Activating the sacred landscape : the visual culture of the Wuyi Mountains

Placeholder Show Content

Abstract/Contents

Abstract
This dissertation examines the visual culture of the Wuyi Mountains, one of the sacred Daoist sites in China's southeastern Fujian province. Since the twelfth century, the breathtaking topography of Wuyi has inspired a great variety of cultural productions, including stone inscriptions, topographic paintings, cartography, and contemporary theatrical performances. Grounded in the cultural practice of boating initiated by the influential Confucian philosopher Zhu Xi (1130-1200), these cultural productions developed amid Confucian, Daoist, tourist, and contemporary political currents. Reflecting diverse ways in which humans engaged with Wuyi, these visual materials have defined and augmented the mountains' sacredness. Through integrated analyses of ecology, topography, and visual culture, this study traces the dynamic yet neglected ecological episodes of Wuyi. I argue that understanding ecologically engaged artistic production illuminates historical conceptions of the sacred, reveals histories of human intervention in and interaction with Wuyi, and exemplifies the ways in which we can re-imagine our relations with the environment.

Description

Type of resource text
Form electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource
Extent 1 online resource.
Place California
Place [Stanford, California]
Publisher [Stanford University]
Copyright date 2019; ©2019
Publication date 2019; 2019
Issuance monographic
Language English

Creators/Contributors

Author Chen, Yu-Chuan
Degree supervisor Vinograd, Richard Ellis
Thesis advisor Vinograd, Richard Ellis
Thesis advisor Egan, Ronald, 1948-
Thesis advisor Kwon, Marci
Thesis advisor Wigen, Kären, 1958-
Degree committee member Egan, Ronald, 1948-
Degree committee member Kwon, Marci
Degree committee member Wigen, Kären, 1958-
Associated with Stanford University, Department of Art and Art History.

Subjects

Genre Theses
Genre Text

Bibliographic information

Statement of responsibility Yu-Chuan Chen.
Note Submitted to the Department of Art and Art History.
Thesis Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2019.
Location electronic resource

Access conditions

Copyright
© 2019 by Yu-chuan Chen

Also listed in

Loading usage metrics...