The nature and inner logic of the history of Chinese aesthetics can be discussed in terms of five aspects. First, the national character of Chinese aesthetics: Chinese aesthetics is the aesthetics of the Chinese nation. Chinese culture has forged together the cultural spirit of the many ethnic groups living on the land of China, giving prominent expression to the ideas, spirit, and traditions shared by the Chinese nation as a whole. Second, the state character of Chinese aesthetics: It is grounded in the Zhou Dynasty, whose ritual-and-music culture was at once a political culture and an aesthetic culture. The aesthetic thought of Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism, and the other major schools of Chinese culture all display a pronounced state character. Third, the cultural skeleton of Chinese aesthetics is rooted in the three influential schools of Chinese culture: Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Confucian aesthetics emphasizes society, Daoist aesthetics emphasizes nature, and Buddhist aesthetics emphasizes the mind. The three are in contrast yet complement one another, together forming the cultural skeleton of Chinese aesthetics. Fourth, the basic spirit of Chinese aesthetics. This is embodied in its understanding of aesthetic ontology, where the unity of the Daoist view that beauty lies in ziran and the Confucian view that beauty lies in civilization constitutes the basic spirit of Chinese aesthetics. Fifth, the poetic taste of Chinese aesthetics. The great influence of the Book of Songs, the Songs of Chu, and Tang poetry has shaped the poetic taste of Chinese aesthetics.

The core of Chinese culture is Dao, which is mainly manifested as the metaphysical Dao, the operation of Dao, the Dao of individual things, and the discourse of Dao. The conceptual content of Dao originated from celestial observation by setting up a pole to measure shadows in ancient times and was closely connected with the beauty of rituals and art from the very beginning. The beauty of ancient rituals, that of the courts in the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, and the aesthetic system centered on scholars after the Qin and Han dynasties all revolve around the concept of Dao. Chinese Dao has formed the void-substance, correlation, master-subordinate, and totality way of thinking and principles of Chinese culture, which also run through all aspects of Chinese aesthetics.

Modern Chinese yixiang theory has two basic paths for interpreting yixiang. One is to regard yixiang as a conceptual category marking the ontological consciousness of Chinese philosophy and aesthetics, emphasizing the significance of philosophical-aesthetic consciousness and thinking modes for yixiang theory. The other is to understand yixiang as a core category related to Chinese poetic theory and literary criticism, interpreting the value of yixiang from the perspectives of poetics (literary criticism) and poetic aesthetics. There are both connections and significant differences between the two interpretations. If these differences are not clarified, it may lead to a dislocation of interpretation, which is mainly reflected in four aspects: keyword interpretation, semantic domains, propositions, and objects of interpretation. Exploring the phenomenon of dislocation between the two interpretations helps clarify the theoretical connotation of the yixiang category and advance the study of yixiang theory.

Chinese living aesthetics encompasses a broad domain and manifold dimensions. Weather-and-seasonal aesthetics occupies an important place within Chinese living aesthetics. As part of the “Intangible Cultural Heritage,” the twenty-four solar terms manifest the ethnic character and civilizational value of Chinese solar-term aesthetics. In the face of natural weather, the solar-term culture created by Chinese ancestors embodies not only a distinctive aesthetic taste attuned to the four seasons but also the singular quality of emotion moving in step with the seasons. It displays both an aesthetic contemplation grounded in assimilation with things and appreciation of things in their seasons and gives rise to a seasonalized living aesthetics. In the face of daily life, the seasonal festivals created by Chinese ancestors reveal a temporal existence structured around seasonally established observances, while also disclosing the cultural depth of solar-term customs. They display both a vigorous, overflowing zest for life and a philosophical wisdom that unites Heaven and Earth. In the face of the changes of the times, people today uphold ideas such as following nature, cherishing time and things, revering life, and transcending the mundane. They rely on new technologies and new designs and employ new methods and new modes of expression, generating new meanings while continuing the cultural lineage and opening new chapters while advocating tradition. By doing so, they provide intellectual support for constructing a new discourse system of living aesthetics and building a modern Chinese civilization.

The “turn to living” in contemporary Chinese aesthetics denotes an academic shift that returns aesthetics to living: a new philosophical construction that seeks to bridge, and even integrate, the “lifeworld” and “aesthetic activity.” In effect, the “living aesthetics” constructed in the new century represents an “ontology of living,” thereby realizing the latest ontological shift in contemporary Chinese aesthetics following the “turn to practice” and the “turn to existence.” This “living aesthetics” encapsulates the formation, evolution, and continuation of traditional Chinese living consciousness, conceptions of living, and living pursuits. It manifests the graceful beauty of classical living scenes. At the same time, it signals its origins, trajectory, and possibility for transformation. Accordingly, researchers of Chinese aesthetics should actively engage in contemporary international aesthetic exchanges while returning to indigenous resources to excavate the legacy of classical Chinese living aesthetics.

In the era of globalization, the relationship between the global and the local is not one-dimensional. As global and local forces interact in both directions, new issues concerning “aesthetic space-time” continue to emerge, posing new challenges for Chinese aesthetics in the context of globalization. In the era of globalization, Chinese aesthetics and global aesthetics exhibit a bidirectional “China-world” interaction. Chinese aesthetics must not only address the issues of “aesthetics in China” and “Chinese aesthetics” and directly confront the task of “Chinese aesthetics going global,” but also attend to “Chinese aesthetics in the world” and “Chinese aesthetics in the construction of global aesthetics.” Guided by a dynamic new space-time consciousness rooted in the local and the global, the present and the future, it is essential to build a contemporary aesthetic system with Chinese characteristics within a global aesthetic framework, thereby actively promoting the further in-depth development of Chinese aesthetics.