Abstract

This paper discusses the theoretical system of Chinese aesthetics. Within ‘cultural conservatism’ in academic circles, some scholars believe that the contemporary radical and unconventional attitudes of Chinese culture are so radical to their tradition that there is a cultural fracture within Chinese culture. They claim that cultural models were introduced by foreign cultures, and inevitably influenced events and cultural catastrophes such as the Cultural Revolution, linked to the radical cultural tendency which evolved from May Fourth Movement. These tenets fuel the arguments of other scholars who maintain that Chinese aesthetics should be based on its own cultural tradition without copying the Western discursive system. This paper argues for a comparative research method as intercultural tool. This argument is built on explanations of the differences between core layers and superficial layers of culture, and on the importance of value judgments within the poetic aesthetic systems of both east and west. Such argument enables and supports cross-cultural dialogical perspectives between east and west.