A Study On Wang Guowei’s "Life Aesthetics"

Wang Guowei was a famous scholar in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China.His “life aesthetics” thought is not only the inheritance of Chinese traditional aesthetics,but also the innovation on the basis of traditional aesthetics.The social status of internal and external troubles,and his status of "physical weakness and spirits melancholy",so that Wang Guowei gradually recognize the desire,life,pain trinity of the essence of life,and recognize the human survival dilemma and mental problem.Therefore,in an era when intellectuals put more emphasis on the application of the world,Wang Guowei was in a school of his own to oppose utilitarianism,calling for the attention to the existence of human life,and putting the existence of human life in the prominent position of aesthetics.This paper attempts to break through the limitations of the previous research on Wang Guowei’s aesthetic thoughts,and take the issue of life as the core,through systematically sorting out the formation path and theoretical connotation of Wang Guowei’s “life aesthetics”,to explore its value and influence.The thesis is divided into three parts: firstly,the background and personal situation that influenced the formation of Wang Guowei’s“life aesthetics”,mainly analyzes the social atatus of internal and external troubles in the late Qing Dynasty and the early republic of China,the ideological trend of fusion of chinese and western,and the influence of Wang Guowei’s growth background.Secondly,the main contents of Wang Guowei’s “life aesthetics” mainly includes four aspects: desire theory,aesthetic non-utilitarian,tragedy,and realm theory.The desire,pain and relief based on life are the main lines that run through the Wang Guowei’s“life aesthetics”.From the “theory of desire”,he elicits the relief from the suffering of life and then seeks the method of relief.Wang Guowei advocates the non-utility of philosophy and "art",pays attention to the tragedy of literature,and raises the "realm" from the concept of word to the category of life,all of which are prescription for relieving the predicament of life,which can help temporarily alleviate the misery and pain in life.Thirdly,the influence of Wang Guowei’s “life aesthetics” on modern aesthetics.