Plekhanov’s Aesthetics and the Modernizing Transformation of Chinese Literary-Artistic Theory

This article explores the dissemination, translation, and localization of G. V. Plekhanov’s aesthetic thought in twentieth-century China. Taking Lu Xun as a core case study and combining archival research with textual analysis, it reveals the selective reception and creative transformation in China of the socialist realist aesthetic system constructed by Plekhanov. This system was based on the fundamental principle of historical materialism: “social existence determines social consciousness.” The study identifies a threefold tension manifest in this process: the entanglement of mechanistic determinism and dialectical reflection; the conflict between class analysis and national character (or popular character); and the balancing of the instrumentality of art with aesthetic autonomy. This work offers a new perspective for understanding the cross-cultural dissemination of Marxist aesthetics and its mechanisms of localization.