Chinese Space Awareness

The article contends that Space is not only an important dimension by which human knows the world, but also a conception which connects with the human's sense of being. During the course of concrete apprehending space and time, the profound views are refracted which are concerned with human's feeling, imagination and transcendency in the construction of spirit. Hence, this treatise tries to cut-in the people" s spiritual visage of T ang Dynasty, as a whole era, through probing into the issue of space of Tang Dynasty. It is argued in this treatise that Tang Dynasty, in Chinese history, is undoubtedly an era of spontaneous spatial consciousness and spatial desire. It is space rather than time that dominates the tendency of spirit in Tang Dynasty. Based on this judgement, the treatise exerts itself on probing into spatial consciousness of T ang Dynasty which is vividly presented by four levels: geography level, feeling level, imagination level and philoso-aesthetics level. At the same time, people" poetical pursuit, value and taste of life, are all exhibited in the four levels. It also notes that, behind the splendid spectacle of space in Tang Dynasty, ideology of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism form an resultant force to affect and penetrate the deep spatial construct. We can conclude, from the review of space of T ang Dynasty, that T ang Dynasty is a passionate period in which people are pursuing aesthetic space to the utmost extent. After the time goes to the late period of T ang Dynasty, confronting the temporal social reality, the attracting spatial consciousness of Tang Dynasty slides towards the time at last, diverts to taste gently the soul and to experience silently mood of life. This transformation, furthermore, influences the spati-temporal taste after Tang Dynasty in ancient China.