10.6092/issn.1973-9494/5444
TENG Gu is a famous art historian in Republic of China. Together with early Chinese scholars studying abroad like ZONG Bai-hua, ZHU Guang-qian, DENG Yi-zhe, MA Cai and FU Bao-shi, he constructed a framework of early Chinese Art. We still know his influence after a century. In his artistic thought, the essential music idea occupies 1/3.He had given music the highest position among all arts and cultures. In his view, culture won’t have any value if art is removed. And all arts follow the rhythm of music.
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1973-9494
5444
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en
Bo Zhang
Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage
Music Think
Research on Foreign Background and Musical Thought of Teng Gu
Text.Serial.Journal
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Articles
2014-12-30
2015-09-24
2014-12-30
2016-06-14
73-82
CSCH
Bo Zhang
2014/12/30
10.6092/issn.1973-9494/5444
73
Arts College of Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, China
1973-9494
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Music Think
en
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Dvorak. The History of Art As the History of Ideas [M]. Translated by CHEN Ping. Beijing: Peking University Press(January 2010) :P144
Research on Foreign Background and Musical Thought of Teng Gu
https://conservation-science.unibo.it/article/download/5444/5157
14
R    ESEARCH ON FOREIGN BACKGROUND AND MUSICAL
     THOUGHT OF TENG GU

   Zhang Bo
   Arts College of Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, China



   Keywords: Abroad Background, TENG Gu, Music Think



   1. Introduction


    TENG Gu was born in Baoshan, Shanghai, China. He went to study in Japan when
19 years old, and went to Germany when he was 28. He specialized in Art History in
the department of Philosophy at the University of Berlin and was trained in systematic
Western art history approach. After returning he worked as professor of the Univer-
sity of Nanking, director of Art department of Zhong Shan Cultural Education Center
etc. In 1937, Teng Gu, Zong Bai-hua, Chen Zhi-fo, Chang Ren-xia and other scholars
founded “Union of Chinese Art History.”
    There were two people to complete the transformation of traditional Chinese histo-
riography in modern china. One of them is LING Qi-chao, the other one is TENG Gu.
The books of traditional art include painting biography, painting record, painting skill,
painting comment, painting collectors or biographical chronicle, letterhead certificates




                                                                                                   CONSERVATION SCIENCE IN CULTURAL HERITAGE
and other commentaries, compile data, grade evaluation. As “founder” and “trans-
former”, TENG Gu ended the traditional artistic writing style which had been used for
thousands of years in China. What’s more, he studied the rise and fall of art history with
perspective of cultural history. Compared to FU Lei, ZONG Bai-hua, WU Li-fu, Hu Man
and the others, TENG Gu’s research is the closest to the western art historiography.
It’s more systematic and scientific.
    Two intermediations had been achieved by TENG Gu, CHEN Shi-zeng and ZONG
Bai-hua: One is combination of eastern and western culture, which is recognized West-
ern progressive. They explained the essence of traditional Chinese art with western
philosophy and scientific thought and analyzed the problem in detail; another is often
overlooked by scholars, which is to intermediate art practice with art theory. It’s rare in
the art academia of modern China. TENG Gu had many years of painting experience,
his Chinese paintings was commented as “unconventional grace, seems paintings by
poet.” His doctoral thesis had been highly commented by German art historian: “In terms
of the relationship between people and the plastic arts in history, this paper has a great
significance in understanding the art which have been existed thousands of years.” [1]
    The difference is they embodied the incisiveness and accuracy of the combination
of Chinese and Western art in a different way. TENG Gu embodied in the painting
techniques and Deng Yi-zhe embodied in the strokes of Chinese calligraphy which
is vigorous and forceful. That is because Deng came from calligraphy family. He is
the five descendant of DENG Shi-ru who is a famous calligrapher and seal Qing Dy-


