Chinese Doctrine of “Aesthetics as the First Philosophy”

: “Aesthetics as the first philosophy” is a newly emerged important theoretical idea in the field of aesthetics, which has been represented both at home and abroad. This theoretical idea advocates that aesthetics should replace ontology as the first philosophy, and break through the traditional position of aesthetics as a branch of philosophy, thereby elevating it to a fundamental position of philosophy. This paper focuses on the theoretical idea of “aesthetics as the first philosophy” in Chinese aesthetics, represented by Li Zehou, Yang Chunshi, Pan Zhichang and Shang Jie. Chinese doctrine of “aesthetics as the first philosophy” draws its intellectual resources respectively from classical Chinese aesthetics, phenomenology and ontology, and postmodern aesthetics, with characteristics that are different from the Western idea of “aesthetics as the first philosophy”.