The Occurrence And Development Of Aesthetic Course In Modern And Contemporary China

Aesthetics was first listed in the architecture of the engineering courses of universitiesin 1904 when the government of Qing Dynasty promulgated the Presentation of Regulationson Determination of the Courses of Schools. The aesthetic course has gone through 40 yearsof development in the modern and contemporary history of China by the founding of thePeople's Republic of China. It is the occurrence of the aesthetic course in China at that timethat is described and the development of the aesthetic course is shown from the differentaspects in this dissertation. The aesthetic course of China occurred in the period when suddenchanges often happened at the crossover of centuries, the traditional culture and thoughts ofChina were doubted and a large amount of advanced western culture and thoughts suddenlyand rapidly influenced the Chinese people. Under such a background, the aesthetic thoughtsswarmed into China and were in the attention and favor of the Chinese scholars, so theaesthetic course emerged as the times required. It is the result of many accidental andnecessary factors such as reform of the higher education, development of aesthetics andChinese scholars learning and following the western examples from entering the highereducation system to the formal starting of lectures in the class and then to the gradualdevelopment of the aesthetic course in the higher education.The dissertation is divided into 7 chapters and 4 parts according to the contents dealtwith in all the chapters.Part 1 includes Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. This part is about the premise for occurrence ofthe aesthetic course. In the two chapters, the new educational background of occurrence of theaesthetic course and realization of the aesthetic course are briefly introduced. The educationalreform at the beginning of the previous century was not accomplished in an action. China wasinvaded by the western powers from the modern times, the reformers were urgent to requirereform and the importance of the educational reform was finally understood after a series ofreforms and failures. It is under such a background that the aesthetic course entered the highereducation system of China and truly became a course in the university very soon, dependingon the opportunity of educational reform. Some important landmarks of aesthetics becoming acourse in the university are also progressively dealt with in Chapter 2.Part 2 includes Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. This part is mainly about arrangement andconclusion of the materials of the course. The cases of the aesthetic course opened in theuniversities all over the country are summarized and the actual cases of the aesthetic courseset in the different schools are classified, evaluated and analyzed in the order of time;therefore, the overview of development of the aesthetic course at the beginning of theprevious century is grasped as a whole and intended to provide the historical materials forreference for research on aesthetics as a whole.Part 3 includes Chapter 5 and Chapter 6. It is to deal with the conditions fordevelopment of the aesthetic course and the teaching staff and materials of the aestheticeducation are mainly investigated. There are great differences in the statuses of the aesthetic teachers at that time. Some were engaged in the education of fine arts, some in aesthetics andothers originally in philosophy. An attempt is made to classify the aesthetic teachers accordingto their statuses and analyze the reasons for the teachers in the different statuses in thedissertation. In addition, some aesthetic educators who made prominent contribution to theaesthetic teaching such as Cai Yuanpei, Deng Yizhe, Zong Baihua and Zhu Guangqian, etc.are introduced and their aesthetic teaching and native aesthetic thoughts are briefly discussedin Chapter 5. Teaching materials are another important condition for development of thediscipline. It is indispensable to collect and analyze the aesthetic teaching materials foranalysis of the aesthetic course. Therefore, the aesthetic materials and books, including thosepublished and not published at that time are collected and arranged well and the commoncharacteristics of the aesthetic materials at that time are concluded.Part 4 is Chapter 7 in which the progress of the aesthetic course in the period ofNational Southwest Associated University is briefly dealt with. It can be said that it is thecontinuum of the aesthetic course going through a splendid period in 1920s and 1930s.Influenced by the war of fighting against the Japanese invaders, the education of the wholecountry was affected and limited; therefore, the aesthetic course was necessarily affected andits opening range and propagation were narrowed relative to those in the previous period;however, the subdivision of its contents and deepening of its special degree is a surprisediscovered in the dissertation.