                                                                                              73
                                                                            nasty; CHEN Shi-zeng and TENG Gu are very similar. They are both good at painting,
                                                                            but CHEN Shi-zeng’s “History of Chinese Painting” is focused on the relationship of
                                                                            painting techniques (the pencraft) which is rarely embodied in TENG Gu’s history of
                                                                            Chinese painting; As for ZONG Bai-hua, he explained the aesthetic and psychologi-
                                                                            cal impact of Chinese traditional arts from the universality of “aesthetic experience”,
                                                                            because his teacher Desuo stressed the experience in art appreciation.
                                                                               Now the evaluation to TENG Gu focuses on his historical stages instead of the na-
                                                                            ture of his art, poetry, painting and music ideas. In fact discussion about the nature of
                                                                            art (music) accounted for one-third of TENG Gu ‘s artistic thought. He believes “if art is
                                                                            removed from culture, it won’t have no value.” “all the arts always tend to the rhythm of
                                                                            the music” [2] It’s to guide the essence of all art, which shows his emphasis on music.


                                                                               2. The Source of TENG Gu’s musical think

                                                                                The art think of TENG Gu was mainly impacted by the “spiritual philosophy” of Croce,
                                                                            who insisted that the beauty can be analyzed, and art work also can be analyzed. In “the
                                                                            Aesthetics as the Performance of Scientific and General Linguistics”,Croce divided the
                                                                            human knowledge into two parts: the intuitive knowledge and the knowledge of theory,
                                                                            the mental activity was divided into four forms accordingly: Cognitive activity (includ-
Zhang Bo - Research on foreign background and musical thought of TENG Gu




                                                                            ing intuition activity and logic activity) and practice activity (including utilitarian activity
                                                                            and moral activity).The former is imagination and knowledge about the individual mate-
                                                                            rial, which is aesthetic activity; The latter is “ knowledge from knowledge”, which is the
                                                                            knowledge of relationship, system and the scientific activities. In nature, the “intuition
                                                                            is accurate and correct grasp with strong clarity”. “The Intuitive knowledge is the basis
                                                                            of the theory of knowledge.” In the “Aesthetic principle”, Croce proposed that the art is
                                                                            the intuition, and the intuition is the performance. The “performance theory” of Croce is
                                                                            very close to R.G. Collingwood, and they were criticized later. Considering the art is the
                                                                            creation of symbolic form of the human emotion in the “emotion and form” and “artistic
                                                                            problems”, Susan Lange of the symbol aesthetic school inherited Cassirer’s views. She
                                                                            stressed that the expression of Art is the human emotion rather than the individual emo-
                                                                            tions of artists, so she distinguished the difference between “performance” and “cathar-
                                                                            sis”. Moritz Geiger made a distinction between happiness and joy, catharsis and perfor-
                                                                            mance in “The meaning of Art “, and emphasized that the art was still the embodiment of
                                                                            spirit and emotion of human. However, after studying the aesthetics of Croce, XU Ping
                                                                            found Susan Lange and ZHU Guang-qian had misinterpreted the meaning of Croce.
                                                                            Firstly they confused the meaning of philosophical intuition and general psychological
                                                                            intuition in “the Aesthetics as the Performance of Scientific and General Linguistics”.
                                                                            Secondly they confused that the relationship of the four formal logic of spirit activity is
                                                                            not the undertake of time. [3] Xu Ping was right. In fact, it’s the same meaning of “emo-
                                                                            tional” of Croce and Susan Lange. Because Croce thought “The emotion expressed by
                                                                            artistic practices is the state of mind. Besides, it is impossible to perform. The art is the
                                                                            expression of emotion.” Susan Langer believed that music is an illusion of “ feeling resort
                                                                            in time”, “the direct experience of time on us in nature is a kind of feelings passage in
                                                                            the function or events of life. This passage is felt by us as an inherent tension – a kind of
                                                                            physical, emotional and mental tension”. [4]
                                                                                TENG Gu inherited and developed this view of Croce -- art activity is the sum of
                                                                            intuition and emotion. Basing on this experience, he thought that the most significant


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means of the life intuition is the mood lingering. The deepest intuition in life must be
activities which arouse the deep and subtle emotion. Our inner experience will not be
driven without emotional experience. “The ancient music education in this article is not
merely referring to the ancient music education or the surgery of education coated with
music. The meaning is to explore the art understanding of music taught by ancients to
us and other related problem”, and “ the music is the emotional expression of art”, he
wrote in “Elucidation of Ancient Music Education”.


