Abstract: “Imagery” is one of the important categories of Chinese aesthetics,and its process of entering the academic discourse system is a combination of accident and necessity.As a by-product of the discipline-systemizing of Chinese aesthetics,“aesthetic category” and “imagery” have realized the historical integration.This phenomenon not only has the theoretical rationality,but also has the contingency of the collision between Chinese and Western cultures.The characteristics of “artistic aesthetics” of Chinese aesthetics make the imagery fall into the debate over the boundary between “aesthetics” and “art studies” artificially set.The necessity of this division remains to be discussed.“Study more problems and talk less about the system” is a reasonable strategy for imagery research.Imagery has a profound historical background,which contains the common artistic thinking of transcending time and space and transcending categories of art.Therefore,conducting interdisciplinary research on image creation,physiology,and neuroscience is a feasible path for the modern transformation of ancient Chinese aesthetic categories and even determining the future direction of aesthetic research.

Key words: imagery, discipline-systemizing, aesthetics, art studies, neuroscience