Chinese cultural landscapes: from the ideal of a balanced bond between humans and nature to ecological forms of life

Authors

Keywords:

Cultural landscape protection, Environmental philosophy, Taoist philosophical thought. , Taoist philosophical thought., Unity of heaven and man

Abstract

Thus far, human development has been achieved at the cost of the destruction of cultural landscapes. With advent of industrial civilization, people have gained happiness and conveniences, but also confronted various cultural landscape predicaments. Environmental philosophy, a contemporary philosophy that regards the relationship between humans and nature as a fundamental issue, has focused on the protection of cultural landscapes. An analysis of ancient Chinese environmental philosophy demonstrates that ancient thinkers cared about everything in heaven and earth, and explored issues, such as a harmonious development between humans and nature, offering a novel approach to the preservation of Chinese cultural landscapes. Using Taoist environmental philosophy as an exemplar, this article provides a preliminary analysis of the definition of cultural landscapes, development of environmental philosophy and Taoist environmental philosophy. Building upon this foundation, it explores the role of environmental philosophies, such as “unity of heaven and man” in construction of ecological civilization, providing fresh perspectives for cultural landscape conservation.

Author Biography

  • Yan Xu, Qiongtai Normal University

    School of Art, Qiongtai Normal University, Haikou, 571100 - China. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-7907-5617.

References

CHAOJUN, L. I. The Influence of Western Cultural Spirit Expectation on the Formation of Modern Chinese Landscape Image. Journal of Landscape Research, v. 12, n. 3, p. 89-94, 2020.

CHENG, C. Y. A Generative Ontological Unity of Heart-Mind and Nature in the Four Books. Journal of Chinese Philosophy, v. 40, p. 234-251, 2013.

GAO, J.; LIN, H. X.; ZHANG, C. Z. Locally situated rights and the ‘doing’of responsibility for heritage conservation and tourism development at the cultural landscape of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces, China. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, v. 29, n. 2/3, p. 193-213, 2021.

GUARDE, P. C. The Prescriptive Dialectics of Li and Yi in the Lienu Zhuan. Philosophy East & West, v. 67, p. 651-666, 2017.

HODGSON, J. Lancashire Hodge-Podge: Reading the John Rylands Library through the Concept of Hybridity. Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, v. 91, n. 1, p. 81-96, 2015.

JANE, L.; KATIE, D. Cultural landscape protection at Lake Victoria, a managed water supply. Landscape Research, v. 45, n. 3, p. 265-279, 2020.

JIANG, Y. Y. Zhuangzi's Aesthetics and Art Theory. The Study of Culture & Art, v. 20, p. 475-500, 2022.

JONES, K. Almost Shakespeare - But Not Quite. Critical Survey, v. 33, n. 2, p. 43-50, 2021.

LEACH, J. The integrated cultural landscape of North Gidley Island: coastal, intertidal and nearshore archaeology in Murujuga (Dampier Archipelago), Western Australia. Australian Archaeology, v. 87, n. 3, p. 251-267, 2021.

LEVMAN, B. Cultural Remnants of the Indigenous Peoples in the Buddhist Scriptures. Buddhist Studies Review, v. 30, n. 2, p. 145-180, 2013.

LIU, X. B. Traditional Social Structure and Cultural Landscape Protection - Reflection on the Protection of Ancient Villages in China over the Past 30 Years. Journal of Northwest Normal University (Social Sciences Edition), v. 46, n. 015, p. 114-117, 2009.

MCCARTHY, J. Modernism, Cultural Production, and the British Avant-Garde. Twentieth Century Literature, v. 54, n. 1, p. 115-127, 2008.

PADT, F. J. G.; SANCHEZ, J. C. Creating New Spaces for Sustainable Water Management in the Senegal River Basin. Natural Resources Journal, v. 53, p. 265-286, 2013.

PORTNOVA, T. V. Ancient theater architecture as an element of the world cultural landscape. Periodicals of Engineering and Natural Sciences, v. 9, n. 3, p. 236-244, 2021.

SHEN, V. From Gift to Law: Thomas's Natural Law and Laozi's Heavenly Dao. International Philosophical Quarterly, v. 53, p. 251-270, 2013.

SHI, J. S. The Cultural Landscape of the Chinese Bronze Age. Acta Archaeologica, v. 90, n. 1, p. 81-109, 2019.

SUE, J. S.; ABIGAIL, G. B. The Easter Island Sheep Farm Cultural Landscape. Historic Environment, v. 31, n. 3, p. 28-39, 2019.

VESELY, P. Metaphorical Landscapes and the Theology of the Book of Job: An Analysis of Job's Spatial Metaphors. Catholic Biblical Quarterly, v. 82, n. 4, p. 681-682, 2020.

WANG, B. An Interpretation of Political Philosophy of Dong Zhongshu's Theory of ChunQiu Yin-Yang Catastrophe. Universitas - Monthly Review of Philosophy and Culture, v. 45, p. 161-175, 2019.

WANG, Y. Y. Intangible cultural landscape in Chinese agricultural cultural heritage concept, progress and value analysis. International Journal of Social Science and Education Research, v. 4, n. 3, p. 102-109, 2021.

WEI, S, M.; PAN, J. H.; LIU, X. Landscape ecological safety assessment and landscape pattern optimization in arid inland river basin: Take Ganzhou District as an example. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal, v. 26, n. 3, p. 782-806, 2020.

WEN, H. M.; AKINA, W. K. A Naturalist Version of Confucian Morality for Human Rights. Asina Philosophy, v. 22, p. 4-14, 2012.

WOLFORD, J. Cultural History And Material Culture - Everyday Life, Landscapes, Museums - Schlereth, Tj. Journal Of American Folklore, v. 106, n. 421, p. 353-355, 1993.

WONG, K. K. Schelling's Understanding of Laozi. Dao - A Journal of Comparative Philosophy, v.16, p. 503-520, 2017.

YAN, L. A Comparative Study of Liu Zongyuan's “Yongzhou Eight Notes” and Liu Ji's “Shaoxing Eight Notes”. The Journal of Chinese Language and Literature, v. 123, p. 255-272, 2020.

ZHANG, H. Y.; LIU, M. Identification of Characteristics of Natural and Cultural Heritage under the Perspective of Cultural Landscape: Exemplified by Chinese Scenic Areas. Journal of Landscape Research, v. 10, n. 5, p. 109-118, 2018.

ZHAO, Y.; HARVEY, D. C.; GAO, C. Identifying Shan‐Shui characteristics for national landscape heritage: Reconciling western and Chinese landscape characterisation from a trans‐cultural perspective. The Geographical Journal, v. 186, n. 3, p. 300-313, 2020.

ZHOU, J. Analysis on the Study of Reginal Cultural Landscape of Traditional Villages in the Process of Urbanization. Art and Performance Letters, v. 3, n. 2, p. 16-19, 2022.

ZHOU, J. M. Management effectiveness evaluation of world cultural landscape heritage: a case from China. Heritage Science, v. 10, n. 1, p. 1-9, 2022.

ZHOU, L. X. The Place of Chinese Doramas in the Russian Socio-Cultural Landscape. Galactica Media: Journal of Media Studies, v. 3, n. 4, p. 91-108, 2021.

Received: 20/05/2023 - Approved: 23/06/2023 – Published: 25/01/2024

Published

2024-01-24

How to Cite

Chinese cultural landscapes: from the ideal of a balanced bond between humans and nature to ecological forms of life. (2024). Trans/Form/Ação, 47(4), e0240067. https://revistas.marilia.unesp.br/index.php/transformacao/article/view/14623