SEOHee-Jung.PDFVIP

The Establishment and Development of Chinese Aesthetics as a Modern Study * SEO Hee-Jung Abstract The ultimate aim of this paper is to track how research in the field of aesthetics has recently come to greater prominence in China and to explore how aesthetics might establish itself as a significant field within the Chinese academic system. “Aesthetics” which has emerged as a branch of philosophy during modern times, has a definite purpose and range of study: “Cognition of the truth through human sensibility”. Aesthetics is fundamentally rooted in the structure of philosophical thought, and has a particularly intimate relationship with art, which is directly linked to sensible perception. Since modern Chinese studies on aesthetics have progressed rapidly during the process of modernization, it was probably inevitable that the acceptance of the field would produce considerable friction and compromise, particularly since it is a relatively new branch of inquiry in the Chinese intellectual tradition. In contemporary China, the study of aesthetics has become mired in conflict and lost much of its developmental direction. The unique growth process of the academic system, which is directly connected to modern Chinese history, has played a crucial role in the development of aesthetics as a field of inquiry in the Chinese intellectual tradition. Hence, this paper examines the identity of Chinese aesthetics and explores the basis on which it might be established as a rigorous science, suggesting a way forward for the development of so-called “Chinese Aesthetics” which would employ the method of critical review as the field further grows and matures. Keywords: modern studies, sensuous cognition (sinnlichkeit), aesthetics, Chinese aesthetics * SEO Hee-Jung: Postdoctoral Researcher, School