Abstract
In the study of contemporary Chinese aesthetics,there are two main traditions:one is the classical tradition formed over thousands of years,and the other is the modern tradition that was started by Wang Guowei in the early part of the last century.Both are equally important,but the former maintains a strictly Chinese character.Therefore,if one attempts to assert the unique contribution of Chinese aesthetics to the contemporary world,the study of the classical tradition will be decisive.However,it is inherently difficult to observe Chinese history from an aesthetic point of view,because in the Chinese indigenous system of knowledge classification,one must reckon with a vast array of transmitted texts each with their own traditions of study and exegesis,including the Six Classics and the Four Categories.However,these writings give no clear conception of a modern understanding of aesthetics.Thus,the modern study of Chinese history including aesthetics,is mostly the product of the reconstruction of Chinese history in the framework of modern Western disciplinary systems,and it is commonly pursued under the methodology of"theories from the West,materials from China".In so far as foreign knowledge provides the preconditions of modern Chinese humanities,the best way to preserve the Chinese character of Chinese aesthetic history is to weaken these imported disciplinary boundaries by reconciling them in their compatibility with native Chinese methods of knowledge classification,thereby to generate a broad perspective able to adequately manage Chinese history.Therefore,if there is a potential"Aesthetics"in Chinese history,its vision will not only convey the semblance of beauty and art,but it will also involve many aspects of the Chinese outlook on life,the world,and cosmology as well as actual historical reality,since even Chinese philosophy is understandable as a kind of Aesthetics in a broad sense.In other words,its presence in Chinese history covers all regions,not so much as a discipline but as a way of looking at the world and its actual practices.It can be expected that the vast aesthetic resources make the study of Chinese aesthetic history an endless undertaking.At the same time,it provides new possibilities for China to establish its own aesthetic rules and even"overtake on the curve".This would entail a process that accepts the rules given by the West,but using them to further develop and promote new rules based on our own historically aesthetic experience.This can easily lead to two results:on the one hand,aesthetics becomes the basis for all traditional humanities because it describes the universal experience of the Chinese,which provides a historical basis for aesthetic education as a liberal education;on the other hand,aesthetics is bound to lose its narrowly basic definition because of its"infinite range".Hence,it can be merged with the general history of civilization or cultural history.In this regard,it may be necessary to distinguish two sorts of aesthetics at play in Chinese history:one is core and internal(closely bound to beauty and art),and the other is outwardly extensing,as suggested by the idea that"the center is clear,the edges are blurred".
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