Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 1, 2023

An Exploration of Wang Guowei’s Thought on Aestheticism: With a Discussion on the Origin of Modern Chinese Aesthetics

(Abstract)

Chen Jianlan

Modern Chinese aesthetics emerged during the late Qing and early Republic of China. The shift from the old culture to the new focused on li ren (becoming an autonomous person). The word ren does not refer to people in traditional patriarchal and ethical relationships but to individual subjectivity in the modern sense. At the beginning of the 20th century, Wang Guowei was fascinated by early German philosophical aestheticism and actively introduced the aesthetic thought of Kant, Schiller, Schopenhauer, etc. to China. He tried to connect these Western ideas with traditional Chinese aesthetic experience and to use empiricist concepts to criticize the social problems of his day. Wang Guowei’s aesthetic exploration of subjective agency was the true beginning of modern Chinese aesthetics, and the framework he constructed for aesthetic idealism, artistic ontology and aesthetic education has had a significant impact on later aesthetic studies. The Neo-Confucian idea of aestheticizing the spirit of traditional Chinese culture in the 1930s and 1940s can be traced back to Wang Guowei’s early writings. Over the past hundred years, although studies of Chinese literature and art have been caught up in the debate between autonomy and heteronomy, we have seen a lasting concern for human nature and humanity from the aesthetic standpoint. Today, as we examine the origin of modern Chinese aesthetics and its evolution from the perspective of conceptual history, we do so not only to clarify its origin but also to renew humanistic thinking in aesthetics.