Einfühlung is an important concept in aesthetics,psychology,ethics,and phenomenology. It is typically translated as 共情,移情,移感,or 同感 among other forms in Chinese. The difference in its Chinese translations is rooted in differences in its usage,which in turn takes its root in the intellectual historical and hermeneutic tradition. From the perspective of Western philosophical and intellectual history,four basic approaches to the understanding of Einfühlung have been developed,namely,( 1) Aesthetics of Empathy;( 2) Psychology of Empathy;( 3) Ethics of Empathy; and( 4) Phenomenology of Empathy. These four approaches are not externally juxtaposed,but internally correlated. Lipps breaks empathy down into aesthetic empathy and practical empathy,with the former leading to Aesthetics of Empathy and the latter leading to Psychology of Empathy and Ethics of Empathy. Psychology of Empathy and Ethics of Empathy have a shared direction,namely,the Other or the alter ego. Husserl critically inherits Lipps ’ concept of empathy,and constructs Phenomenology of Empathy centering on the problem of the Other in the dimension of practical empathy,but Phenomenology of Empathy is limited only to epistemology,without involving ethics. Lipps takes empathy as the projection or transposition of the ego,and fundamentally denies the existence of the Other,thus making the ethics of altruism fall into a paradox. Acknowledging the absolute alterity and externality of the Other as a premise,Husserl takes empathy as the Erfahrung of the Other,and that of their Erlebnis.Although Phenomenology of Empathy also has certain problems,its understanding of the essence of empathy is quite reasonable,and it can play a necessary role in calibrating and correcting Lipps’ theory of empathy.