Bulletin Number Two 1983

T HE I N T ERV I EW Q. Professor Zhu, when did you shift your field of study from education to aesthetics? A. I began to study English Literature at the University of Hong Kong. Later when I furthered my studies in England and France, I also took up French and German Literature. In the study of literature, I naturally came across the artistic beauty of literary works and became interested in aesthetics. Once I started delving into it, I published letters' to discuss aesthetics in literature with youths in China. At that time, I also published letters' on the self-cultivation of youths because I started my career in education and have always been interested in the field. Q. Who inspired you to devote yourself to the study of aesthetics when you were in England and France? A. When I was awarded the Government Scholarship to study in England, I consulted Professor Simpson, who taught us English Literature at the University of Hong Kong, and he suggested that I should further my studies at the University of Edinburgh, his alma mater. Scotland was relatively quiet then and was really a good place to study in. There I met two famous professors who had great influence on me. One was Professor Kamp-Smith, an expert in the study of Kant. I benefited greatly from him, though he did not encourage me to study aesthetics. The other was Professor H.J.C. Grierrson, Chairman of the English Department, who specialized in metaphysical poetry and history of philosophy. As for literary criticism, I was under the influence of LA. Richards, whom I did not have a chance to know personally then. However, he visited China when I was teaching in the Beijing University. After graduating from the University of Edinburgh, I became an auditing student of the University of London. I also enrolled at the University of Paris. I always went over there during the summer vacation and Christmas holidays. My supervisor at the University of Strasbourg was Professor Charles Blondel, who specialized in psychology and literary criticism. Under his supervision, I completed my doctoral thesis, ‘The Psychology of Tragedy'. It was originally written in English and the Chinese translation was pub- blished in Beijing last year. Q. What are the major influences that have shaped your aesthetic concepts? A. When I was first drawn to the subejct, I started by studying Croce, the great Italian aesthetician, whose achievement was generally recognized in Europe then. His influence could be seen in the many books on aesthetics by other aestheticians which I read. However, I came to disagree with some of his views, and I wrote A Critique of Croce's Philosophy in the thirties. Then I began studying his teacher Giovanni Battista Vico's works. I found that there were some differences between their viewpoints and that Vico's achievement was even greater. That was why I spent three, years translating his Scienza Nuova. The first draft of the translation has already been completed and I shall go over it again when I return to Beijing. I hope that the final draft will be ready by next year. In studying aesthetics, I often compare Chinese and western concepts. My father was a teacher in an old-style tutorial school. When I was small, I studied under him for several years, and I can still remember the Chinese poems and writings that I memorized. I think that the Book of Music (樂 記 ） i s the most important book on Chinese aesthetics. In my study of aesthetics, these often come back to mind. I have also been influenced by some modern Chinese aestheticians, especially Cai Yuan-pei and Wang Guo-wei. Cai, former 16 ACADEMIC/CULTURAL EVENTS