The Study Of Ma Cai’s Empathy Theory Aesthetics

“Empathy theory”,as western aesthetic theory,is very popular in China since The May 4th Movement.Ma Cai accepted this theory,established empathy theory aesthetics into personal thinking,and creatively used Chinese painting criticism,showing the charm of Chinese art aesthetics.The paper takes empathy theory as the focus of Ma Cai’s aesthetics,chooses those key concepts,uses the methods of horizontal and vertical comparison.With the exception of introduction and conclusion,the text is divided into four chapters.Chapter 1 is the formational road of Ma Cai’s empathy theory aesthetics.In his early years,Ma cai was influenced by many aestheticians,such as Long Jingyi,Cai Yuanpei and Lü Cheng,and lifelong engaged in “aesthetic education”.He introduced,deepened and expanded Lipps aesthetics.Based on this,three representative works of Aesthetics Fragment,On Beauty and The Study of Gu Kaizhi had been formed.Chapter 2 is the main points of Ma Ma Cai’s empathy theory aesthetics.“Aesthetic empathy” is “aesthetic feeling”,“self-activity” and “life emotion”.“Beauty” is “the value of empathy”,which acquired through “wait-and-see attitude”.“Art” is “expression”,and the artworks itself is “symbol”.Aesthetic feeling,beauty and art are all the effects and results of empathy.Chapter 3 is the critical practice of Ma Ma Cai’s empathy theory aesthetics.Ma Cai extended empathy theory to critic the Chinese ancient art theory of both“Qiyun(气韵)theory”and“Chuanshen(传神)theory”.He repeated“Qiyun(气韵)theory”and restored the beauty of“Qiyun”(气韵)in life discourse.Gu kaizhi’s painting of“Shen”(神)and his painting theory of“Chuanshen”(传神),also reflected the essence of life exquisite.Chapter 4 is the unique purport of Ma Ma Cai’s empathy theory aesthetics.“Empathy theory” constructed by Ma Cai has a strong color of life aesthetics.In particular,this theory is put into the vision of “aesthetic evaluation” to expect the real realization of aesthetic,also connects it with “art education”,which conforms to the requirements of the times advocating“aesthetic education”.Ma Cai’s empathy theory aesthetics has positive significance for promoting the modern process of Chinese aesthetics.However,this aesthetics still has obvious westernized academic characteristics,and it is inevitable to have “misinterpretation” in the process of construction.In Chinese context,it is a problem worthy of deep consideration that how to extract reasonable elements from foreign aesthetics for recreation.