What we are experiencing is the qualitative change of "aesthetic generalization" in contemporary life and art. On the one hand, it is the breeding and spread of "the artistry of life", especially the aestheticization of daily life; On the other hand, it is "the life of art", which is highlighted by the increasingly blurred boundary between art and life. Contemporary art is also moving towards conceptual art, performance art and environmental art with an anti-aesthetic attitude, that is, towards "aesthetic daily life".

Faced with this historic change, in May 2004, Mr. Gao Jianping invited Mr. Arnold Burlingt, former president of the International Aesthetic Association, to visit China. He gave a speech entitled "Rethinking Aesthetics" at the China Academy of Social Sciences (this is an important chapter in his new book). He clearly pointed out that in order to explain these new cultural phenomena, the first thing to question is Kant's thought of "aesthetic non-utility" (which really coincides with us). Furthermore, it is necessary to compromise between Kant's aesthetics (in fact, it is the theory of aesthetic self-discipline) and Terry Eagleton's aesthetics (in fact, it is the theory of aesthetic heteronomy), and then face up to the problem of "contemporary aesthetic generalization process" faced by Wolfgang Welsch in Reconstructing Aesthetics. In fact, the Archimedes fulcrum of his eclectic thought is still a kind of "new pragmatism" that absorbs some elements of postmodernism. This is an American pragmatic way of thinking and a comprehensive attitude of "harmony but difference", which actually seems more suitable from the perspective of eastern culture.

In the same month, Ales Erjavec, Berliner's successor, also visited the Academy of Social Sciences. In his speech entitled Aesthetics and/or Globalization, he particularly emphasized that although aesthetic research should be based on the perspective of globalization (this is what we call "the generalization of global values"), it should pay more attention to its nationality and nationality. At that time, when the author asked whether it was possible to establish a "global aesthetics" and absorb aesthetic elements from all over the world, Alexis gave a negative answer, but thought it was possible to form a "pluralistic" aesthetics.

I still remember that a few years ago in the late autumn, when I was seconded to the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, the world-famous Repin Academy of Fine Arts held an exhibition in China. The inscription on the exhibition was engraved with a meaningful round bronzing Russian-"Beauty is life"! As an aesthetic thought, this thought seems to have been forgotten for a long time, and there is still a spark of thought. The reason why it is so easy to be approached and accepted by local culture seems to have its own reasons. Perhaps, beauty and life, in China's classical culture, have always had a subtle connection of "inseparable beauty". In the early spring of the following year, my colleagues in Art magazine and I visited Mr. Wang Chaowen, an art theorist and sculptor. Interestingly, Wang Lao used the words "facts speak louder than words" to illustrate the life itself of "beautiful facts" which is more important than "aesthetic relationship".

If so, is "life aesthetics" a new way of thinking? Not only the aesthetic thoughts of modern philosophers such as Heidegger, Wittgenstein and Dewey all have the direction of returning to life, but this attitude of being close to life seems to be more suitable for the hearts of China people. This book is actually an introduction to "life aesthetics" in the phenomenological field of vision, trying to explain and solve the "new problems" in the turn of contemporary aesthetics.

In this way, a vivid "performance aesthetics" gradually surfaced on the horizon and appeared in my field of vision. The intrinsic motivation of the author's writing is how to live poetically with another kind of "comprehensive modernity" in the face of the "post-modern" historical situation. That is, how to rebuild modernity and modern aesthetic spirit in post-modernism?

