On December 22–23, the 2022 Annual Conference of the Chinese Society for Aesthetics and the concurrent National Symposium on Innovation Paths to Contemporary Chinese Aesthetics were held online at Northwest University in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province. Scholars shed light on Chinese aesthetics and its academic development, and discussed ways to promote the innovative development of contemporary Chinese aesthetics.

The spirit of Chinese aesthetics is rooted in the extensive and profound fine traditional Chinese culture, and is embodied by the Chinese nation’s unique cultural, aesthetic, and artistic views. It is a vital feature that distinguishes Chinese civilization from other civilizations and has extremely rich intellectual connotations.

According to Zhang Fa, a professor from the College of Literature and Journalism at Sichuan University, the beauty of ancient China is condensed in four types of objects: petroglyphs, painted pottery, jadeware, and bronzeware. The intrinsic aesthetic characteristics and principles of creating beauty in these four mediums have had a decisive influence on the beauty of ancient China.

Zhang said that the characteristics of Chinese beauty inherent in human portraits on petroglyphs, the transformation of animals and plants on painted pottery, the unity of man and nature showcased in jadeware, and the pattern combinations on bronzeware, demonstrate aesthetics tinted with the Chinese view of cosmology and the world. This is an aesthetics whose theoretical and cultural forms are closely connected.

The Chinese translation of the word “aesthetics,” meixue, is an important mark of the establishment of aesthetics as a discipline in modern China. Some researchers believe that German missionary Ernst Faber was the first to use the term “meixue” in China. After extensive research, Li Qingben, a professor from the Institute of Art Education at Hangzhou Normal University, rejected this assertion, arguing that the term “meixue” was introduced into China from the West via Japan.

However, Li noted that terms are not equal to discourse, and origins are not equal to ontology. Citing renowned modern Chinese scholar Wang Guowei as an example, Li said Wang’s important contribution to Chinese aesthetics of modern times is his integration of aesthetic terms from the West into the construction of Chinese aesthetic discourse and his establishment of a new paradigm for cross-cultural aesthetics.

Gao Jianping, president of the Chinese Society for Aesthetics, pointed out that innovation is the life of scholarship. “For aesthetic innovation, we must learn from Western aesthetic resources and pay attention to latest academic developments abroad while absorbing rich nutrition from ancient Chinese thoughts on art and aesthetics,” Gao said, adding that it is essential to fully explore the contemporary value and modern significance contained in aesthetic research.

Theoretical innovation requires new concepts, because it is difficult to obtain innovative theoretical outcomes by explaining aesthetic phenomena only with traditional concepts. Zhang Wei, chief expert of Liaoning Public Culture Research Base under the Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, elaborated on three approaches to facilitating innovation of aesthetic theory: one is to put forward theories suited to the zeitgeist, thus promoting innovations in aesthetic ideas; the second is to reform established epistemological methods of aesthetic research to derive new research methods; and the third is to encourage innovations in aesthetic research paths through the synthesis of Chinese and Western aesthetic theories, of contemporary aesthetic theory and classical Chinese aesthetic theory, and of aesthetics and other disciplines.