Abstract: In the early days of PRC,Cai Yi's aesthetic thought was criticized by Lv Ying in the historic atmosphere of strengthening the proletariat leadership of culture. Lv Ying declared that Cai Yi had developed the idealistic aesthetics under the premise of materialism. But in the follow-up cultural movements,under the guidance of Mao Zedong's thought of literature and art,Cai Yi criticized Hu Shi and Hu Feng's thoughts. Then Cai Yi's fate changed gradually. In the discussion of aesthetics,on one hand,Cai Yi criticized the formalism and idealism of his own aesthetic thought; on other hand,Cai Yi insisted on his basic aesthetic thought such as physical objectivity,image thinking,the theory of beauty types. Cai Yi's aesthetic thought became famous in modern Chinese aesthetics. Under Zhou Yang's control,Cai Yi acquired the edit right of "Introduction to Literature" by partly abandoning the theory of literature as superstructure of politics. Then Cai Yi's aesthetic thought became the official thought.