王國維以西方美學優美和崇高二分為背景,提出了古雅范疇。但百余年來,與他的意境說或境界論相比,這一范疇并沒有引起學界的足夠重視。從歷史看,古雅傳統對中國美學史的影響具有縱貫性。尤其中唐以降,它日益占據主導地位,主要表現在詩文、書畫和古器物三個領域。其中,唐人對古雅的推崇主要基于文學、經學之士試圖借此重建儒家對于中國政治、文化的主導地位;宋人的古雅起于以金石證經補史,隨之使器物雅賞在宋、元、明三代逐漸強化。清人的古雅則脫不了明末清初心學向實學轉向的背景,后經乾嘉樸學、嘉道金石學而進入美學。清朝晚期,金石學進一步泛化為古器物學,器物認知與器物雅賞交相輝映。這一此起彼伏的復古潮流,賦予了時間和歷史經驗審美價值,使對中華民族人文傳統的追憶和復現成為重大美學問題,從而也使古雅成為理解中國中古和近古美學精神的重要概念。

Wang Guowei put forward the category of "classic elegance(guya)" in the context of Western aesthetics’ "beauty"and "sublimity." However,for over a hundred years this category attracted much less attention from scholars than his theory of artistic conception or theory of realm.Historically,the concept of classic elegance has had a continuous influence on Chinese aesthetics.Especially since the mid-Tang,it has been increasingly dominant in the areas of poetry,painting and calligraphy,and ancient artifacts.The Tang admiration for classic elegance was mainly based on the attempts of scholars of literature and the classics to rebuild Confucian dominance in politics and culture.The Song advocacy of it started from supplementing the history of the classics with epigraphy,and this trend was strengthened through the Song,Yuan and Ming dynasties.The Qing concept of classic elegance could not resist the late Ming and early Qing turn from the school of the mind to the school of statecraft(learning of practical use to society).Subsequently the plain learning of the Qianlong-Jiaqing reigns and the epigraphic learning of the Jiaqing-Daoguang reigns took on an aesthetic character.In the late Qing,the study of epigraphy was further generalized to the study of ancient artifacts,with knowledge and appreciation of artifacts illuminating one another. The vicissitudes of the movement to return to the past endowed time and historical experience with aesthetic values that made the recalling and reappearance of the Chinese cultural tradition a major aesthetic issue.Classic elegance thus became an important concept for understanding the aesthetic spirit of China’s mid-and late-antiquity.