There has been a profound tradition of aesthetic cultivation in China since ancienttimes, which has developed with unique characters and styles owing to the special cultural background. This paper tries to analyze the origin and development of the Chinese concept of aesthetic education and evolution of the thoughts of aesthetic cultivation in ancient China, summarize the features of the thoughts of aesthetic cultivation in ancient China, retrospect the history of the development of aesthetic education modern China, and analyze the existing problems and influence factions in the current aesthetic education in Chinese schools. At the critical moment of the reform and development of aesthetic education in Chinese schools, a review of the thoughts of aesthetic cultivation in ancient China is instructive and necessary.