   3. The Origin of propositions and the logical argument

    The research on the nature of music by TENG Gu scattered in “Poetry and
Painting”(December 1920),“the Dawn of Culture” (August 1922), “the Origins of Cul-
ture on Art” (April 1923), “the Art Comments from Artist “ (May 1923), “the Poetry
Painter Dante G.Rossetti” (December 1923), “Arts and Sciences” (February 1924),
“the Rhythm of Art” (January 1926), “the Nature and Form of Art” (June 1926), “the
Elucidation of Ancient Music Education”(June 1940). In these studies, he did not di-
rectly propose the proposition and demonstration, and only borrowed the words of
Waltir Pater that”All art constantly tends to the state of music”. It’s given away by Waltir
Pater. This state in the music is the rhythm. After in-depth study of the art thinking of
TENG Gu, we will find his art thinking is consistent in the logic. His thinking and logic
is reflected in the following aspects:

   1. The cultural concept guide all arts
   The Culture concept of TENG Gu is mainly reflected in the concept of cultural histo-
ry and the concept of cultural values. Affected by German art historian in the 19th
century, TENG Gu has been studying art in the grand view of culture, which is dif-




                                                                                                    CONSERVATION SCIENCE IN CULTURAL HERITAGE
ferent from the other Chinese art historians in the same time. LIANG Qi-chao and
Tsai Yuan-pei affected TENG Gu much during his study in Japan. He wrote in “the
Origins of Culture on Arts “: “Two years ago I have read ‘the Origin of Fine Art’
of Tsai Yuan-pei in the ‘New Wave’, he cited the body decoration of our ancient
nation, etc. Recently, Mr. LIANG Ren-gong (the honorific of LIANG Qi-chao) also
talked about the art history of our country in his book ‘the Research Methods of
Chinese History’. So these two articles left a deep impression on me. “So, TENG
Gu considered that “ culture is the object of value, all the meaning of cultures,
such as religious church, law, nation, customs, science, language, literature and
art experience, and the necessary specialized methods on profession, is the con-
cept of culture and its value. This is the German culture school advocator Rickert
named “culture objective “for” Value “, which is recognized by everyone.
   TENG Gu guided his study to all arts with these two views. In the letter to
WANG Tong-zhao early in January 1921, he introduced himself “Now I also study
from many aspects: philosophy, literature, drama and painting. The painting em-
phasizes on the criticism.” He criticized that now the cultural studies confined to
their respective fields. Literature researchers pay little attention on art, art work-
ers know little about literature. It’s very clear that the criticism of TENG Gu is to
get through these barriers between different arts.




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                                                                               2. The intermediation of people with world

