Why and How Landscapes Incorporated into Art: Chinese Art and Its Shanshui Experience from the Perspective of Western Sinology

Abstract

The incorporation of landscapes into art signifies a profound transformation in the aesthetic relationship between human and nature, shifting the focus of human aesthetic appreciation from the utilitarian realm to the non-utilitarian realm, from humans and animals to plants and landscapes. This represents a revolutionary moment of decisive significance in the history of human aesthetics. The emergence of landscape art does not merely signify a significant transformation in aesthetic objects and artistic themes. More importantly, the appreciation of natural landscapes marks a new stage in human aesthetic activities—an aesthetic consciousness of nature. Both the Wei-Jin period in China and the Renaissance in Europe contributed to the creation of landscape culture, with Chinese landscape culture giving birth to shanshui 山水 (landscape) aesthetics. However, the concept of shanshui in Chinese differs from the European notion of landscape. The ethicalization of aesthetic appreciation of nature in China helps shape the bland and plain national characteristics of Chinese shanshui aesthetics, providing a paradise for the poetic dwelling of the soul and becoming the fundamental development direction of Chinese shanshui aesthetics. The shanshui aesthetics developed in China prior to the Western cultures stands as the most ethnically distinctive aesthetic heritage, holding cross-temporal significance in global aesthetics.

Keywords

landscapes / art / Western Sinology / Chinese shanshui aesthetics / world significance

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Higher Education Press