The Interpretation of Western Aesthetics through Traditional “Perspective of Artistic Mind”——A Structural Tendency of Chinese Scholars' Acceptance of Influences of Western Aesthetics Prior to 1949

This article puts the acceptance of Western aesthetics by the Chinese aesthetics into a typical domain of expository approach, in which Chinese scholars' acceptance and elaboration of Western aesthetics exhibits a wide-spread structural tendency, i.e. interpreting modern Western aesthetics through the “Perspective of Artistic Mind” shaped by Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi thoughts. The “Perspective of Artistic Mind” covertly plays a structural role of merging Chinese and Western aesthetics, forming a new aesthetic knowledge paradigm, thereby analyzing the unspoken artistic level in the three aesthetic masters, i.e. Wang Guowei, Zong Baihua and Zhu Guangqian, and the subsequent “mistakes” of Western aesthetics.