Jing Liu is a visting PhD student within the Department of Languages and Cultures at Ghent University. She holds a Master’s degree from Shanghai University and is currently pursuing a PhD there. Her current research project “Bide 比德: A Study on the Premodern Chinese Approach to the Integration of Morality and Aesthetics–An Examination of the Interaction between Confucian and Buddhist Aesthetics“, supervised by Prof. Dr. Christoph Anderl, explores the Confucian tradition of bide and its theoretical manifestations in literature and art, with a particular focus on the interaction between Confucian and Buddhist aesthetics as a key case study. In the history of ancient Chinese thought, bide 比德 initially existed as a universal mode of thinking with anthropological significance, referring to the association of certain human behaviors or concepts with the characteristics of natural entities. In ancient times, bide was closely associated with Confucian moral thought. However, the literary and artistic concepts that emerged from it gradually exhibited characteristics that diverged from morality and could be identified as aesthetic phenomena. Accordingly, the project will explore how bide evolved into a tradition that integrates morality and aesthetics.