Abstract
The purpose is to study the influence of Zhu Xi's neo-Confucianism on the ideological and political education (IPE) of college students. Firstly, the aesthetic connotation of Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism is studied. Secondly, an interview is performed with teachers of the IPE course in a university in Xi'an, and a questionnaire survey is conducted on some students of the IPE course in the school. It aims to investigate the current situation of college students' IPE, and the impact of integrating aesthetic education into IPE of college students on the improvement of students' overall quality and internalized psychology. Finally, the reasons for this situation are analyzed and solutions are given. The survey results reveal that the aesthetic education thoughts based on Zhu Xi's neo-Confucianism are integrated into the construction of college students' internalized psychological mechanism, and most students think that their mental health status has changed a lot. The proportion of boys who choose "improved" is 57.95%, and the proportion of girls is 53.45%. The aesthetic education is integrated into the IPE of college students, and the proportion of students who think "no effect" after integration and before integration has decreased by 2.01%. The proportion of the number of people who chose the three indicators of "increasing the innovation of teaching methods", "advancing aesthetic ability", and "improving the effectiveness of ideological education" increased by 5.88%, 5.5%, and 3.98%, respectively. It demonstrates that the effect of IPE on college students has been greatly improved after integration into aesthetic education.