Zhu Guangqian "life Is The Art Of Theoretical Research

Zhu Guangqian, a great master of aesthetics, has put forward his unique and profound theory—"Life's poeticizing" in his early life (before 1949). On the one hand, his theory had generated great enlightening significance in that society. It advocated to "remould one's mind and improve one's life" in an aesthetic way, and aroused the nation's vitality and creativity so that a tumultuous society can take a favorable turn thoroughly. On the other hand, as an aesthetic pursuit and ideal of personality, it combined life and art, calling for a tasteful and idealized life, which was also a distinctive outlook on life. What's more, it combined life with art that are contradictive so harmoniously that they were closely linked with each other and worked in coordination. Therefore, "Life's Poeticizing" Theory is not only his aesthetic ideal, but also the ideal aim he pursues on aesthetic research and the mainstream of all his aesthetic thought that permeates his whole academic research and life. This paper highlights the theory of "Life's poeticizing", from which Zhu Guangqian's aesthetic thinking is mastered as a whole, and the most natural and realistic problems of his thought are examined in this paper. In addition, this paper makes a comparison between the aesthetic idea of people from the early 20th century and aesthetic thinking of those from the early 21st century, and finally advances some significant suggestions for solving the problems of existence and spirits for this generation.Observation on life experiences and academic ideology in his early life contributes to the discovery that his life was closely connected with the construction and application of "Life's Poeticizing" Theory. Obviously, there are two periods each for the construction and application. The first period of construction is from the National Wuchang Higher Normal Collage to Hong Kong University, while application is from the China Public School to LiDa School ; the second period of construction is from the University of Edinburgh to the University of Strasbourg, while application is from his return to China to 1949. Nevertheless, they both aim at the construction of life, society and academic culture, whether it is the construction or application of "Life's Poeticizing" Theory. Zhu Guangqian absorbed widespread quintessence of Chinese and Western aesthetic thoughts working as important resources for his theory. Zhu Guangqian assimilated the thoughts of Philosophy, aesthetics and psychology that impact the form of "Life's Poeticizing" Theory such as Kant's "Aesthetic Disinterestedness", Nietzsche's Apolonian Spirit and Dionysian Spirit, Croche's Intuitionism, Lipps's Empathy, Freud's Concept of Psycho-analysis and Bullough's theory of Psychological Distance; and from Chinese traditional culture, he digested mainly Confucianism while making Taoism culture subsidiary. In addition, he absorbed traditional aesthetic thinking. Apart from this, religion also plays an important role in forming the theory. Therefore, the theory of "Life's Poeticizing" can be viewed as the fruit of ideological culture of ancient and modern, Chinese and Western.Zhu Guangqian's "Life's Poeticizing" Theory assumes extremely profound connotation and aesthetic value, which dues to special background and cultural...