Besides being quiet, what does Taoism pay attention to?

Taoism pays attention to self-cultivation and materialism.

The complementarity between Confucianism and Taoism is an ancient topic in the study of China's philosophy history. However, from different angles and different aspects, we can constantly trigger new thinking from this old topic. From the inner, hidden and genetic sense, the complementarity between Confucianism and Taoism has the cultural connotation of both sexes; From the external, open and symbolic sense, Confucianism and Taoism complement each other and have aesthetic functions. For quite a period of time, according to the value orientation of western realism affirmed by Marx and Engels, domestic scholars treated Confucian aesthetics with the tradition of "prosperity, outlook, group and resentment", and advocated that art should interfere with reality and become the mainstream of China classical art; Taoism's thought of "destroying literature and scattering five things, staying away from Zhu Mu" and "plugging ears" is regarded as the countercurrent of cultural nihilism and artistic waste. Recently, mainland scholars, as a vulgar sociological response, echoed the academic circles in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and found the freehand brushwork style and freedom realm that western modernist art dreamed of in Taoist aesthetics, which represented the true spirit of China art; In contrast, the Confucian tradition of "love ends with courtesy and righteousness" is too narrow because of quick success and instant benefit. Admittedly, the above two views have their own reasons, but put together, they are incompatible and conflicting. The crux of the matter is that this either-or attitude can only see the one-sided rationality of Confucianism and Taoism, but can't explain the dialectical relationship between them and their overall role in China's aesthetic history.

Although the relationship between Confucianism and Taoism is quite complicated and can be analyzed by different structural models, the function of Confucianism is mainly to "construct", that is, to provide some orderly, stylized and symbolic rules and habits for China people's aesthetic activities; The function of Taoism is mainly to "deconstruct", that is, to deconstruct the alienation of Confucian aesthetics in the process of construction by interpreting decoration, rules and symbols, so as to maintain its free creative vitality. It is in this constant process of "construction" and "deconstruction" that China's classical aesthetics can develop healthily and continuously, thus creating a miracle in the history of human art.