                                                                                TENG Gu explained the nature of art with three concepts: “perpetual mobility and
                                                                            consecution”,”the will to live” and “XIANG”(phase), combining natural philosophy of
                                                                            ancient Chinese and Greek to discuss art. In philosophers of these two great ancient
                                                                            civilizations, the nature of the world is movement. Those natural phenomena don’t
                                                                            have a rest in a moment, such as the alternation of day and night, the circulation of
                                                                            seasons. The research purpose of the natural philosophers and scientists is to find
                                                                            these laws hidden behind the phenomenon. The explanation in Chinese philosophy
                                                                            about the working of universe is embodied in the “live” (or endless), “imaging”, “follow”,
                                                                            “Poles come to know”, “Change”, “YIN and YANG eventuality” in the “YI Jing” (“Book
                                                                            of Changes”),and there is always a “method” hidden in all those transitions and flow.
                                                                            These “methods “were interpreted as” to move and methodical “ by DAI Dong-yuan, it
                                                                            means all things tend to move and rich clarity. Greeks like to explain the cosmos with
                                                                            harmony and order, which is same in ancient Greek philosophy, Aurelius Augustinus,
                                                                            Thomas Aquinas, Wilhelm Leibniz, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Hegel, Joseph von Schell-
                                                                            ing and so on. TENG Gu exclaimed, “Greeks is rich of exquisite talent to found the
                                                                            visible in unreal and intangible things.”
                                                                                In fact, there are a lot of similarities in explaining about the world between Greece
                                                                            and China，such as harmony, clarity, order, method. In Chinese philosopher’view, the
Zhang Bo - Research on foreign background and musical thought of TENG Gu




                                                                            purpose of follow is to avoid conflict or disadvantage, but tends to harmony. The per-
                                                                            formance or the result of everything is rich of clarity, is order. The difference of the
                                                                            explanation on world between China and the West should not just be limited to the con-
                                                                            ception, but should be studied comprehensively from its purpose, motivation, results,
                                                                            etc. Maybe that’s why TENG Gu criticized the limitations of study in modern China.
                                                                                TENG Gu used the “will to live” to finance the relationship between the people and
                                                                            the world. In “the Nature and Form of Art”, he wrote “The birth of art comes from the
                                                                            relationship between man and the world,......Human beings were born in this world, we
                                                                            subsisted in this world. When they make an effort to survive every day, they will gener-
                                                                            ate some feelings of world. This is a kind of survival feeling which was poured into the
                                                                            attitude about the phenomenon world. Art is something expressed such feelings.”The
                                                                            “will to live” of TENG Gu is obviously affected by the “will to power” of Nietzsche. In
                                                                            “the Art Comments from Artist “, he refered to the name of Nietzsche in a clear. Riegl,
                                                                            also affected by Nietzsche, explained the inevitability of change in art with “Art will”
                                                                            (the inner impulse to create art forms). Why people should comply with the testimonies
                                                                            of universe running? It’s because “ if God created fetish, these saints will divine; if the
                                                                            universe changes, these saints will follow”, TENG Gu explained with “ZHOU Yi”.

                                                                               3. Arts as the intermediary of intermediation to “people - world”

                                                                               In ancient Chinese, the running of the universe reflects a XIANG (representation),
                                                                            what the Artists do is to explore the unique value of nature from the “XIANG”, and
                                                                            express in the works. The harmony, proportion, balance, order of universe in Ancient
                                                                            Greek art embodied in the temple buildings. The concept of “small universe” reflects
                                                                            in the human body sculpture, which corresponds to the “big universe”. The perfect
                                                                            painting was done in the Renaissance. At that time, western completed the “great-art
                                                                            system” - architecture, sculpture, painting, the classicism aesthetic system also tends
                                                                            to be perfect. Besides the great art, Greece also communicated with the outside world


                                                                       76
or God by theater performances. In the first memorial ceremony, performers were sing-
ing and dancing around the altar to praise the Bacchus. In 560 BC the tyrant Pisistratus
moved Dionysian Memorial from village to Athens, which was the predecessor of the
drama. Hegel believes the less bound of the material, the stronger the conception,
the higher of the freedom and liberation. And the spirit of art will be more consistent.
“Romantic art choose painting and music as its absolute form” to achieve the absolute
spirit, which is the performance rich in heart, perfect and have eternal value. [5]
   So, why the expression of art should experience the vitality of the universe and life?
TENG Gu explained with Chinese ancient philosophy: This is because people are full
of anxiety, boredom, ideal, desire when they survive in the world. People have the
nature of “stirred by things and move”. The feelings stirred by things induced in heart
and were spoken out. Ambitions were expressed with poetry. If the words are lacking,
they will sigh; if the sigh is lacking, they will sing the holiness; if the singing is lacking,
they will dance. This is also recorded in “Yu Shu”. So the art is an intermediary thing,
through which human exchange with the world or the God. Life is expressed with
beauty and exact form. Those ordinary people cannot perceive, while only those artists
who have a keen sensibility of life can capture this moving and create order.


