To Transcend Aesthetic Contemplation: A Perspective of Modern Aesthetic Education

Aesthetic contemplation is a mode and orientation of thinking that comes into being along with modern aesthetics and aesthetic education. It is manifested mainly in its insistence on seeing aesthetic activities as static and self-sufficient contemplation of the object by the subject that is separate from the object and building an aesthetic system and mapping out an aesthetic education program based on this mechanism. But aesthetic activities are in fact a process in which the human body fully participates and the various senses work in unison to bring about positive changes in the human spirit, rather than a static psychological cognition in ideal conditions in which the senses are nothing more than passive receptacles. If during the process of aesthetic education we can fully exploit, develop and realize a close and dynamic interaction between art and man alive, then the human life force will be rejuvenated and the oppression of cultural life by science will be assuaged. Herein lies the great significance of transcending aesthetic contemplation in the practice of modern aesthetic education. Therefore one important direction of reform in current aesthetic education practice should be how to tap all the characteristics of an art and make it possible for every aspect of the student's body and soul to work in interplay and coordinated development, thus bringing his life force into full blossom.