Jikang, in his own theory of music, takes music as nature itself, and does not regard the origin of music as standing beyond the natural world. On the contrary he searches for the foundation of music’s existence within nature world. Essentially, through the medium of music properly understood and in unison with nature with other things, human beings experience the utmost joy of spiritual value, namely joy of no music (wuyue). In order to savor this joy and attain ultimate beauty, a judgment of value of right and wrong should be forgone. The view which so highlights a transcendent union with nature actually runs parallel to the Confucianism’s emphasis on ethical consciousness as something that encompasses aesthetic consciousness rooted in value judgments of right and wrong. Daoist music is separated from magicalism, historical facts, secular emotions and so forth and thus secures its own ontological sphere and remains a form of nature. When one hears music as such, aesthetic consciousness becomes feasible. The imortance of music is not placed under philosophy and politics but now claims its own sphere and comes to guarantee its own space. At this moment, value of music is no longer instrumentalized and thus takes on its own teleology and an independent set of standards.
Now music has to possess its own existential meaning as a harmonious sound of natural world in order to further its self-creation in the dynamism of nature. When human consciousness reveals the dynamics that are at the root of its own natural existence, it can fulfill its freedom and in so doing can be created. In the place where human nature and nature’s internal forces have a common ground and in communication with each, the human mind is spirited and elastic. As human beings come to enjoy this natural character and the nature in themselves, they become free and beautiful. The harmonious sound that reveals and draws upon the natural beauty of humans is musical art. The purpose of art is to break out of the bondage of the feelings and afflictions engendered by emotions and reach the unlimited freedom of the mind.
The significance of the proposition that artistic experience can help to produce the free mind lies in criticizing and doubting the boundary of existing values while at the same time elevating our minds to a broader horizon that is no longer encumbered by present limitations. Jikang logically criticizes the Confucianist premises that purport to incorporate the sounds of music whose nature is based in natural world into the Confucianist order. He thus abandons the political and instrumentalist function of musical art. He observes that one individual is internally connected with others, but he also envisions a new subject’s consciousness to be further developed spontaneously. True art has to make possible the creation of the consciousness of the free subject. No