bodies and their environment in ecocritical contexts.
the Neijing tu, map of the inner body, and Lady Dai's funeral banner.
the human body, and the world.
even though we will not have enough time to discuss all the details of this reciprocity.
shanshui ink brush painting with its body-landscape continuity in Chinese art.
it was vigorously resurrected recently.
Europe, including Neo-Confucian cosmological thought.
of the Jesuit missionaries, who served at the court during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
the European explorations in his world map in Chinese characters.
enlightenment philosophers such as Leibniz, Spinoza, or Voltaire.
flows and entanglements of this historical encounter.
In his view, they continue to steer and haunt our contemporary globalized modernity.
hybrid in their real and imaginary explorations of the unknown.
so that they would become one's own marvelous possessions.
and the appropriation of foreign knowledge and material culture.
translation through offering the bilingual names.
be corrected by a rectification of the names of things.
different connotations on account of their travels between cultures?
Qiu Zhijie’s work "Map of Utopia" is quite explicit about this.
humankind's history are embodied in a coarsely shaped and naked human figure.
modernity's various attempts to invent a political system that can please everybody.
or even worse, in raw authoritarian power.
where simplicity and order were understood to provide spiritual guidance.
vibrant intersections running through human bodies and landscapes.
the modern utopian dreams that gave birth to dystopian realities.
its inspiration from the ancient cosmological rituals.
These were aestheticized and secularized in Chinese opera.
dances across the rubble at the construction site of the Three Gorges Dam.
excessive feelings of loss and grief in the wake of the dam project.
they twist and turn the ancient concept into new meanings.
naked and bent human bodies in a way that they look like misty mountains.
because there is no sign of any other life besides these bodies.
The human body has completely seized the cosmic dynamics of yin and yang.
the work seems to ask.
the mental journey of the spectator between inner and outer landscapes.
alchemy that needs to be harmonized with the outer environment.
but moreover seeped into modern narratives of national empowerment.
nature-empowered bodies that could protect and save the nation.
which is usually performed in sublime landscapes.
thrived in early modern shanshui paintings.
Feng Zikai's cartoons offer a compelling rendition of this convention.
a pine tree offering its sheltering shade to a group of people who enjoy the view.
which seems to bend benevolently towards the visitors.
we see a tree cut down to its trunk, yet sprouting again.
he found it soothing to think that the tree that is China will always sprout again.
inscribed their reflections on turbulent historical times into their shanshui artworks.
is something that can inspire contemporary culture.
“Travelers Among Mountains and Streams,” the xishan xinglütu, seen here.
the extravagant way of life and corruption at the imperial court.
His sublime landscape appears to be deeply troubled by the goings-on in the human world.
“The donkeys are tiny little birds who walk on their four legs.
the Zhenzong Emperor in the capital is busy balancing the profits of the bigwigs.
this scroll and its “travelers among mountains and streams”.
Fan Kuan painted a dark, towering mountain representing the emperor.
but rather abuse their borrowed power to enrich themselves.
in order not to violate their own high moral standards when dealing with a corrupt court.
under the circumstances of excessive consumption and degraded environments.
the mountain’s body represents healthy scarcity.
and attain the tao if the roots are not connected with an environment of overabundance.
body-landscape intersections with an example of a younger artist’s work, Xie Qi.
that is, a painting or picture covered by a layer of colors.
Mao’s approach towards nature was rather relentless.
to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the revolution.
Villages and landscapes were destroyed in order to increase agriculture production.
to extract resources needed in industrial processes.
the problems of this large-scale human encroachment on China’s landscapes were manifest.
clear the mess left behind by Mao and Deng Xiaoping.
an important part of his ruling slogan of the China Dream.
but the problems linger or are even getting more worrisome.
The artwork “So Green” picks up on the slogan.
It can be read to express hope inasmuch as Mao’s face fades out behind a green surface.
which makes it simultaneously appear like a ghost haunting the present.
a question mark with respect to an effective change of politics.
the ancient concept of the body-landscape continuity.
but to live well in harmony with nature.