PKU Today in History - a daily column featuring historic events regarding PKU and PKUers.

Zhu Guangqian, standing committee member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, central committee member of Chinese Democratic League, honorary president of Chinese Aesthetics Institution, well-known aesthetician and educationist, and professor of Department of English of Peking University, passed away on March 6, 1986, at the age of 89.

Zhu Guangqian (1897-1986)

Born Septemper 19, 1897, in Tongcheng, Anhui, Zhu Guangqian (courtesy name: Mengshi) used to work as a middle school teacher in Shanghai and Zhejiang. Guangqian founded the Kaiming Bookstore and the magazine Yiban (later renamed Middle School Students) after his graduation from the Faculty of Arts at Hong Kong University in 1922. In 1925, he traveled to England and France for further study, and got his doctor’s degree; his thesis was Tragedy Psychology. He returned in 1933 to China where he successively werved as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Sichuan University, Dean of Students at Wuhan University, Dean of the Department of Western Languages at Peking University, Acting Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Peking University, chief editor of Literary Magazine at the Commercial Press, as well as president and honorary president of the Chinese Aesthetics Institution.

Zhu Guangqian is a pioneer in the field of Chinese modern aesthetics studies. His works include The Psychology of Tragedy, On Beauty, The Psychology of Art, On Poetry, A History of Western Aesthetics, and Letters on Beauty. He also translated several masterpieces, such as The Laocoon by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Among them, The History of Western Aesthetics is the first monograph in China that systematically expounds the development of Western Aesthetics.

Zhu Guangqian passed away on March 6, 1986. Peking University held a farewell ceremony for him at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery on March 17.

Translated by: Xu Xinyi
Edited by: Su Juan
Source: PKU News (Chinese)