Pythagoras and his school put forward the idea that music purifies the soul, which can be said to be the earliest aesthetic education thought in the West. In the 6th century BC, Pythagoras thought that music is a kind of harmony and human soul is also a kind of harmony, starting from the aesthetic concept that beauty is the ratio of numbers and the religious concept that the soul is immortal. Therefore, it is possible to "purify the body with drugs and purify the soul with music" and ask his disciples to listen to the prescribed music at night and in the morning to drive away the soul from being harassed during the day and paralyzed in dreams. Therefore, Pythagoras can be regarded as "the first person to establish music education by virtue of rhythm and melody". For Pythagoras, "purification" is both spiritual and moral, and the purpose of purification also includes building a moral soul-"virtue". Although Pythagoras could not establish a real moral theory because he reduced morality to several and talked about morality in an incorrect way, he was "the first person who tried to talk about morality" and combined it with beauty. He put forward that "virtue is a kind of harmony", and the practice of aesthetic education in Athens laid the foundation for the development of aesthetic education thought. There were two kinds of education in ancient Greece. Spartan education is famous for its strictness and barbarism in the history of western education. It advocates martial arts and attaches importance to military education, but it also attaches importance to music education, encouraging morale with music and cultivating the organizational discipline of soldiers. Contrary to Sparta, Athens advocates civilized rule, which is related to its developed economy and political democracy. It requires not only to train students into strong soldiers, but also to become politicians and businessmen with various talents and cultural accomplishments, and to be good at trade and communication. Therefore, Athens education emphasizes the all-round development of body, intelligence, beauty and morality, and is a colorful education with free personality. On this basis, many thinkers in ancient Greece made a preliminary theoretical summary. For example, Plato proposed in the Republic that the education system should include two aspects: physical education and spiritual education (art education). He preached that before the education of developing wisdom, we should first "educate the mind with music and educate the body with sports", and combine the two kinds of education to jointly improve people's minds. He analyzed people's experience from the beauty of body, spirit, behavior, system and knowledge, and finally observed the process of people's reaching the ideal world. He noticed that natural beauty and artistic beauty can cultivate people's temperament and beautify people's hearts, and emphasized the cultivation of young people's habit of loving beauty from an early age. Aristotle, another thinker in ancient Greece, advocated harmonious education, including reading and writing, physical exercise, music painting and the cultivation of moral quality, and put the focus of harmonious education on aesthetic education (mainly music education). He put forward that aesthetic education "is not just for a certain purpose, but for several purposes, namely (1) education (2) purification (3) spiritual enjoyment ..." Plato and Aristotle further developed Pythagoras' thought of "virtue", and Plato put forward "justice, reason, will and courage. Both he and Aristotle believe that justice is the sum of all virtues. Aristotle also said that "beauty is a kind of goodness", thus unifying beauty and goodness, aesthetic education and moral education.

Schiller, a German aesthetician in the18th century, systematically put forward aesthetic education for people and studied it as a theory. During the period from 1793 to 1794, Schiller wrote 27 letters about human aesthetic education in order to repay the financial support of Prince Christian in Augustine, Denmark, and later compiled the Letters on Aesthetic Education, which became the "first declaration of aesthetic education" in the west. First of all, the book clearly uses the concept of "aesthetic education" and systematically expounds and analyzes the meaning, content, nature, task and social significance of aesthetic education. Schiller's aesthetic education theory is based on Kant's aesthetic thought. Kant divides people's spiritual activities into three aspects: knowledge, emotion and meaning, and holds that aesthetics (emotion) is a bridge between knowledge and morality. (2) The basic problem discussed in the American teaching letter is how to solve the problem that human nature is divided into integrity and freedom caused by the capitalist system, and how to reform the country from the integrity of human nature and obtain political freedom. Schiller pointed out that to solve these problems, we should first rely on aesthetic education instead of social, political and economic revolution to realize the perfection of personality and the freedom of human nature. He put forward: "The only way to turn an emotional person into a rational person is to turn him into an aesthetic person first." Schiller regards aesthetic education as the only way for adults to gain freedom and social progress. It is obviously impossible to replace the changing society with the aesthetic education of class society. However, Schiller emphasized the great role of aesthetic education, which made "emotional people" cultivate rationality, "rational people" cultivate emotion, guide people from natural state to moral state, and cultivate perfect personality and beautiful mind, thus obtaining human freedom and social progress, which was of great significance at that time. Schiller's aesthetic education theory links aesthetic education with social transformation and reform, expanding the research field of aesthetic education; It also discusses the essence and function of aesthetic education from the height of freedom and integrity of human nature, and deepens the theory of aesthetic education, which is Schiller's great contribution to aesthetic education. ?

