Tao was originally a category of China's ancient philosophy. As a category of Chinese aesthetic history, it involves the law, origin, noumenon and expression of beauty. And generally tend to aesthetic ideals. Confucius first linked artistic creation with the "Tao" of human moral ideal. The Analects of Confucius ~ Narrator: "Take Tao as the purpose, virtue as the basis, benevolence as the basis, and swim in the art." Zhuangzi said through the mouth of an expert: "Those who are good at what I do are good at Tao and advanced in technology." ("Zhuangzi ~ Health Master") It means that my skill of understanding cows has surpassed "skill" and entered the artistic creation of "Tao". Aesthetics in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties put forward "the way of nature", which is both an objective law and an aesthetic law. The Three Kingdoms Wei thought that "easy to be simple, so elegant music is not annoying, and morality is dull, so it is silent and tasteless; If you don't bother, Yin and Yang are self-connected. If you don't bother, everything will be happy. " "This natural way is also the beginning of happiness." It is often mysterious that the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties emphasized "Tao" as the law of artistic creation. For example, Yu Shinan's "On the Essence of Pen" said: "If you know the mystery of a book, you must meet the gods and you can't argue with it." Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty put forward that "literature carries Tao", regarded literature and art as a tool to carry social ethics and morality, and opposed the philosophy, image and aesthetics of literature and art, and clearly put forward that "literature harms Tao" (Volume 18 of Er Cheng's suicide note). Some people think that "art is Tao, and Tao is art" (The Complete Works of Mr. Xiangshan ~ Quotations) denies lyrical literature and art. The above is the concept of "Tao" in China's aesthetic history. It is not easy to fully understand. We should pay attention to two points: 1, the "Tao" in China's aesthetic history is not equal to the "Tao" of Taoism; 2. "Tao" in China's aesthetic history is an expanding and changing concept, which must be viewed from the perspective of historical materialism.