Abstract:

This essay, by way of the review and summary of the history and its lessons in research for beauty both in China and in the West, gives a revelation of the difference between beauty and ugliness, which depends basically on pleasure or affliction. In the human system, pleasure can be divided into organic pleasure, sensory pleasure and centrum pleasure, of which only the latter two determine the pleasure of beauty. While the object of sensory pleasure constitutes formal beauty, the object of centrum pleasure constitutes connotative beauty. Different from formal beauty, which is free beauty, connotative beauty involves in truth and goodness. For formal beauty, aesthetic effect and aesthetic frequency are inversely; and for connotative beauty, aesthetic effect and aesthetic frequency are proportional. The overall beauty of things is determined by its connotative beauty. The rule of beauty reflects in seeking beauty in the form of universal pleasant, and in seeking beauty from truth or goodness.

Key words: connotative beauty, aesthetic features, rule of beauty, beauty, pleasure, formal beauty