Influence Of Eduard Hanslick’s Music Aesthetics On China’s Music Aesthetics:Researches And Reflections

Eduard Hanslick’s Vom Musikalisch-Schonen is one of the most important and influential writings on music aesthetics. Not only did it cause heated responses the moment it was published, but it has also drawn close attention and triggered intense debates in the Chinese academic community since its Chinese translation came out. The influence of Hanslick’s aesthetics on the Chinese music aesthetics cannot be overestimated. Thus it is both important and necessary to examine and reflect on the reason and consequence of such an influence.This dissertation consists of four chapters except the Introduction.The first chapter provides a general introduction of Hanslick, his Vom Musikalisch-Schonen and the Chinese translation of this book and its translator.The next three chapters deal with three major topics in Hanslick’s aesthetics respectively. Hanslick’s studies on these topics are discussed, together with their reception and responses by the Chinese scholars. The second chapter is focused on the issue of music and feeling. What is mainly taken into consideration is the relationship between feeling and the purpose and content of music.The third chapter is centered on the issue of form and content, including the beauty of music, the relationship between form and content, the significance of the spirit, and the formal beauty without object.The fourth chapter is concentrated on the issue of understanding and reception of music, including the generation of subjective impression in music, aesthetic characteristics of music and two ways of music reception (pathological reception and aesthetics reception).Through this study, it can be concluded that the Chinese scholars’ reception of Hanslick’s theory is relatively objective, based on deep discussion, but it is not without misunderstanding, which has affected the development of music aesthetics of China. Thus it is significant to reconsider Hanslick’s Vom Musikalisch-Schonen in an objective way and assimilate from it what can contribute to China’s music aesthetics.