The discovery of the landscape in China: the influence of daoist imagery
Abstract
The present article reflects on the discovery of the landscape in China from the point of view of the theories by Javier Maderuelo and Augustin Berque on the genesis of the concept of «landscape». The following analysis is carried out on the basis that the images related to the Daoist immortals' paradises are the fundamental element leading to that discovery. Thus, the influence of those idyllic paradises, set in the mountains and inhabited by immortals, resulted in the Chinese civilization being the first one to contemplate and aesthetically observe the landscape formed by its natural surroundings (shanshui). In this sense, it is possible to speak of a proper discovery of the landscape back in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) already, along with the consolidation of landscape poetry and a landscape painting school.
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