| The Six Dynasties period (222–589 A.D.) marked a crucial turning point in Chinese landscape representation, when the literati first began to perceive the distant “mountains and streams” ( shanshui) as objects for aesthetic contemplation. If representations of the faraway landscapes changed significantly, did perception of the nature closer by—the rural spaces—change as well? This thesis, interdisciplinary in nature, seeks to answer this question by exploring representations of rural nature in Six Dynasties histories, literature and art. The rural space ( jiao) is here defined through two aspects: first, through its proximity to the urban spaces; and second, by its population.; The thesis is structured in three major parts: the first section explores the social and cultural milieu of the rural space and establishes conditions for aesthetic appreciation of this space. I have found that rural spaces could be objects of aesthetic contemplation only to the wealthy, who were able to acquire a sense of distance from the spaces, and who perceived the bucolic areas as objects to be possessed and admired. The second section focuses on the poetry of Tao Qian, the most extensive representation of rural space from this period. Tao's retirement to the rural village established the space as an “separate space” of leisure, while the travails of his village life introduced a tone of reality into his representations. The third section investigates the representation of rural landscape when it was perceived solely through the lens of complete “non-production”. I focus on the “Seven Sages and Rong Qiqi” mural reliefs, popular during this time. They represented “non-production” in two respects: as portrayals of recluses in leisure, and as decorations for burial chambers—the ultimate mode of “non-production” which were themselves situated in rural areas.; I have found that, for the most part, the Six Dynasties writers and painters had not paid much attention to the rural space as a whole. While they were fascinated by shanshui as an aesthetic object to be explored, contemplated, and described, the rural space was in general too common to be noticed, and was often subsumed in the context of human activities there. Even Tao Qian—who wrote most extensively yet atypically on the rural space (for he viewed the rural area as a realm separate from the space of service)—celebrated village life in relation to his choices, his lifestyle, and the person that he had chosen to become. It was only when the literati viewed rural nature as a space of “non-production”—of leisure—that depictions of the rural space evolved into aesthetic representations, reminiscent of the visions of the distant landscapes. In the case of the “Seven Sages and Rong Qiqi” mural reliefs, the “openness” brought about by the tree-figure motif not only came to create a sense of space in the enclosed tomb, but also became a harbinger for later horizontal landscape formats. More importantly, the depiction of men in nature came to symbolize how death was perceived by the Six Dynasties artisans: as a release into an open area, as a chance to enter into a separate space, to become, “new selves.”... |
