一九○七年，王國維撰〈古雅之在美學上之位置〉，文中推繹康德之天才論、先驗形式論後，繼而提出「古雅」一詞，以為一切文藝美之統稱。「古雅」就字義而言，「古」有古樸、古拙之義；「雅」有典雅、雅致、雅正.......等意趣，然而王國維卻從西方形式視角論述「優美」、「崇高」與「古雅」之關係，且賦予其全新內涵。研究發現王國維之「古雅說」，雖有其勝擅，亦有欠缺周至之處。此中矛盾，實因王氏為彌合康德「美術出於天才製作」之缺憾，而欲以「古雅」一詞，以為非天才者在文藝上之追求境域，庸詎知「古雅」即「優美」，以致誤增古雅形式，是以本文將分別自王氏「古雅」之內容及近人之相關研究，分析討論，以觀其確切意義。

In 1907, Wang Guo-wei completed < "guya" meaning of the aesthetic>. In the article, Wang Guo-wei discussed "genius" and "on the form of a priori" of Kant's theory. Then, he proposed that “guya” takes all beauty's name of literary. From the perspective of Chinese theory of literature and art, "Gguya" means a simple and elegant style, but Wang Guo-wei discussed the multiple relations among "guya","grace", and "sublime" from the form”and gave the "quaint" new meaning. Of course, Wang Guo-wei's "guya" theory has many merits and the shortcomings. There are several contradictions, which are because Wang Guo-wei tried to make up Kant's remarks -"Art works are from creative genius". In fact, "quaint" is "grace"，and they are the same styles of beauty.