Abstract: Faced with a variety of views about what is "beautiful," Plato insisted on seeking "beauty itself," which set the stage for philosophical reflection on beauty. Around the same period, pre-Qin thinkers such as Confucius, Mencius, Laozi, and Zhuangzi also began to consider questions related to beauty. On the origin and the essence of beauty, and on the beauty found in nature, society, and art, both ancient and modern scholarship has produced a considerable body of work and has also raised a number of issues for our own time. Reviewing and clarifying these achievements and the questions they leave open may help lay the groundwork for contemporary philosophical study of beauty.