The Transformative Power of Art: Li Zehou's Aesthetic Theory

Abstract

Chinese aestheticians, who have been familiar with the ideas of Li Zehou since he joined the debate in the 1950s, need no introduction to his theories on aesthetics.2 The situation is quite different in the United States, however, where Li is virtually unknown among those American philosophers of art who do not know Chinese. None of Li's major writings on aesthetics have been translated into English, leaving English-speaking philosophers of art with only The Path of Beauty: A Study of Chinese Aesthetics.3 This first appeared as a magnificently illustrated coffee table history of Chinese art, and recently Oxford University Press published a paperback version of the text without the colorful illustrations. Although it presents Li's interpretation of Chinese art, a reader without knowledge of his aesthetic theories cannot derive them from it. This lack of familiarity with Li Zehou's writings among Western philosophers is unfortunate, for his ideas are important in China, and his knowledge of major Western philosophers of art is extensive. Li has published, among other things, a major work on Kant in Chinese, a threevolume history of Chinese thought with Liu Gangji, and lectures on aesthetics. (Woei Lien Chong gives full citations for all of his writings in her essay in this issue of Philosophy East and West.4) Kant has had a profound influence on Li's philosophical thinking in general, and particularly on Li's philosophy of art. In 1993, He Sui translated Li's Four Discourses on Aesthetics from the first Chinese edition (1989).5 In these long essays Li refers to all the major Western philosophers of art from Plato to Arthur Danto, including major Russian figures, and the advanced courses on aesthetics given by him at Colorado College included sustained references to Plato, Kant, Schiller, and Suzanne Langer, among others. It is unfortunate that there has not been a real forum for Li's ideas to be exam-