20世纪中国思想史和文学史上，美及其美学思想的引入、生发和建构，不仅成了促进中国社会文化变革的重要催化剂和思想酵素，更是中国文学理论和批评得以更新换代的重要标志，其在中国文化意识形态场域不断掀起的理论风暴，亦不断刺激和推动着中国艺术思维和精神意识的重生与复兴。在这个过程中，蔡元培"美育代宗教"观念的提出具有标志性意味，其不仅与中西方文化交合和碰撞的特殊语境紧密相关，显示了跨文化的视野和寓意，而且承袭了中国本土文化的诗教传统——这一点在以往相关研究中尚缺乏深入探究，因而对于20世纪中国美学意识的嬗变与创新产生了深远影响。

The history of Chinese thought and literature in the 20^th century witnessed the introduction, formation and construction of aesthetics, which was not only an important catalyst to China's social and cultural changes, but also an important symbol of the transformation of Chinese literary theories and criticism. It not only aroused continually theoretical storms related to Chinese culture in the intellectual circle, but also stimulated and pushed forward Chinese thought and spirit of art to rejuvenate and restore. In this process, CAI Yuan-pei's idea of "aesthetic education as religious" had a great influence, for it not only involved Chinese and western cultural integration and collision with a cross-cultural perspective, but inherited the poetry teaching tradition of Chinese culture, which hasn't been deeply examined. This is why CAI's idea was of great influence on the transformation and innovation of Chinese aesthetics in the 20^th century.