Knowledge, Taste And Experience

In the history of the traditional Chinese painting, the literati paintings have a clear structure and a solid theoretical foundation, as well as numerous research writings about them. The history of the ancient Chinese painting is often described as the development of literati paintings. However, except for the paintings of landscape, flowers and birds which clearly reflect the traditions of the literati painting, there are few theoretical researches in the other subjects which are also an important part of the painting history, such as constructions, boats and vehicles. There was a considerable development of the paintings of these subjects in the Song Dynasty, and they affected the development of ancient Chinese science and technology pictures. The pictured agricultural books not only meet the need of developing the agricultural technology, but also result from the influence of paintings. This dissertation will discuss the causes and processes of the development of the pictured agricultural books based on the different social and cultural backgrounds in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. It attempts to proceed from the specific works by studying the classification of paintings, the popularity of genre paintings and other phenomena in the art history, so as to analyse the relations between the mapping of the agricultural technology and the creation of artistic works against the background of the agricultural technology.