A Study On Textbooks Of "Aesthetic Principle" Of China In 20th Century

At the beginning of the 20th century,discrete system of university disciplines came into being,so aesthetic research gradually became an independent scientific field. During that time,as a Chinese foreign students' representative,Wang Guo-wei started to advocate opening the aesthetic curriculum in the domestic university,but his dream was just a dream owing to some reasons.When Cai Yuan-pei became the minister of education and president of Beijing University,aesthetic curriculum came to be exerted. Afterwards,Shanghai and Beijing's some universities also started to open aesthetic curriculum,so to write textbooks of "aesthetic principle" which suit the Chinese cultural background was imperative.Under this kind of situation,among the first batch of textbooks of aesthetic principle,there are three books with the same name An Introduction to Aesthetics in 1920s in China.In addition,there were some lecture notes.Although these textbooks have a clear trace of "westernization",but as textbooks,the aesthetic principle's pattern had already preliminary stereotyped during this period.In 1930s and 1940s,due to both internal and external conditions,the preparation of textbooks was very few,such as Zhu Guang-qian's Psychology of Literature and Art,and Cai Yi's New Aesthetics.After 40s, as a result of the time reason,the study of Marxist literary aesthetics has become the mainstream gradually.Under this thought's influence,many of the articles and text books were effected by the political ideology at that time.From the founding to reform and opening-up,these 30 years,was a blank period for aesthetic textbooks.But Wang Zhaowen editor-in-chief of the An Introduction to Aesthetics in the early 60s was published in 1981.After the reform and open policy,under the influence of Marx's Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 ',textbooks of aesthetic principle had the prosperous aspects.Generally speaking,the number of Chinese "Aesthetic principle" textbooks is more than one hundred in 20th century.In this paper,these textbooks' classification does not take the pre-liberation and the liberation as the symbol,nor 1978,but it takes every decade or two decades of text books as one chapter.Each chapter mainly compares the representatives of the textbooks,containing the following two main aspects:First of all,the paper compares the main contents and viewpoints in forms.These elements include:the aesthetic discipline locations,the object of aesthetic study,the nature of "the attitude towards the beauty",the understandings of "empathy",the form principles of beauty,the types of beauty,the aesthetics and the life's connection or beauty's essence.Secondly,the paper compares the aesthetic ontologies.Because the ontology is a cornerstone which the textbooks' frame can stabilize.Through the comparison of most representatives of each decade's textbooks' contents and aesthetic ontologies,we find the text books showing a lot of similarities. Certainly,each textbook have its own time.While affirming these textbooks' contribution,we also should see some of the inevitable limitations.In order to break through the limitations of the old theory,and adapts the text books' demand of the new century,we should seek the innovation to these textbooks on the basis of the inheritance.