When studying the rich history of arts and recreation in the Song Dynasty, it is evident that there were many newly pioneered practices that completely captivated the populous and became the epitome of several long-established genres. When one observes the progression of visual arts through the Song Dynasty, landscape painting established itself as the most prevalent and important of the multitude of forms in this genre. Close examination of entertainment reveals that the dramatic arts, with emphasis on shadow-puppeteering, became the most enjoyed form of amusement in the Song Dynasty. Finally, nothing had become more delightful than the everyday life of a citizen, which never had a dull moment. Chinese art and recreation came to a pinnacle of excellence during the Song Dynasty as landscape painting became an ideal practice, the theater grew to be central entertainment, and the life of a citizen never lacked wondrous activities.
Landscape painting was the most important visual art form during the Song Dynasty. It was through the cultural stimulus of the Tang Dynasty that landscape painting was able to come to mastery during the Song Dynasty and take its place as the epitome of classical Chinese art (Morton and Lewis 2005). Landscape painting also exemplified how the East developed separately from the West through its art. While in the West the human form was central to most art, artists in China found their muse in Nature. Landscape painting was not represented in Europe until much later (Morton and Lewis 2005). During the reign of the penultimate Song emperor, Huizong, the Song Dynasty reached its cultured peak. Huizong had an imperial collection of six thousand works of art, many of them landscape, and he established...
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... was able to find that balance between mind and body, spirituality and physicality that then, in turn, appeased all its denizens. It is evident that this balance played a role in the longevity of the empire and its cultural imprint on China’s history. The arts and recreation in China truly came to a zenith during the shining cultural imperium that was the Song Dynasty.
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Bowman, John S., ed. Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.
Gernet, Jacques. Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1970.
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Morton, W. Scott, and Charlton M. Lewis. China: Its History and Culture. 4th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005.
The Cultural Revolution in China was led by Mao Zedong, due to this Liang and many others faced overwhelming obstacles in many aspects of their life such as work, family and everyday encounters, if affected everyone’s families life and education, Liang lets us experience his everyday struggles during this era, where the government determined almost every aspect of life.
During the Tang and Song dynasty, many excellent achievements have been accomplished which are still being preserved and used widely over centuries. Their citizens were excelled in many fields with several of new and practical inventions which all directly affected the citizens’ lives.
Gittings, John. The Changing Face of China: From Mao to market. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Timothy Brook’s book, The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China is a detailed account of the three centuries of the Ming Dynasty in China. The book allows an opportunity to view this prominent time period of Chinese history. Confusions of Pleasure not only chronicles the economic development during the Ming dynasty, but also the resulting cultural and social changes that transform the gentry and merchant class. Brook’s insights highlight the divide between the Ming dynasty’s idealized beliefs, and the realities of its economic expansion and its effects. Brook describes this gap through the use of several first hand accounts of individuals with various social statuses.
Being able to possess ancient dynasty objects has been seen as a sign of the legitimate ruler. Qianlong as the commissioner and the subject of this painting, intentionally representing himself of Han Chinese culture seems to communicate one message to the viewers just as what he once expressed about himself: ‘I, having grown up in the court and studied for twenty years, am in reality a scholar.’ Therefore, him, as the emperor, understands, protects and restores Han Chinese culture, and possesses the true treasures of Chinese culture, is the ultimate ruler of China.
Secondly, Emperor Huizong was a patron of arts and in his painting academy he highlighted 3 aspects of painting: realism, systematic study, and poetic idea. (source dri buku yg foto di library) These 3 aspects were clearly shown in Cranes above Kaifeng: Auspicious Cranes which indicates the amount of control Emperor Huizong had on the visualization of auspicious events.
One of the eras of a majestic ancient civilization that has left a lasting impression upon the world of today is the Chinese Song Dynasty. Established by General Zhao Kuangyin this dynasty lasted from 960–1279 AD and brought a new stability to China after many decades of civil war, and ushered in a new era of modernization. It was divided into the Bei (Northern) and the Nan (Southern) Song periods. This brilliant cultural epoch gave birth to major advances in economic reform, achievements in technology, and helped to further medical knowledge.
Feudalism and landlordism come under the religious art and the concept of religious arts is mainly superstitious. In the revolutionary period of China, government was successful to create art gallery in western part of Beijing’s Forbidden City. During 1960s China suffered political and economic crisis. During that period the Chinese government forced the artistic people to do something for overcoming the crisis by developing new painting concepts. During that period new iconographic types like ‘Sun Zixi, In Front of Tiananmen’ appeared in socialists Realists art. Sun Zixi, In Front of Tiananmen, 1964, China is a canvas painting, which played a powerful role to create an impact on the Chinese art history. It is the pictorial representation of the photograph that several Chinese people paused to take a photograph of them in front of Chairman Mao’s portrait in Tiananmen Square, which is main political hub. This painting consists of the three groups of people like soldiers, workers and the other people. The painting symbolizes the victory of the socialist realism during the Maoist p...
The second part of the journey visits, ancient China in 1500 BCE, a thousand years prior to the formation of the Daoism school of thought. (Brodd, Little and Ny...
Li, K., & Mengyan, F. (2013). A historical survey on modernization of Chinese culture. Asian Social Science, 9(4), 129-132. doi:10.5539/ass.v9n4p129
Fairbank, John King. The Great Chinese Revolution 1800-1985. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1986.
Traditional Chinese art is deeply rooted in its philosophy, encompassing Daoist, Buddhist and Confucian schools of thought. The goal of many traditional Chinese landscape artists, as described by Professor To Cho Yee of Michigan-Ann Arbor, is to “reveal the highest harmony between man and nature” through a balance of likeness and unlikeness (Ho). This metaphysical philosophy borrowed art as a vehicle to search for the truth or the “dao”, which is the path to enlightenment. As early as the 5th century, scholar artists such as Su Shi (1037-1101) of the Song dynasty realized that to create likeness, one must understand the object beyond its superficial state and instead capture the spirit of nature; only then can a point of harmony with nature
The Tang and Song Dynasties are both pertinent to China’s development. During the Tang period, which is also considered the “Golden Age”, art and literature was embraced and thrived. During the Song Dynasties, many technical inventions allowed China to grow as a nation, and emerge as one of the greatest nations in the medieval world. Both dynasties played a key role in the history of China.
De Bary, Wm. Theodore, Wing-Tsit Chan, and Burton Watson, eds. Sources of Chinese Tradition. NewYork: Columbia UP, 1960.
Hoobler, Dorothy, Thomas Hoobler, and Michael Kort, comps. China: Regional Studies Series. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Globe Fearon, 1993. 174-177.