| Title |
A Study on the Characteristics of Spatial Structure of Suzhou in ChingDynasty through Reading the Scroll Painting 「Shengshi zisheng tu」 |
| Keywords |
성세자생도 ; 청대 ; 서양(徐揚) ; 중국 ; 소주 Shengshi zisheng tu ; Ching Dynasty ; Xu Yang ; China ; Suzhou |
| Abstract |
This study focuses on reading the urban scenes of Suzhou, China from the scroll painting「Shengshi zisheng tu」drawn by Xu Yang in 1759. In the painting, the essence of urban lifewas vividly depicted through the overlays of orchestrated events. Therefore, examining thepainting is most revealing to understand the social and urban lives of Suzhou in the eighteenthcentury. The painting had manifested the Chinese attitude towards urban life and the idea ofthe city. This study decoded and interpreted the images on the painting with reference to thesurveyed cartographic records of the same period. Suzhou, as interpreted through thepainting, was a city of outstanding urban values and intrinsic orders. First, Suzhou was aplace of order and dynamics, of harmony and variety. Second, Suzhou, as a canal city with it'svarious types of waterways and their related spaces, produced opulent prospects with multiplelayers of meanings and human activities. Third, the prosperity of the city was anchored to thecollective memory about various places scattered around the whole city. Fourth, spaces in thecity, with their pliable forms and functional complexities, positively afforded various modesof human activities. |