Research On Schiller's Thought Of Aesthetic Education

Friedrich Schiller's precious spiritual legacy, above all, his thought of aesthetic education has showed significant value with the passage of time. Schiller's thought of aesthetic education originated from his reflection on realistic life. The decadence and backwardness of German society, the cruelty of French Revolution and the ruin of"liberty, equality and fraternity"aroused Schiller's deep reflection and rational criticism. He thought decline and fall of humanity was responsible for it and he proposed to redeem it by aesthetics. On the road of redemption, he set ancient Greece with simple and harmonious humanity as a reference. However, the ideal was, after all, remote. Then, he was most immediately and profoundly inspired by Kantianism, which was reflected in the origin, approach, means and research methods of his thought of aesthetic education. On this basis, he established his thought of aesthetic education.Schiller's thought of aesthetic education was comprehensively, systematically and clearly reflected in his Letters on Human Aesthetic Education, whose core idea was that"By beauty people march toward liberty". He thought, art, as a main form of beauty, was able to open the pure source of beauty and nourish noble and perfect humanity. Aesthetics is expressed by driving force of human games. In reality, incoherent humanity, once aesthetic games are introduced, can get merged and unified, and only then, can people in the games be integrated ones. In the book, Schiller advanced, for the first time in human history, the concept of"aesthetic education"and intimately related it to human liberty.Schiller's thought of aesthetic education found an intensive resonance, in the early 20th century, in the collective complex of Chinese modern aesthetic education. Widely accepted and with sinicized option and interpretation, it became one of the most important bases of theory construction of Chinese modern aesthetic education and greatly influenced the advocates of Chinese modern aesthetic education. The reason for this lies in the resemblance between Chinese modern context and Schiller's time, that is, the pursuit and dreams of Chinese progressive and concerned people were highly compatible with Schiller's. Schiller's influence on Chinese modern scholars could be partly seen from the absorption and integration of"Game Theory"in Wang Guowei's theories of"Indulgence"and"Detoxication".