Chao Wen’s academic career

When Wang Chaowen was a child, his original name was Zhaowen, which means "Yuyu Wenzai". He was destined to fight for Chinese culture throughout his life. Later, he changed his name to Chao Wen based on the meaning of "If you hear the Tao in the morning, you may die in the evening" in "The Analects of Confucius·Li Ren", it also expressed that the unremitting pursuit of truth is your vocation. In fact, advocating truth is the natural attribute of Chinese intellectuals. Confucius has long said that "a scholar must aspire to the Tao". This is true! What’s rare is that the ideals in your heart will never give up and your pursuit will be unyielding. This is what Confucius said: “My way is consistent.” Chao Chao Wen had already written a lot, but in his later years he still encouraged himself by saying that he was "unwilling to die at night" and got up at dawn every day to write hard. Chao Wen's aesthetic thoughts and theoretical ideas have influenced several generations of art workers in New China for more than 50 years. He has achieved an academic monument with dozens of writings worth nearly 10 million words.

Chao Wen was born in Hejiang County, Sichuan Province. While studying in Chengdu from 1927 to 1930, he published articles in newspapers, and also wrote scripts and novellas. In 1932, he entered the Hangzhou National Art College to study sculpture. The woodcut "Third Class Carriage" created during this period was participated in the "Chundi Art Institute Exhibition" in Shanghai and attracted the attention of Lu Xun. When the Japanese invaded in 1937, he gave up his unfinished studies and joined the "Zhejiang Mobile Theater" and drew a large number of anti-Japanese propaganda posters, comic strips and cartoons. While serving as a teacher at an art college in Chengdu in 1939, he created many comic strips, sketches and literary works reflecting life on the battlefield. On the eve of leaving Chongqing for Yan'an, I selected more than 100 works that I had written over the past two or three years and planned to publish them in Hong Kong. However, due to the Pacific War, all of them were unfortunately lost.

In 1940, Chao Chao was introduced to Yan'an by the Chongqing Eighth Route Army Office. First, he made sculptures in the art factory of Lu Xun Institute of Arts and Letters, and then taught in the art department. During this period, he created many sculptures and sketches such as portraits of Mao Zedong, Stalin, and Lu Xun. He also created a large relief statue of Mao Zedong for the auditorium of the Yan'an Central Party School. Although this work has been destroyed by Hu Zongnan's army, as one of the representative works of art in the liberated areas, it will forever occupy a page in the history of modern Chinese art.

Later, Wang Chaowen taught in the Fine Arts Department of North China United University (later changed to North China University) and once created the Zhangjiakou Liberation Monument, which was discontinued due to the fall of Zhangjiakou. In the chaos of being on standby with the teachers and students of North China University in Liangxiang, he also completed the draft of "Militia". After liberation, he created a relief statue of Mao Zedong for "Selected Works of Mao Zedong" and a round sculpture "Liu Hulan" and "Militia" for the Revolutionary History Museum. These have become representative works of New China art. He is first of all a practitioner of artistic creation. In his more than seventy years of artistic career, sculpture is a very important chapter.

In 1941, Chao Wen published a short literary essay "More Art" in the supplement of Yan'an's "Liberation Daily", which attracted attention with his clear attitude against the tendency of formulaic conceptualization. This is also his first literary criticism, which laid the foundation for his future literary criticism and aesthetic research. Beginning in the spring of 1949, he published art reviews in nine newspapers including Progress Daily, People's Daily, and Literary and Art News. Within ten months, he published 52 articles in a row, which had a great impact. In 1950, he published a book called "New Art Review". "On Art Creation". Later, he taught creative writing courses in the Sculpture Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and literary and artistic theoretical creation method courses throughout the school. He also served as the editor-in-chief of "People's Art" and began to turn to literary and artistic theoretical research.

During the seventeen years from 1949 to 1966, he published six collections of essays. Following the widely influential "On New Art Creation", there are "Collection of New Art", "Facing Life", "On the Techniques of Art", "One to Make Ten", "Love to Hear and See", "Separation without Separation", etc. . His literary criticism focuses on plastic arts, but also extensively covers literature, drama, film, folk art, folk literature, photography and other fields. He focuses on integrating theory with practice, integrating artistic creation and art appreciation. His theoretical discoveries are derived from direct and indirect aesthetic experiences. His distinctive personality, unique insights and vivid writing style are popular among people and have had a wide impact.

Beginning in 1961, he began to organize academic backbones in the national aesthetics circle to edit the college liberal arts textbook "Introduction to Aesthetics". During this period, he gave lectures and organized seminars at Peking University and other universities to understand the teaching needs and students' aesthetic interests. . "Introduction to Aesthetics" has been published 29 times since its publication in 1981, playing an important role in contemporary aesthetics education in China.

The monograph "On Sister Feng" on Red Studies completed by Chao Wen in 1980 originated from his observation and cold reflection on various metaphysical phenomena under the extreme "Left" ideological trend during the period when writing was forced to stop during the "Cultural Revolution". In the following 20 years, his research on aesthetic theory became more systematic and in-depth. His research objects were not limited to literary phenomena and literary trends, but also paid more attention to the revelation of aesthetic relationships and theoretical laws, focusing on the aspects of realistic beauty, artistic beauty and aesthetic mentality. Explain insights. The works published during this period include "The Key to Happiness", "Exploring Again", "Not to the Top", "Clear in the Heart", "Aesthetic Sensitivity", "Deja Vu", "Meeting Myself", "Aesthetic Talk", "Aesthetic Mentality", "Sculpture Sculpture", etc. have elaborated their unique and systematic insights on the aesthetic characteristics of art and the aesthetic relationship with reality. The focus of research during this period was to explore the aesthetic characteristics in aesthetic relationships, especially the study of the mentality of the aesthetic subject.

Chao Chaowen Chao Wen served as deputy director of the China Academy of Art, master of art theory, and doctoral tutor. Amidst numerous administrative work and social activities, I still seize every moment to conduct research and writing. In addition to the above-mentioned works published in his later years, there are also essay collections "The East is White", "One Body and Two Responsibilities", "Interest and Enlightenment of Harmony", "Fragments of Broken Slips", monographs "The Resurrection of Resurrection", "God" "Wandering with Things", "Tunna Yinghua", "The Cause and Effect of Stone Road", etc. In 1998, 22 volumes of "Collection of Dynasty Wen" were published, bringing together his main writings over more than sixty years. During this period, he edited 14 volumes of "The Complete Works of Chinese Folk Art", 12 volumes of "History of Chinese Art", and 5 volumes of "The Complete Works of Bada Shanren". These large-scale academic works bring together the comprehensive achievements of the academic community and represent contemporary China. Progress in the academic field, their publication has made important contributions to the construction of contemporary Chinese culture.

In his more than seventy years of artistic career, Wang Chaowen served as deputy provost of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, editor-in-chief of "Art" magazine, vice-chairman of the Chinese Artists Association, vice-president of the China Academy of Art, and Editor-in-chief of "Journal of Dream of Red Mansions", president of the Chinese Aesthetics Society, consultant of the Chinese Writers Association, and member of the third, fourth, fifth and sixth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. The Institute of Fine Arts of the China National Academy of Arts was established by him fifty years ago. He is an esthetician rich in practical character, a literary theorist with profound insights, and a scholar who has devoted his life's light and heat to the construction of Chinese culture. He has made important contributions in many aspects of Chinese culture, art, and academic construction. contribution. He is an eternal academic monument in contemporary China.