   4. All arts eternally tend to the rhythm of music

    For this proposition, TENG Gu explained with the theory of Chinese classical lit-
erature. It’s recorded in “Doctrine of the Mean (Zhong Yong)” that “Gentleman should
be careful even when staying alone. ZHONG means no expression of passions; HE
means passions of moderation... When people actualize the mean, the universe will be
in their place. All things will grow and be cultivated. “Doctrine of the Mean” reflects the
principle of caution, balance, moderation and harmony of Chinese ancients. This idea




                                                                                                       CONSERVATION SCIENCE IN CULTURAL HERITAGE
is also reflected in “YUE JI” (the book of music): the “YUE”is the HE of universe. The
LI (Rites) is the program of universe. The HE makes universe harmony. The program
makes things different. So the meaning of LI can turn everything to a certain order. It’s
recorded in “YUE JI” that people have the nature of moving and being moved when
touched by something. Poetry, song and dance started from heart. The rhythm of mu-
sic has touched the basic form of universe -- harmony and order. In TENG Gu’s view,
this is where rhythm of art started. So he summarized that all arts eternally tend to the
rhythm of music. Of course, this is also the essence of Western classical art. From this
point, the interpretations about the origin of art between China and the West have a
lot in common.
    In summary, the music thinking of TENG Gu is as follows: Art was born in the
“human’s will to survive”. Life is full of uneasiness, depression, idealism and desire.
Art removed this curtain to give an exact and fine form of the life. It directly faced
the most profound aspects of the intuitive life. Human kind experience true life from
art. Art completes the mission of communication between the world and human. It
can be briefed into four sentences: “perpetual mobility and consecution” is the truth
of the universe. Moving is the essence of art. Organization is its form. And all arts
eternally turn into the rhythm of music. In one sentence it can be briefed that the
essence of art is “dynamic”.




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                                                                               4. Supplementary about TENG Gu ‘s explanation of Western natural philosophy

                                                                                Teng Gu’s discussion on “perpetual mobility and consecution” of universe are mainly
                                                                            originated from Chinese ancient philosophy. He did not discuss deeply on the natural
                                                                            philosophy of ancient Greece, while only epitomized with “Great Harmony”. To better un-
                                                                            derstand the meaning of “perpetual mobility and consecution” in universe by TENG Gu, it
                                                                            is necessary to add some explanations to the nature in Western philosophy and science.
                                                                                Around 5th century BC, the natural philosophy in ancient Greece has been arisen
                                                                            suddenly as “miracle”. Thanks to Near East civilizations, many natural philosophers
                                                                            sprung up, such as Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Euclid, Archimedes, etc.
                                                                            In this period Arabs brought writings and mathematics from the East. It’s because
                                                                            the formation time of Greek philosophical and scientific thought started the Milesians
                                                                            represented by Thales. It’s a rich city closed to Asia Minor, which is in Turkey’s Mediter-
                                                                            ranean coast now. This civilization was later extended to these cities of Ionia district,
                                                                            rather than the first generation in the Greek mainland itself. It’s the place where Thales
                                                                            brought the geometry into the Greek world.
                                                                                Human kinds have different ways to understand the nature, such as language, arts,
                                                                            mathematics, science, history, etc. Math has always been the most sophisticated hu-
                                                                            man intelligence, the most complex and mysterious way of thinking in science. It is a
                                                                            ladder in key of rational thinking during human rising. Math requires computing con-
Zhang Bo - Research on foreign background and musical thought of TENG Gu




