我在本世纪20年代到欧洲英、法两国留学8年之久,随着当时西方美学界的潮流,接触到意大利美学大师克罗齐的一些著作,把他的《美学原理》译成中文,由作家出版社印行,还写过一部《克罗齐美学述评》,也印行过。在研究克罗齐的过程中,我注意到他的老师维柯的《新科学》,特别欣赏其中关于诗性智慧的形象思维的一些论点。这些论点形成了我美学思想的核心。到了60年代,我应教材会议的邀约写了一部《西方美学史》,在其中第一卷第十一章就专介绍维柯,作为启蒙运动时期一位美学代表,而对克罗齐没有设专章,从此可见我对维柯的重视。尽管用作教材,实际却等于石沉大海。但我并不因此灰心,找到闲空时就向北京大学图书馆借阅有关维柯的著作,早就有意把 In the 1920s, I studied in Europe and France for eight years. With the trend of Western aesthetics at that time, I came into contact with some works by Italian aesthetics master Croce and translated his Aesthetic Principle into Chinese , Printed by the writer’s press, also wrote a “review of Croce’s aesthetic,” also printed. During the study of Croce, I noticed his teacher Vico’s “New Science,” especially admiring some of his arguments about the imagery of poetic wisdom. These arguments form the core of my aesthetic thought. In the 1960s, I wrote an “Aesthetics of Western Aesthetics” at the invitation of the textbook meeting, in which I wrote a brief introduction of Vico in the eleventh chapter of the first volume, as an aesthetic representative of the Enlightenment period, but not of Croce Set a special chapter, we can see from my attention to Vico. Although used as a textbook, it actually means nothing. But I was not discouraged. I borrowed Vico’s books from the Peking University Library when I was free and I had long intended