁共振成像的结果发现，对指代具体客体的汉字字形审美判断受到其指代客体的美观程度的影响，即“美丑各有其形”；自然具身美产生的突出标志是奖赏机制OFC与运动皮层的激活。对指代抽象意义的汉字字形审美判断而言，则受到其表征意义的积极程度的影响，即“好的就是美的，坏的就是丑的”；社会赋予美产生的突出标志是初级奖赏机制壳核的激活。另外，本项目通过采用与汉字具有线型同构性的建筑空间和同时具备自然特征与社会意义的面孔作为材料，进一步对该假设的合理性进行了系统的验证。