Research Of Tourist Culture In The Western And Eastern Zhou Dynasties

There are two different answers to the question whether tourist activities existed in the Western and Eastern Zhou dynasties. One insists that tourism came into existence along with the Industrial Revolution, and the other hold that tourist activities can be traced back to the prehistoric period. Different opinions are based on different definitions of tourism. Tourism is that people leave their customary circumstance and participate in leisure activities.There had been a variety of tourist activities in the Zhou dynasties, including inspection tour, hunting, gardens and pools entertainment, mountain and stage climbing festival and worship amusement, cultural visit. Tourist activities were often concluded in common traveling, but they should not be lump together.Not productive activities, tours' conditions are influenced by various factors. In the Zhou dynasties, the aristocrat are ruling class. Their tourist activities often took a long time, with a large entourage, and the distance were also long. The common people were the ruled class, who could only take part in some leisure activities in festivals and worships.Being afraid and tired of long-distance traveling was a common thought in the Zhou dynasties, and the ethic concept also stopped people from traveling outside. There were not religious pilgrimage in the Zhou dyn, but the immortal thoughts in the Warring States improved the development of the tourism. People in the Zhou dyn had realized the tour had a lot of functions, such as entertainment, widening the view field and knowledge, attaining the spiritual freedom, etc.Tourist activities in the Zhou dynisties had three principle characteristics. Firstly, people expelled overly tourist amusement. Thinkers believed that it would do harm to physical and spiritual health, tire the people and waste recourses. Moreover, the leisure of the upper class tended to be imitated by the whole society and led to the destruction of the social production. This concept had connection with the "model politics", which required the rules set an example to the people, so the leisure behavior of the rulersmust have some political functions. This political culture had certain binding to the rulers, but it was irrational to denying completely the rulers' leisure activities. Secondly, in the newly rising statue "Shi"(intellectuals), "bi de"(comparing to ethic) was a typical tourist esthetic notion. "Bi de" had relations with the trend of comparison of thinking of Zhou period, and with the status characters of the "Shi". "Bi de" was also a reaction towards the lavish amusement of the aristocrat society. Esteeming the natural beauty was an remarkable feature of the tourist culture in pre-Qin period. Zhuangzi was the beginning of this trend. But it should be cleared that the natural beauty of Zhuangzi was firstly a concept of social philosophy.The tourist culture in the Zhou dynasties had an influence on the later ages. Conservation and inwardness was the mainstream of the tourist and traveling culture of ancient China. This feature restricted the development of China's tourism and strengthened the concept of "Being attached to one's native land". The tourist esthetic of "Bi de" made people lay too much emphasis on the ethic meaning of the tourist resources, neglecting the perceptual features of the natural world. During the Northern and Southern dynasties, the appreciation of the natural beauty awaked, but it still was affected by the philosophy of Zhuangzi. People tended to regard the nature as the adversary of the unsatisfying society. Also the appreciation of natural beauty pushes the landscape painting ahead.