                                                                            cepts and verified logical thinking. “Thanks for names and numbers, the human ability
                                                                            of understanding can finally subdue the world.” [6]
                                                                                For the ancient scientists, the mathematics has a bond with astronomy (initially as-
                                                                            trology) and witchcraft, “From the point of their social role, it’s more appropriate to say
                                                                            Thales is a wise man or astrologer than ‘the first one scientist’, though he is often called
                                                                            ‘scientist’.” [7] “Why astrology became the first science instead of medicine after the
                                                                            earliest and perfect development? And why it became the prototype of development of
                                                                            physics eventually? This is mainly because the prediction of the motion result of the stars
                                                                            can be calculated to demonstrate. This task was originally processed by mathematicians
                                                                            who treat math uniquely. The advances in physics and biology are to find a formula and
                                                                            a law to find the mathematical model. “”The Alchemist arbitrarily introduced the mineral
                                                                            into medicine: for example, salt as the fulcrum to make disease better...... It was used
                                                                            to treat disease raging in Europe never been seen since1500—Syphilis, which is a new
                                                                            disaster...... The powerful treatment of syphilis is chemical metal-- mercury. This is a
                                                                            new alchemy which developed into modern science - chemotherapy, life chemistry - a
                                                                            milestone. “[8] This is the meaning of ancient alchemy. It’s a very natural thing to develop
                                                                            from mathematics to astronomy. It is a test of cultural temperament and thought.
                                                                                Witchcraft, alchemist and natural philosopher all believe that nature is a regular sys-
                                                                            tem. There must be mutual induction, same primitive element or mysterious relation-
                                                                            ship between the microscopic structures of the human body and the things in nature.
                                                                            The alchemists think they are mercury and sulfide. Natural philosophers think they are
                                                                            four elements. What they do is to find these order and primitiveness.
                                                                                No matter how the identity of Thales is-- scientists or magus, on the one hand, he
                                                                            stressed that “God is everywhere”. On the other hand, he was completely out of divin-
                                                                            ity when he explained about nature, “Let God aside.” Thales thought the world around
                                                                            the substance “material” is the original material the same composition made of water.
                                                                                Thales believes substance “material” around world is composed of substance like wa-
                                                                            ter. This substance theory (water is the element material) has always been the basic think-


                                                                       78
ing of pre Socratic school. In 535 BC Anaximenes proposed the concept of “Qi” and “force”.
Finally Empedocles used the “four elements” -- air, fire, water, earth, and the attraction
or repulsion from “love” or “hate” to explain the formation of universe. This theory is very
similar with ancient Chinese theory of “WU Xing” (Five Elements theory) and “YUAN QI
“(vitality theory). This characteristics of diversity and abstraction was played to extreme
by Pythagoreans. Mathematics was also introduced into philosophy, which constitute the
material world in some perfect form. Pythagoras School found the most abstruse math-
ematical order of the universe during the study on strings and tone. This research finally
found the harmony between mathematics and music. He also used the “irrational” which is
broken to the world to the origin of universe and to the microscopic structure, order.
    Socrates, Plato, Aristotle all inherited this way.The Worldview of Aristotle reflects the
unity and universality. He believed the world we experienced is a real of substance.
In his view, an object is combined into an indivisible mixture by the basic material and
paradigms. In “Metaphysics”, he said: all things have their own structure, generated
from it firstly, and finally into its(Entity is always the same, just change its shape). It is
the element and primitive of all things. This primitive is the fifth element “ether”. It is
also the element dynamic of the universe. The other four elements has its own “natural
position” and make circular mechanical movement in the universe. This mechanical
concept of substances constitutes the basis of the characteristics of classical aesthet-
ics, which adulterate harmony, order, people and other factors. This aesthetic thoughts
affected people for nearly 2000 years. Greek philosophy was in the “maid” status in the
first six centuries of Christianity. The heritage of Greek philosophical was re-excavated
and shine in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries which is the Arabs large translation
time. This is the reason TENG Gu did not explain how the Chinese “perpetual mobility
and consecution” embodied the “harmony and order” in Greek philosophy.
    Chinese traditional philosophy is metaphysics keeping the overall impression to ex-
perience and contemplate the universe in a thinking made of spontaneous, emotional




