The Establishment of “Aesthetics” Discipline in Modern China: From “Poetry and Prose” to “Fine Arts/Aesthetics”

Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.2, 2018

 The Establishment of “Aesthetics” Discipline in Modern China: From “Poetry and Prose” to “Fine Arts/Aesthetics”

 (Abstract)

He Changsheng

As a modern independent discipline in China, “aesthetics” is neither a pure “imported product” under Western influence nor a continuation of Chinese traditional scholarship, but a new discipline developed under the cultural blending between China and Western countries. The differentiation and transformation of “the study of poetry and prose” (cizhangxue) in the late Qing Dynasty became the academic basis for the establishment of “aesthetics” as a discipline. The introduction of Western “knowledge” constructed its theoretical framework, and the “perceptual experience” of Chinese traditions added sufficient vitality to the emerging discipline. The course of the birth of the discipline of “aesthetics” can provide positive support and inspiration for the reconstruction of the knowledge system “Chinese aesthetics.”