The "State" Theory Of Wang Guowei

Wang Guowei's theory of Three Stages is always the focus of aesthetic scholars. There are abundant research findings about it. Most of the studies are discussed from one or some perspectives, only few in an all-round way. This paper is going to take a sweeping view of Stages theory in hope of gaining a systematic and comprehensive understanding.First of all, Wang's Stages falls into two categories: one is the Life Stages which can be reached by ordinary people; another is the Artistic Stages which can only be created and experienced by artists, i.e. poets because the prerequisites of realizing the three stages are Peaceful Aesthetic Appreciation. Only the true artists, whom Wang Guowei named Genius, have the talent to take a peaceful aesthetic view of the world beyond the interests between the World and Self, hence to redisplay the thoughts and feelings of life in form of artistic works. Therefore, the Artistic Stages defined by Wang Guowei, which is the topic of the paper is the stages Poets are in.Secondly, there are four creating characteristics in Wang's Stages theory: Realistic Stage, Romantic Stages, Subject Self and Objective Self. The reason for the division is that the subject of the creator of the artistic stages takes different views when faced with the object of the creator. On the basis of Peaceful Aesthetic Appreciation, the Material World has noinfluence on the will of Self, which, as an object, observes and feels the world objectively with a peaceful mind. When Self and the Material World are always in harmony with each other, the Graceful feeling arises; hence the stage of Gracefulness is reached. On the other hand, if the material world affects the will of Self, Self must overcome the conflicting wills and the disturbed mind must be brought back peaceful. The aesthetic feeling that arises when the mind resumes peacefulness is Magnificent, and the stage of Magnificence is reached.Thirdly, the Nature of the Artistic Stages should include Truth, which means Real Scenery and True Emotion should be described in a natural and non-artificial way. Fluency and Smoothness should also be included, which means to express the indescribable clearly like pictures with the hidden meaning in it, that is to say to display Life Stages in form of Artistic Stages, or make life artistic.In brief, Wang Guowei's Stages theory including Life Stages and Artistic Stages is the essence of his aesthetic thoughts, the product of the collision between Chinese culture and Western culture, and indicates that Wang attempted to evade the mortal desires and conflicting thoughts by creating Artistic Stages, which is essentially the artization and materialization of Life Stages.