Six Ancient Towns In Cultural Studies

Areas south of the Yangtze River have been a fair place to produce outstanding people since ancient China. In these areas, old towns particularly renowned for the possession of rivers and lakes cherish a vivid character. For quite a long time, the researches on old towns have focused on the historical changes of society and economy. But in recent years, there has been a rise in the researches of old towns and researchers are taking a micro-approach to the study on cities and towns. Furthermore culture study which is included in the disciplines such as sociology, history, economy and architecture has been treated as an important sub-category of the research on old towns. It can be found that old towns have their own unique cultural identities when they are studied from a multi-dimensional perspective.This paper tries to make a multi-dimensional study, using old town chronicles as a point of penetration and taking Zhou Zhuang, Tong Li, Lu Zhi of Jiangsu province and Nan Xun, Wu Zheng, Xi Tang of Zhejiang province as subjects. The whole paper has four chapters.Chapter one is the introduction part including the definition of old towns, research subjects and category, literature review and research method and values. It defines the research subjects and clarifies the history and current situation of the researches on old towns.Chapter two is about how these six old towns in areas south of the Yangtze River have been formed and about the cultures of Wu and Yue as well. This chapter traces back the origin of these six old towns, summaries the characteristics of the origin and showcases the influence of the cultures of Wu and Yue on these six old towns.Chapter three is concerned with the architectural culture of these six old towns. Given the general layout and taking the planes, lines and dots as a clue, this chapter summaries the architectural shapes of these six old towns, reveals the general layout of them, the influence of physical geography and conventional ideas on architectures of civilian residence and the unique cultural character of water.Chapter four is about the social development of these six old towns. By quoting town chronicles and memos and poems of the six old towns, this chapter has analyzed special cultural features of these old towns in terms of dressing, eating, imperial civil examination and religious faith. A conclusion has been reached that the geographic advantage of and prosperous commercial activities in these old towns have promoted the cultural development of dressing, eating, imperial civil examination, and religious faith, granting these six towns a unique character of water and a strong sense of commerce..It can be recognized that these six old towns are both exquisite works of Chinese ancient architectural art, a materialized portrayal of regional culture, a typical illustration of our national culture, and precious legacies of Chinese traditional culture. Therefore, the study on the inheritance of the cultures of old towns by resorting to the town chronicles that record historical information assumes tremendous significance in the further preservation and tourism exploitation of old towns.