General aesthetics is the science of the aesthetic in general, and its domain comprises aesthetic phenomena both in art and nature according to the monistic principle. However, from the viewpoint of its history, aesthetics has not always been defined as the science of only beauty. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, following the intellectual trends amid the rapid progress of the natural sciences, the need to treat art as an general science was advocated on the grounds that art could be clearly understood as consisting of concrete and empirical facts rather than as an abstract and ambiguous concept of beauty. The controversy continues to this day. Therefore, this article compares the classic definitions of beauty and art in the Orient and the West and examines the aesthetic meanings of beauty and art. And point out that art is also a medium for communicating aesthetic value, which has a social function. And during the phase of its enjoyment, art is an activity involving the contemplator's inner re-creation that allows for social participation through the subjective emotional self-expression of its aesthetic value.

Abstract-According to records of the Historian (Shi Ji), Confucius deserves a place among the illustrious men in the past and was the sage among the sages. In the oriental, it may be no exaggeration to say that we are still living in the traditions of Confucian thoughts. In the West, Plato did not work out a systemic exposition of aesthetic problems, but he dealt in his writings with all the problems of aesthetic. Likewise in the oriental, Confucius, the founder of 'Ru' school which has been known in the West as the Confucian, did not write any book specifically on aesthetics, but many passages on beauty and art could be found in the analects of Confucius (Lun Yu). The purpose of this paper is to make systematic study of Confucius's thoughts on aesthetics by means of examining relevant sayings in "Lun Yu" and other classic materials that impart his ideas of beauty and art. Now before proceeding to the main issue, a brief survey of his position in history and the characteristics of his thoughts in general will be made to compare with some Athenian philosophers of the classical period.