                                                                                                       CONSERVATION SCIENCE IN CULTURAL HERITAGE
experience, exploring the nature of universe. This is very clear to the ancient Greek
philosophy at first, but the ancient Greek philosophy finally embarked on a road explor-
ing the physical structure of universe in the concept, reflecting a strong will.
    TENG Gu accepted this speculative and theoretical thinking during his study in Germa-
ny. Combining Chinese and Western art together, He regarded art as science, studied tradi-
tional Chinese art basing on the philosophy analysis, and then grasped the essence of art.


   5. Western art theory cannot explain the Chinese art?

    In the study of TENG GU, a kind of voice is growing in the modern China. Many
researchers think it’s impossible to analyze Chinese experiential art with the Western
philosophical theory of rational thinking. The sound has also happened to other scholar
of studying abroad in modern China. But this conclusion is not absolute. The key of
explanation or not is whether four financing were done: the art creation and art theory,
explanation on Chinese or western philosophical theory, the financing between Chinese
and western; Chinese classical and modern language. On the surface, there is a great
difference between Chinese and western art. In fact the difference between eastern and
western art is not so realistic and lyrical. Western art is not entirely realistic. Chinese art
is not all decent. If you appreciate original works of Western classical painting, you will
find a lot of shapes about realistic image. Take trees for example, they are very similar


                                                                                                  79
                                                                            to Chinese painting techniques. Similarly, Chinese landscape painting and the statue
                                                                            of Buddha painting in Tang Dynasty clearly show the western painting techniques. The
                                                                            mistakes of those oppositions were most of them had no creative practice and experi-
                                                                            ence, even not seeing the original works. Then they were simply explained from theory
                                                                            to theory. The worse is they made the three categories of the realistic art, abstract art
                                                                            and ideas art in the development of Western art seriously opposed. So the difference
                                                                            between Chinese and Western art is not completely clear. The difference between shape
                                                                            and meaning should not be limited in scope between Chinese and Western art. It should
                                                                            be manner and ideas to create art by the artist. As an artist and theorist, I have been
                                                                            exploring this area. The recent creation of landscape painting has proven that Chinese
                                                                            and Western painting can be achieved in techniques, principles, mood, taste, etc.
                                                                                DENG Yi-zhe is also a Chinese and Western scholar. He took the BI FA(technique
                                                                            of calligraphy) as core, discussed the two unity of architecture in history and logic:
                                                                            one is about the imagery system of creation “TI1-form-YI2-LI3”, and another is the psy-
                                                                            chological system of appreciation: “vivid - lifelike – Qi Yun (artistic conception)”. He
                                                                            believed that the painting only embodies the highest purely spiritual, which is able to
                                                                            be compared with calligraphy. And the evaluation standard of “vivid - lifelike – Qi Yun”
                                                                            is the absolute spirit or absolute freedom of Hegel.
                                                                                In the development of Western art, various art genres and styles are not incompatible
                                                                            like water and fire.Athens temple reflects a solemn rhythm: respect for life and thinking.
Zhang Bo - Research on foreign background and musical thought of TENG Gu




