Professor Zhu Guangqian, one of the University's oldest graduates, obtained the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1923.
Following a brief period as a teacher in Wusong, Shangyu, and Shanghai, he pursued further studies at the University of Edinburgh with a Chinese Government Scholarship. He graduated in 1929, and continued his studies first at the University of London and then at the University of Paris. Later, he studied for a doctorate under the guidance of Professor Charles Blondel of the University of Strasbourg, the subject of his study being The Psychology of Tragedy.
In 1933, Professor Zhu returned to China and taught in succession at the University of Beijing, Qinghua University, and the Central Academy of Arts. At the same time, he started The Literary Magazine in cooperation with Yang Zhensheng, Shen Congwen, Yu Pingbai and Zhou Zuoren, advocating independence and freedom of the arts.
During the Sino-Japanese War, Professor Zhu was first appointed as Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Sichuan and later as Professor of the Department of Foreign Languages at the University of Wuhan. He was also elected Chief Executive of the National Literary Association in Chongqing.
In the winter of 1946, he returned to the University of Beijing to teach foreign literature and aesthetics. In recent years, in addition to teaching, he has concentrated his efforts on the study of certain problems discussed in Marxist classics, such as the differences and relationship between the theory of human nature and humanitarianism, beauty and the sense of beauty, idealism and materialism.
It was he who translated into the Chinese language and introduced to China western masterpieces on aesthetics. The publication in 1963 of his own work: A History of Western Aesthetics, marked the opening of new frontiers in aesthetic studies in China.
In recognition of his distinguished scholarship and contributions to the study of Western aesthetics in China, the University has resolved to confer upon him the degree of Doctor of Letters honoris causa.
