Abstract
This paper aims to clarify the transition process of Zong Baihua’s application of
Confucianism (Kongzi, Mengzi) and Taoism (Laozi, Zhuangzi) for the purpose of
establishing his unique Chinese art theory from the 1930s to the 1970s. In his earliest
articles regarding Chinese art theory in 1932, Zong defined the ideal “aesthetics” as
a discipline that took distinct phenomena of art in certain cultures into accounts
while it reflected the cosmic view pursued by the culture. There, he mainly referred
to the concepts of Confucianism and Taoism to explain Chinese pre-modern art
theory and art phenomena. Further, from the middle of the 1930s to the 1940s,
he theorized the possibility of connecting philosophy to art phenomena via the
discovery of the thought of Zhuangzi. However, after the 1960s, he reconsidered
the role played by classic philosophy in “aesthetics” at large and thus turned
to utilize pre-modern art theory, instead of classic philosophy, to re-explain art
phenomena, while he attempted to construct a mutual complementation system of
Confucianism and Taoism as the reflection of cosmic view underlying Chinese art
phenomena.