In fact, contemporary European and American aestheticians have also noticed this "new growth point" of aesthetics. Welsch's Reconstructed Aesthetics, Aestheticization, a collection of essays being compiled by Mike at the invitation of Mr. Jin Huimin, and Berlin's Art and Contact all focus on the increasingly blurred boundary between aesthetics and life, trying to give their own aesthetic answers from a diversified perspective. Schustermann's new book, published in the Millennium, is directly based on Dewey's thought, trying to directly reconstruct a kind of daily aesthetics. It's a pity that Berlin and Schustermann's latest aesthetic research, I didn't see it until three years after I finished the manuscript, but they do have the feeling of "great minds think alike" and even "brief encounter" (a chapter was added when this book was revised). However, the historical situation faced by contemporary European and American aesthetics is different from that faced by contemporary China aesthetics. It tries to get rid of the mainstream analytical aesthetic tradition, especially the aesthetic situation after the end of art. In contrast, the aesthetic construction in contemporary China is still mainly faced with practical aesthetics and its follow-up problems, or the realistic context of "the tension between practice and life". Moreover, the mainstream art situation has also formed a historic dislocation with Europe and the United States.

Moreover, tracing back to the source, China's local ideological tradition has always had the tradition of "aestheticization of life" and "aestheticization of life". In the view of China's classical culture, art and life, beauty and life, creation and appreciation, appreciation and criticism are all internally integrated, thus forming a close relationship without barriers. In a sense, China's classical aesthetics is a kind of "life aesthetics", and the life immersed in it is a kind of "life with lovers". From Zhuangzi's "Philosophical Thinking of Beauty" to the novel criticism in Ming and Qing Dynasties, the fusion of life knowledge and aesthetic thinking is permeated with China's traditional primitive aesthetic wisdom.

In fact, Mr. Li Zehou's "practical aesthetics" is quite a bit of a return to life. Starting from "practical rationality", Mr. Li even absorbed some elements of pragmatism. According to my personal experience, I sometimes feel that there are many similarities between Mr. Li's thoughts and Dewey's! Coincidentally, Mr. Li recently admitted that he was influenced by Dewey's thought when he wrote Critique of Philosophy.

In a great sense, I prefer to regard life aesthetics as one of the efforts and attempts to continue the ontological development of practical aesthetics, because "living" practice and "practical" life are indeed intrinsically interlinked. In addition, several visits to Mr. Li, who returned to China, made the younger generation really feel "enlightened" (especially the conversation I met in front of the art museum, which is still unforgettable), and Mr. Li's thoughts are still so "fresh".

In short, it is that sentence, forget the life world, and eventually it will be forgotten by the life world!

Compared with other disciplines, aesthetics needs to return to the life world for reconstruction, which is determined by the disciplinary nature of aesthetics. Life aesthetics may be one of the optional development directions of aesthetics in the future, and the author is also walking on this "forest path".

Mr. Teng Shouyao, Mr. Nie Zhenbin, Mr. Wang Nankun, Mr. Jin, Mr. Tong Tan, Mr. Wang and Mr. Bao are all teachers who have changed my life path. Your kindness has made students grateful for life. I want to thank Mr. Teng Shouyao for leading me to work in the academic hall of the Aesthetics Room of the Institute of Philosophy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and giving me warm help in many aspects. I also want to thank Mr. Nie Zhenbin for his enthusiasm and serious advice. He gladly wrote a preface (and named it) for this book. I want to thank Mr. Wang Nankun for his inculcation on "doing things" and "being a man", and the students have benefited a lot so far. Thanks to Mr. Li Deshun and Mr. Chen Yanqing for their corrections. Thanks to the Aesthetics Office of our college, Jin Huimin, Zhang Fa, Peng Feng, Zhang Xiaoming, Tao Dongfeng, Wang Nan, Xu Yali, Yan, Ning, Sheng Ying, Peng,, Xue Fuxing, Zhang Jiangang, Wang Keping, Tian Shigang and Xue Fuxing. In the process of writing this book, I have asked Mr. Shao Dazhen, Mr. Wang Hongjian, Mr. Liang Jiang, Mr. Wang and other artists for advice. Thank you! Thanks to the hard work of Wang Jingfen, editor of Anhui Education Publishing House! And my parents, my parents and my lover Xiao Gui, you have given me too much encouragement in life!

Thank you sincerely!

Liu Yuedi

May 30, 2004 at the Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.