Exploring the history of art in China from its earliest incarnations to the present day, this comprehensive volume includes newly-commissioned essays spanning the theories, genres, and media central to Chinese art and theory throughout its history.

Table of Contents

• List of Figures
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction
• Historiographic Perspective
• Overview of the Chapters
• Part I Production and Distribution
• 1 Court Painting
• The Artistic Success of Song Court Painting
• The Political Context of Court Paintings
• Remaining Issues
• Further Exploration
• Chinese Terms
• 2 The Culture of Art Collecting in Imperial China
• Introduction
• The Formation and Geographical Distribution of Private Art Collections
• Demography
• The Issue of Ya versus Su
• Connoisseurship and Connoisseurs
• Art Collection Catalogs
• Art Market, Art Dealers, Art Prices, Forgeries, and Related Phenomena
• Conclusion
• Chinese Terms
• 3 Art, Print, and Cultural Discourse in Early Modern China
• Invention and Innovation
• Books and Social Climbing
• Painting Albums and Manuals
• The Cultural Matrix of Early Modern China
• Chinese Terms
• 4 Art and Early Chinese Archaeological Materials
• Highlights of the Development of Early Tombs and Associated Studies
• Archaeological and Theoretical Readings
• Chinese Terms
• Part II Representation and Reality
• 5 Figure Painting: Fragments of the Precious Mirror
• Lessons from the Admonitions
• Scoping the Genre
• The Body
• Why Ink Outline?
• Conclusion: Reflections on the Narratives of Figure Painting
• Chinese Terms
• 6 The Language of Portraiture in China
• Introduction
• Historical Development and the Emergence of Types
• Critical Issues in the Art of Chinese Portraiture
• Terminology and Typology
• Acknowledgments
• Chinese Terms
• 7 Visualizing the Divine in Medieval China
• Introduction
• Figures of Divine Presence
• Sacred Spaces and Divine Cosmologies
• Landscape as Sacred Geography
• Conclusion
• Chinese Terms
• 8 Landscape
• Bibliographical Note
• Chinese Terms
• 9 Concepts of Architectural Space in Historical Chinese Thought
• Chinese Terms
• 10 Time in Early Chinese Art
• Why Time in Chinese Art?
• Mechanism of Cyclical Time
• Art as Manipulation of Time
• Time and Alchemy
• Reconciling Cyclicality and Linearity
• Chinese Terms
• Part III Theories and Terms
• 11 The Art of “Ritual Artifacts” (Liqi): Discourse and Practice
• Eastern Zhou Discourse on Liqi
• The Age of Liqi
• The Legacy of Ritual Artifacts
• Chinese Terms
• 12 Classification, Canon, and Genre
• Introduction
• Key Terms
• Canons and Canonicity
• Genre, Theory, and History
• Chinese Terms
• 13 Conceptual and Qualitative Terms in Historical Perspective
• Gu Kaizhi on Xing and Shen
• Shen Applied to Landscape Painting
• Key Terms in Xie He's Six Laws
• Five Dynasties and Song Period Developments
• Zhen and Yi
• Concepts in “Literati Painting”
• “Poetic Mood” in Painting
• Chinese Terms
• 14 Imitation and Originality, Theory and Practice
• Introduction
• The Canonization of Wang Xizhi's Preface to the Poems from the Orchid Pavilion Literary Gathering
• Fang Imitation and Dong Qichang's Southern School of Painting
• Chinese Terms
• 15 Calligraphy
• Institutional Foundations of Chinese Calligraphy
• Social Functions and the Material Dimension of Calligraphy
• Canons and Daily Practice (Rike)
• Text, Script Type, and Personal Style
• Chinese Terms
• 16 Emptiness-Substance: Xushi
• Xu and Shi in the Art of the Chinese Literary Garden
• Xu and Shi in Seal Engraving
• Xu and Shi in Chinese Calligraphy and Literati Painting
• Chinese Terms
• Part IV Objects and Persons
• 17 Artistic Status and Social Agency
• The Zhou Dynasty and Warring States Period (Eleventh through Third Centuries bce)
• The Han Dynasty
• Medieval Period (Third through Tenth Centuries ce)
• Early Modern Period: Song Dynasty (960–1278)
• Concluding Thoughts on the Late, Early Modern Period (Fourteenth through Eighteenth Centuries)
• Conclusion
• Chinese Terms
• 18 Ornament in China
• Definitions and Traits
• Early China, ca. 5000–221 bce
• The Early Empires and Their Successors (221 bce–906 ce)
• From Song to Qing
• Chinese Terms
• 19 Folding Fans and Early Modern Mirrors
• Origins and Originality: Ancient Mirrors
• Origins and Originality: Ancient Fans
• Early Modern Things: Mirrors
• Early Modern Things: Folding Fans
• Material Change and the Social Death of Things
• Chinese Terms
• 20 Garden Art
• The Rise of Garden Form: Bronze Age to Han
• The Formation of a Genre: Six Dynasties Period to Tang
• The Development of Landscape Gardening: Song to Ming
• The Turn to a Pictorial Esthetic: Ming to Qing
• Gardens as Lyrical Enclaves
• Chinese Gardens in the Context of a World History of Gardens
• Chinese Terms
• 21 Commercial Advertising Art in 1840–1940s “China”
• Commercial Cartoon Genre and the Cliché Mise-en-Scène of the Gazing Girl
• Badiou and Inaesthetics
• What is the Historicity of Commercial Advertising Art?
• Advertising and Art Photography
• Conclusion
• Chinese Terms
• Part V Word and Image
• 22 Words in Chinese Painting
• Beginnings: Identifying, Labeling, Naming
• Calligraphy and Poetry as Key Factors in the Word–Image Relationship
• The Northern Song (960–1127) Integration of Poetry, Calligraphy, and Painting
• Painting Became a Vehicle for Expressions of Discontent
• Southern Song (1127–1272)
• Seal Legends
• Comparisons with Western Europe
• The Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1272–1368)
• Ming Dynasty: The Literati Esthetic Becomes Dominant
• The Manchu Qing Dynasty (1644–1911)
• Silent Poetry and Vernacular Painting
• Conclusion
• Chinese Terms
• 23 On the Origins of Literati Painting in the Song Dynasty
• Paintings by Literati and “Literati Painting”
• If Not Khubilai, Then What, When, Why?
• “Literati Painting”: How to Think about What We Do and Do Not Know
• Chinese Terms
• 24 Poetry and Pictorial Expression in Chinese Painting
• Gu Kaizhi (ca. 345–ca. 406)
• Guo Xi (after 1000–ca. 1090) and Huayi (The Meaning of Painting)
• Xieyi and Shiyi
• The Shiyi of Sima Huai and Mi Youren
• Conclusion
• Chinese Terms
• 25 Popular Literature and Visual Culture in Early Modern China
• Peeping in the Classical Period
• The Topos of Peeping in Medieval and Early Modern Literature
• Framed Peeping and Garden Aesthetics
• Epilogue
• Chinese Terms