Zhu Guangqian
Zhu Guangqian (Chinese:朱光潜) was a Chinese aesthetician and educator. His best known works include On Aesthetics and Psychology of Literature and Art. He hosted a well-known literary salon in 1930s Beijing.
Biography
A native of Tongcheng, Anhui Province, Zhu, who wrote under the penname Meng Shi, was born on September 19, 1897. He enrolled in the Chinese language department at Wuchang Higher Normal School in 1918, but transferred to the education department at Hong Kong University the following year.
He wrote his first treatise "Beauty Without Words" during this period. Upon graduation in 1922, he taught at China College in Wusong, Shanghai and Chunhui High School in Shangyu, Zhejiang Province. Shortly thereafter, Zhu Guangqian and his associates, Kuang Husheng and Ye Shengtao established the Lida Society and the Lida Institute in Shanghai. Zhu penned the slogan "independent and free education" and later established the Kaiming Book Company and the Magazine Yi Ban, which was renamed High School Student. Zhu went on to study English literature, philosophy, psychology, ancient European history, and history of art at Edinburgh University in 1925. After graduation in 1929, he entered London University and then registered to study psychology of art at the University of Paris in France. In 1930, Zhu Guangqian transferred to Strassburg University, where he completed his Psychology of Literature and Art. He obtained a Ph.D. degree with his dissertation "The Psychology in Tragedy."
In the autumn of 1933, he returned to China to join the faculty of Beijing University, serving as editor-in-chief of Literature Magazine. When the War of Resistance Against Japan broke out, he became president and dean of the School of Art at Sichuan University in 1937. Zhu taught at Wuhan University the following year. In 1946, he rejoined the faculty of Beijing University and taught there until his death on March 6, 1986. Zhu Guangqian served as the president of the China Aesthetics Society and academician of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
As a noted Chinese expert on aesthetics, Zhu was influenced by I. Kant, G. Hegel and B. Croce (especially the Croce's subjective idealism). Zhu's Psychology of Literature and Art was the first systematic work on literature and art from a psychological viewpoint, in which he introduces to the Chinese reading public the thoughts of various Western schools on aesthetics. The book became widely popular in China. On Aesthetics, another of his works, was popular among Chinese youth. Towards the end of the 1940s, Zhu Guangqian's ideas on aesthetics began to change. His article "Reviewing Croce's Philosophy" was the result of an effort to clarify his thinking on Croce and Croce's impact. After repeated discussions with New China's ideological community, his thinking on aesthetics underwent a great change. History of Western Aesthetics, written after that time, is regarded as an important piece of research in the field.
