Contributions of Cen Jiawu's study on art sociology to Chinese Art history research

Cen Jiawu applied materials from anthropology,archaeology and philology to the study of totemic art,prehistoric art and Chinese ancient fine arts by using sociological viewpoints and methods,and made great achievements.He was a pioneer in using scientific viewpoints and methods to make a study of art and art history.Cen Jiawu's contributions to art history research mainly are as follows: he applied sociological viewpoints and methods to art and art history research;he studied art by treating art as one kind of social phenomenon;as to the origins of art,he pointed out the appearance of art roots in its specific social significance;as to the essence of art,he opposed the view that art had nothing to do with the social life,and thought that the essence of art should be inspected from the social life.He held that the basic content of art sociology mainly includes five aspects: the origins of art;the essence of art;art evolution;the stages of art evolution and art talents.His study about art and art history has unique and profound significance and value in the process of modernization reform in Chinese art history research.