Second, the origin and development of China's aesthetic education thought.

In China, the source of aesthetic education can be traced back to the primitive clan society. Duke Zhou inherited the ruling experience of Xia and Shang Dynasties, formulated rites and music, and systematically improved the education system of rites and music. According to Zhou Li, schools must "govern the country with joy", that is, cultivate students' virtues such as loyalty, harmony, respect, integrity, filial piety and love in etiquette; "Governing the country with music" is to educate students' ability to learn and use poetry, master the beauty and thorn of poetry, and cultivate rhetorical ability; "Teaching the country with music and dance" is intended to show the great achievements of ancient sages and kings through dance performances and achieve the purpose of singing praises. The rites of the Duke of Zhou are the norms of etiquette, and music is a comprehensive art of music, dance and poetry. The combination of ceremony and music is not only a social system, but also a moral norm, and it is also a way to educate slave owners and nobles in aesthetic education. ?

Pre-Qin philosophers put forward a systematic aesthetic education thought. The aesthetic education thought of Confucianism and Taoism is to resist Confucianism and cultivate the internal cultural and psychological structure of individuals to adapt to the external etiquette system of society. The highest goal of benevolence education is to cultivate "people with lofty ideals", and its essence is a kind of ethical education of slavery. But it also includes aesthetic education. "People are heartless, why is it a gift?" ? People are heartless, so what are you happy about? "Confucius advocates that benevolence education is not to abandon emotions but to emphasize morality blindly. He has always emphasized poetry teaching and music teaching. Confucius put forward the viewpoint of "based on poetry, ceremony and music", holding that "poetry" and "music" are important ways for a gentleman to cultivate himself into an adult, and "poetry" can give people spiritual strength and cultivate emotions; "Rite" can make people base themselves on society and temper their essence; And "music" is the perfect unity of emotion and essence, so it is the last link to cultivate a perfect person. At the same time, Confucius always put this kind of aesthetic enjoyment under the doctrine of "benevolence" and "ceremony", emphasizing moderate aesthetic enjoyment, "being happy but not lascivious, being sad but not hurting". Aesthetic education, which is attached to benevolence education, is not abstinence or emotional indulgence, but is guided by the norms of "benevolence" and "courtesy" to moderately satisfy lust. ?

Confucius' view of benevolence and aesthetic education has been carried forward in Mencius, which tends to shape inner humanity and realize the establishment of perfect personality. Mencius' personality education also includes aesthetic education and self-cultivation, but it is not as outstanding as Confucius' benevolence education. On the other hand, Xunzi expanded the aesthetic education view of Confucius' benevolence, focusing on the "ritual" education of external norms. Although Xunzi advocated the theory of evil nature, he attached great importance to aesthetic education because of the requirements of external etiquette. He believes that human nature cannot be self-beauty, and the establishment of personality beauty is mainly achieved through shaping and education. The means to implement this kind of aesthetic education are Confucian classics such as poetry, calligraphy, ceremony, music, Spring and Autumn Period, etc., especially Le has the aesthetic function of "turning nature into falsehood". He believes that literature and art have great touching power, which can "unify the whole country", "beautiful politics", "beautiful people" and "beautiful customs", and play a role in stabilizing society, assisting politics, cultivating talents and changing customs. Of course, Confucianism maintains the rule of the exploiting class with rites and music, but their exposition of the multiple functions of aesthetic education is still very profound. ?

As the founder of Taoist school, Laozi fundamentally denied any utility and replaced it with the philosophical principle of "doing nothing without doing anything", that is, "Tao", which actually contains profound aesthetic problems. I don't ask people to pursue beauty deliberately, but to reach the realm of beauty naturally, so I don't talk about the role of aesthetics and art education like Confucianism, but take a detached attitude. Although I don't talk about aesthetic education, his successor, Zhuangzi, attaches great importance to personal aesthetic education. According to Laozi's "inaction" thought, Zhuangzi put forward the aesthetic proposition that "the heaven and the earth are big, but beauty is unspoken". Beauty is super utilitarian and lies in natural inaction. It has no purpose, it has a purpose, and it conforms to both the purpose and the law. In Zhuangzi's view, if you get the Tao of natural inaction, you will get the beauty of perfection. To achieve this aesthetic realm, it is not by aesthetic education, but by personal aesthetic cultivation.

Confucianism emphasizes utilitarian aesthetic education, while Taoism advocates ultra-utilitarian aesthetic cultivation, each of which is one-sided and complementary. The aesthetic education thoughts of these two schools had a far-reaching influence on the aesthetic education of feudal system after Han Dynasty.

