The Spirit of Traditional Chinese Aesthetics

This book differentiates between and analyzes the Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist spirit in traditional Chinese aesthetics, explains the core characteristics and methods of traditional Chinese aesthetics, and conveys the author’s overall thinking on the spirit of traditional Chinese aesthetics. Given its scope, the book is of great value in terms of understanding and promoting China’s unique traditional culture.

Zhixiang Qi is a professor in the School of Humanities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and President of the Shanghai Aesthetic Society. He is also in the board of Chairs of several Provincial Aesthetic Societies in China. He has published more than 30 personal monographs, including the representative works “Aesthetics of Musical Sense” (2016), “General History of Chinese Aesthetics” in three volumes (2008), “History of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Aesthetics” (2018), the five-volume work “A Complete History of Chinese Aesthetics” (2018) and “Ancient Chinese Literary Theory” (2018), a national higher education textbook for the Eleventh Five-Year Plan. His work has garnered him the Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Sciences Outstanding Achievement Award, and the Shanghai Philosophy and Social Science Outstanding Achievement Award. He also teaches “Chinese Aesthetics” and “Chinese Studies and Life” courses on Wisdom Tree.com, a major MOOC platform in China.