Teng Gu Art Aesthetic Ideology

The Republic of China was an important phase in which esthetical research of China underwent the transition from classic form to modern form. The scholar Tengku wholeheartedly dedicated himself to his career of research on the art history in his transient and unfortunate life. He had made great achievements and laid a profound base for the establishment of disciplines for modern art in China. Thus he was acknowledged as the founder of the research on the modern art history by experts in the field of art study. At the same time, Tengku was acknowledged, to certain content, as the first person in history of modern art. China was in the changing period between new era and old era in the first half of the 20th century, in which china was in the conflict period full of breaks and creations. But Tengku succeeded in establishing his own theory about the esthetics for art by his professional knowledge under the bad conditions. He had a sophisticate and accurate understanding about the excellent thoughts in respect of artistic views in China and western countries. Then he actively spared no effort to integrate the two different opinions—style analysis on art and the theory of evolution in western countries and the traditional esthetical spirits for the vivid and animated imagoes—together so as to produce his own artistic thoughts which emphasized the art itself more than its outer factors, such as the history of art, the era background of arts, the culture spirits of arts and so on. That is to say, Tengku perfectly integrated inner study method focusing on the form of arts with the outer study method centering on the outer factors of arts. Tengku's special esthetical thoughts not only broke the prevailing study method of art in Germany earlier in the 20th century, which only focused on the form and style of art, but also transcended the traditional study pattern in China which took the name of dynasties or other outer factors as the symbol of artistic development. His esthetical views emphasized the form of art more than the incidental aspects, for example, political factors, the spirits of a particular period, etc.. Apart form this, Tengku also set up his theory mainly on the base of the traditional and best views and notions in China. Western advanced views only served the construction and development of art or esthetic in China. In a word, Tengku's theory not only laid a solid foundation to the development of modern history of art discipline and widened the research field of art, but also introduced the methods formalist study and started to study what art is on earth. So the article Elementary Research on Tengku's Artistic Thoughts will thoroughly explain his thoughts from the following four perspectives: to seek for the vivid and animated imagoes, the view about the development of art which is featured by circular evolvement, the new study method of art—formalist style analysis and the esthetical traits of Tenggu's artistic thoughts—nationalism and emphasis on concrete materials rather than abstract reasoning. This article will gradually spread the research on Tengku's artistic thoughts in the following sequence: first, it will explain the essence of cultural spirits of China in Tengku's artistic thoughts. Then it will study the excellent and advanced artistic views of western country in early times of the 20^th century in his artistic thoughts. This will be further discussed from two aspects: macrocosmic and microcosmic aspects. Finally, the article will conclude the esthetical traits of Tengku's artistic thoughts. In a conclusion, the article will particularly explain Tengku's special thoughts about art to indicate its significance in the history of aesthetical development of China.