In modern times, especially around the May 4th Movement, with the exchange of Chinese and Western cultures and the rise of the ideological emancipation movement, Liang Qichao, Wang Guowei, Cai Yuanpei, Lu Xun and others also put forward ideas about aesthetic education in the process of introducing western aesthetic ideas. ?

Liang Qichao was one of the earliest attempts to introduce and introduce western aesthetics and combine it with China's traditional aesthetic thought. He paid attention to both aesthetics and education, and put forward "interesting education" for the first time, that is, aesthetic education. The essence of fun education is emotional education. The best means of emotional education is art. Liang Qichao understood aesthetic education as fun education and emotional education, and accepted the essence of aesthetic education. His contribution to the enlightenment of modern aesthetic education in China should not be underestimated. ?

Under the influence of Liang Qichao's enlightenment thought, Wang Guowei further deepened the theoretical study of aesthetic education before setting a trend in the history of China's aesthetic education thought. Wang Guowei pointed out that at that time, the social atmosphere was corrupt, some people pursued fame and fortune, lost confidence and hope in the future of the country and the destiny of the nation, and really lacked a healthy spiritual life and motivation, so they wanted to find a solution from western thought. He found the significance of aesthetic education in the dual research of aesthetics and pedagogy, and proposed that we should pay attention to the cultivation of emotion while cultivating morality and knowledge. In On the Purpose of Education published by 1906, Wang Guowei pointed out that the purpose of education is to cultivate "perfect people", and the so-called "perfect people" refers to people who have developed harmoniously in both physical and mental aspects. He divided education into two parts: physical education and psychological education, which includes intellectual education, moral education and aesthetic education. He not only saw that both moral education and intellectual education need aesthetic education as a means, but also saw that aesthetic education has its unique function and purpose, and clearly put forward that aesthetic education should be included in the educational purpose of all-round development. Wang Guowei's aesthetic education thought improved the position of aesthetic education, analyzed its unique and irreplaceable role, and pointed out the differences and connections between aesthetic education and moral and intellectual education, which was his contribution to China's aesthetic theory.

As an educator and aesthetician, Cai Yuanpei put forward the theory of aesthetic education after Wang Guowei, and his views are far more profound and practical than Wang Guowei's. Aesthetic education, which Cai Yuanpei calls aesthetic education, is also called emotional cultivation. It is to apply aesthetic theory to education for the purpose of cultivating emotions. Cai Yuanpei emphasizes the implementation and application of aesthetic theory, which is very close to modern aesthetic education, which is where he surpasses his predecessors. He believes that aesthetic education occupies a special position in all education, and it permeates the other three kinds of education. He also put forward the idea of "replacing religion with aesthetic education" in view of the situation that Confucius was respected and religious superstitions were rampant at that time (Wang Guowei still juxtaposed aesthetic education with religion). He also corrected the viewpoint that aesthetic education was only regarded as art (fine arts) education, put forward the concepts of family education, school education and social education for the first time, and pointed out the ways, methods and means of aesthetic education, which were beyond the reach of predecessors. He not only comprehensively and systematically discussed aesthetic education in theory, but also actively put it into practice. When he was the chief of education, he put forward the educational policy of "five educations in parallel". These five kinds of education are: military national education (physical education), utilitarian education (intellectual education), civic moral education (moral education), world outlook education (philosophical education) and aesthetic education (aesthetic education). He personally engaged in aesthetic education practice and made important contributions to the establishment of modern aesthetic education system and the development of aesthetic education thought in China.

As a great standard-bearer of the New Culture Movement, Lu Xun paid special attention to aesthetic education from the perspective of propagating the New Culture Movement and cultivating revolutionary talents. During his work in the Ministry of Education, Lu Xun actively supported Cai Yuanpei in advocating aesthetic education, personally presided over "Weekly Art Lecture" and taught "Introduction to Art". He also wrote and translated many aesthetic works, actively advocated art education, founded art colleges and held art exhibitions, which made important contributions to the popularization and development of aesthetic education in China.

In the development of aesthetic education, it was not until the birth of Marxism that people really understood the essence of aesthetic education and clarified its status. Marx and Engels laid a solid theoretical foundation for scientific aesthetic education theory. They examined the aesthetic phenomenon of literature and art from the perspective of historical materialism, and reached a completely opposite conclusion with Schiller and others: aesthetic freedom is not the premise of political liberation, but political liberation has opened the way for aesthetic freedom. Marx and Engels critically inherited the precious heritage of aesthetic education thought in history, and based the realization of man's all-round development on the development and reform of production mode, which turned this past abstract fantasy into a scientific theory.