                                                                            Some sculptures, such as “Gaul and his wife” and “Dying Gaul”, have touched the edge
                                                                            of hearts and life. The tight brow of “Epicurus Avatar” filled with sorrow and pain. The
                                                                            loss and depressed mood finally erupted like avalanche or baroque violence on the relief
                                                                            frieze of the great altar Pergamum after falling in the hands of Romans Octavian. After
                                                                            made ​​a profound reflection on the death of Christ to redeem the world, Michelangelo
                                                                            began to realize that people like God who is beyond nature and conquering the world
                                                                            is doomed to fail. So the most profound humanity and survival problem - what is the
                                                                            purpose of life? What is the relationship between secular values ​​and timeless intangible
                                                                            value? Linking himself dangerous situation, he injected the tragic sense of existential into
                                                                            art, broking out in a huge passion. “ Non vi si pensa, quanto sangue costa”（You cannot
                                                                            imagine how much effort I spent）.[9]Pieter Bruegel the Elder inherited Michelangelo’s
                                                                            awareness. There is many symbol of blind man trying the road in his works; As for Vin-
                                                                            cent van Gogh who is the late impressionist and expressionist art, passion outbreak in
                                                                            strokes and colors. It’s already without any restraint and conceal.
                                                                                Visibility, the rhythm, life, feeling, spirit, universe are the essence of arts rather than
                                                                            the visual differences on the surface. So TENG Gu using music, which can show the
                                                                            absolute freedom of the intangible art, to guide the spirit and essence of art. It is not too
                                                                            far that this comes from his deep understanding on the true meaning of art.


                                                                               6. Conclusion

                                                                               In short, TENG Gu completed the new transformation of Chinese art history theory
                                                                            with western art history research methods. His art ideology included historical and

                                                                            1          Mean chirography, such as regular script, running hand.
                                                                            2          Mean artistic conception, rhyme or charm, etc. here mainly refers to draw shape with
                                                                            the calligraphy pen.



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cultural concept, scientific concept, Darwinism concept, salvation concept of culture
(art) and many other factors. On this basis, TENG Gu intermediate his musical ideas
with the nature of painting, sculpture, architecture art, condense in the rhythm,life, uni-
verse, emotion, absolute freedom and other deep spiritual significance. As the founder
of modern Chinese art history, his artistic thought still worth learning and research. It
already became an important part of cultural heritage in modern times of our country.


      References

[1]     SHEN Ning. the Research on Doctorate of TENG Gu[J]. new art (April 2003)
[2]     SHEN Ning. Art Collection of TENG Gu[M]. Shanghai: Shanghai people’s Fine
        Arts Publishing, (January 2013) :P preface;376 (Note; The original of TENG Gu
        in this paper are all from Art Collection of TENG Gu, no more note, thanks to the
        editors of years hard.)
[3]     XU Ping. Art: the Dawn to Understanding [M]. Nanjing: Jiangsu Education Pub-
        lishing (June 1990) :P6-49
[4]     Susanne K. Langer. Problems of Art[M].Translated by TENG Shou-Yao. Bejing:
        China Social Sciences Publishing (June 1983) :P36
[5]     Hegel. Aesthetics[M]. (vol 1) Translated by ZHU Guang-qian. Beijing: Commer-
        cial Press (September 1982) :P114
[6]     Oswald Spengler. the Decline of the West (vol 1. Form and Reality) [M].Translated
        by WU Qiong, Shanghai :Shanghai Sanlian Books(October 2006) :P 10～58
[7]     James. E. McClellan III, Harold Dorn. Science and Technology in World His-
        tory [M]. Translated by WANG Ming-yang. Shanghai Education Publishing (April
        2007) :P 4-81
[8]     Bronowski,J. the Ancient of Man [M]. Translated by LI Si. Haikou: Hainan Pub-




                                                                                                   CONSERVATION SCIENCE IN CULTURAL HERITAGE
        lishing (December 2001):P 129-156
[9]     Dvorak. The History of Art As the History of Ideas [M]. Translated by CHEN Ping.
        Beijing: Peking University Press(January 2010) :P144


      Summary

    TENG Gu is a famous art historian in Republic of China. Together with early Chinese
scholars studying abroad like ZONG Bai-hua, ZHU Guang-qian, DENG Yi-zhe, MA Cai
and FU Bao-shi, he constructed a framework of early Chinese Art. We still know his
influence after a century. In his artistic thought, the essential music idea occupies 1/3.
He had given music the highest position among all arts and cultures. In his view, culture
won’t have any value if art is removed. And all arts follow the rhythm of music.




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