Criticism of “Belief Turn” in Life Aesthetics Proposed by Pan Zhichang

Pan Zhichang, famous as a representative of “life aesthetics”, has been advocating the addition of “dimensions of belief and love” to the Chinese aesthetics since the inception of the new century. His thinking and words inherit the aesthetic interpretation of “poetic theology”, represented by Liu Xiaofeng, which makes them relevant in the view of modernity with their “theological enlightenment” but also infects them with a drawback of praising Western aesthetics and belittling the Chinese one in a concept of binary opposite. It is plausibly understandable because of its commonality among contemporary scholars. But Pan always acts as a self-claimed authority and “preaches” around, which not only amplifies academic shortage and theoretical imprudence, but deviates his didactic writings on “life aesthetics” as well as preaches of “belief ” and “love” from the gravity of flesh and soul, making his writings reduced to fast fashion in this consumption era, florid and empty rhetoric, and omnipotent “chicken soup for the soul” with love. “Preach” is distorted into something shallow and narrow when it should refer to something lofty and distant. Beyond reproach as he is in such a time of vanity, self-reflection should be a priority now that he tasks himself with “advocating belief ” and “preaching”.