Background
Li Zehou was born on June 13, 1930 in Daolin, Ningxiang County, Hunan, China. Another saying: he was born in the city of Hankou, but his family moved to Changsha when he was four years old.
(Since it was first published in Chinese in 1981, The Path...)
Since it was first published in Chinese in 1981, The Path of Beauty has been read widely and translated into several languages, becoming a classic in the study of Chinese aesthetics. The author, a noted philosopher and aesthetician, draws on examples of sculpture, painting, calligraphy, and poetry, among other sources, from throughout China's history to build a cogent and engaging argument concerning the nature of Chinese artistic values. While providing an historical overview of Chinese art from antiquity to modern times, he examines as well the evolution of the sociological, psychological, philosophical, and spiritual underpinnings of Chinese culture.
https://www.amazon.com/Path-Beauty-Chinese-Aesthetics-Paperbacks/dp/019586526X/?tag=2022091-20
1995
(Li's seminal work focuses on the widely debated philosoph...)
Li's seminal work focuses on the widely debated philosophies in China concerning the origins, manifestations, importance, and transformative power of beauty, art, and aesthetic experiences. Drawing upon the influences of both Eastern and Western philosophers and writers, Li discusses the origination of the practices of beauty and aesthetics, and the origins of art credited to Shamanistic rituals, while rejecting the concepts of Western aesthetics and embracing the traditional Chinese purpose for art: to mold human minds. He stresses the importance of the involvement of aesthetic philosophers to advocate technology and aspects of society that will contribute to the harmony among individuals, environments, and social relationships. Begun as a series of engaging conversations, Li Zehou and Jane Cauvel reveal their philosophical presuppositions and expose a deeper, cross-cultural understanding of the philosophy of aesthetics. Their ground breaking work creates a bridge between the traditional and the modern, the East and the West, and brings us one step closer to understanding the beauty in human nature.
https://www.amazon.com/Four-Essays-Aesthetics-Toward-Perspective/dp/0739113216/?tag=2022091-20
李泽厚
Li Zehou was born on June 13, 1930 in Daolin, Ningxiang County, Hunan, China. Another saying: he was born in the city of Hankou, but his family moved to Changsha when he was four years old.
Li Zehou attended the Ningxiang No. 4 High School. After graduating from Peking University in 1954, he was dispatched to the Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
As a result of his criticism of the Chinese government's response to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, he was labeled a "thought criminal" and confined to house arrest for three years. Following substantial U.S. official and academic pressure, the Chinese government granted Professor Li permission to visit the United States in 1991. Subsequently, the U.S. government granted him permanent resident status.
Since 1992, Professor Li has held numerous academic positions, including appointments at Colorado College, the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, Swarthmore College and the University of Colorado Boulder.
(Li's seminal work focuses on the widely debated philosoph...)
(Since it was first published in Chinese in 1981, The Path...)
1995An overriding goal of Li Zehou’s work has been to promote a philosophy of the human being that was not only based on the materialistic and historical realities as analyzed and posited by Karl Marx, but which also supported the view of Immanuel Kant as to the individual's intellectual, moral and aesthetic capacities. As a core element in his analysis, he incorporates the thinking of the greats of Chinese philosophy as well. This blended and fundamentally optimistic view of humankind was a counterbalance to the views of humans during and after the Cultural Revolution. Li Zehou's analysis of Marxist philosophy and political theory developed the following philosophical concepts: Practical philosophy of subjectivity, Motor thinking, Chinese aesthetics and the relation to freedom, Impact on conventional Chinese thought.
Quotations: "Our younger generation longs to make a contribution to the fields of philosophy and that they are searching [for new avenues] to meet the nation's general goal of modernization as well as the challenge to answer the question about what direction the world is heading."
Quotes from others about the person
Professor Yu Ying-shih of Princeton University has written: "Through (his) books he emancipated a whole generation of young Chinese intellectuals from Communist ideology."