Regarding the lectures, it was interesting to reassess China through the lens of our subconscious metageography.  The concept of an Eastern and Western divide based on economic, political, and Eurocentric factors do not lend themselves to be constructive and thus a primary localised study is beneficial before assessing wider reaching areas.  Another thought-provoking reading was the concepts surround the literati, who in the Qing period, developed two hallmarks.  The first being their independence from courtly style and the second being their pretence of amateurism.  The idea that their manuals were meant to reveal their cultivation rather than demonstrate their professional skill, shows their place within a connoisseurial narrative.

 

Having discussed dynastic approaches to Chinese history in lecture two, the Garden Art reading provided a similar view that Chinese gardens traversed periods of change or dynastic lines, akin to economic and social factors.  The key things to note in lieu of garden evolution can be reduced to the following: their service as a threshold between the world of mortals and immortals, to their position as places to study and refuge from political oppression, to the rise of the ‘natural’ as an important concept providing literati opposition to aristocratic taste, and to the emergence of garden-making as an art in the 15^th century.

 

A term that stood out for me, in the Clunas lecture reading, was a process that Ivan Gaskell entitles as ‘historical retrieval.’  This attempt to interpret material as it might have been when it was first made seems vital to Chinese landscape study.  In removing one’s Eurocentric self-definition of Asian art and by utilising this device, it should offer up interpretations of Chinese art that go beyond the representational and delve into its cultural, visual signifiers.

 

In terms of the lectures, I was particularly interested in the continuation of study in the interaction of artists with their landscapes. This was initially seen last week, in the Four Masters of the Yuan, 1271-1368, which engaged with individualist, biographical, or proprietal concepts. Portraiture also assumed this role, providing political insight via a range of visual techniques.  The first being through its colour palette and this was highlighted in the Xiang Shergmo’s Self Portrait, which utilised red to show Ming loyalism on the verge of a Qing invasion.  Portraiture also aided the displays of gentility by establishing the elegant gatherings genre.

 

The ewers were commissioned by the Qing dynasty court, and this is reinforced in the iconography of the imperial dragons.  The other patterns that are exhibited are a complex lattice of geometric patterning, which would have possessed mythical and auspicious value.  In terms of their use, the jugs were made to serve Tibetan butter tea and this is reinforced in their mirroring of the traditional Tibetan, tubular form.  Whilst the Tibetan examples were mainly made out of copper and wood, the lacquer pair display further visual consistencies in the inclusion of the mythical creature, makara, biting the base of the spout.

 

In terms of gendered politics, the Zuyan Zhou reading highlighted the complex dynamic between the active literati and the passivity of the ruling elite.  Zhou suggested that the rulers didn’t posses the yang spirit that was required and that their advisers, who were eunuchs, led to the effeminisation of Ming politics.  While this contradicts the later point regarding the literati’s alignment with disenfranchised women, it nonetheless illuminates the duality of political gender and its binary encapsulation within the yin and yang.

 

Lastly, in regard to commercial printing, the Dorothy Ko reading, showed that in the late 16^th century there were a large amount of women managing to publish their writings within their lifetime.  This situated the female reader into larger cultural factors such as the commerciality of reading and the trans-urban culture created by book merchants. Ming women saw books as an outlet to enjoy de facto freedoms and opportunities without overtly challenging the ideal order.  Moreover, this forged a new relationship between women and learning, as family publishing facilitated a new perceived female intellectualism.