IAH 211B, section 003 Asian Arts and Cultures with Focus on China

Asian Arts and Cultures with Focus on China
Name
Institution Affiliation
Outline
The Song Dynasty Art
The Song dynasty dates between 960 and 1276. The invasion of the Jurchens, a nomadic people from the North saw the dynasty split into two and the eventual settlement of the Song Court in the Southern part of China until when it was overthrown by the Yuan dynasty. The North remained under the jurisdiction of the Jurchens based in Beijing, while the Song dynasty court retreated to Hangzhou city, near the Yangzi river delta. While the Song dynasty is considered one of the greatest eras in China’s history, their military prowess was not at par with that of the Tang or Han. Canton and Nanjing cities grew in this period.The Song dynasty held onto cultural Confucianism which emphasized on a civil government as opposed to military rule and fostered education sponsorship.
Chinese art during the Song dynasty was in the form of a mixture of calligraphy and paintings where artists used writings and varieties of materials to create beautiful objects in clay, bronze, jade, and many more that reflected their values, perspectives and culture. The genres of painting and calligraphy emerged during the Song dynasty to become a revered form fine art. The civil examination system was nurtured during this period and became part of the Chinese culture carried into the twentieth century.
The art of writing or calligraphy was highly regarded above all other forms of art in traditional China because of its visual form. Emperors engraved their pronouncements on stone and mounted them on mountains for posterity. Chinese paintings captured both the outer appearance of a subject as well as inner essence. Color, contrast and light were not essential to Chinese painters as they were considered a distraction, but the inked brush was treasured.
Asian Arts and Cultures with Focus on China
Introduction
China is home to a fifth of the world’s population, most of who belong to the Han ethnic group. Each of the country’s fifty five minority groups has their own language and culture, but mandarin is the official language of the People’s Republic of China. Cultural exchange has been a norm among the Asians for many centuries. Often, the systems of writing, forms of government, city planning, and even painting adopted by peoples of Korea and Japan heavily borrow from the Chinese culture. Confucianism as a form of religion originated from China spreading to other Asian peoples. Conversely, there are other aspects of cultural exchanges that the Chinese people also borrowed from other Asian cultures like the Buddhist religion, which originated from India, spreading to Korea and Japan. Art in Asia comes in many forms such as paintings, pottery, weaving, and musical instruments which date back to many centuries. Chinese art lay emphasis on tradition and simplicity. Ancient art has continued to exist because of the influence of both tradition and religion on the people’s way of life. This influence is depicted in many cultural aspects such as music, dance, paintings, writing, theatre and printing. Communism majorly determines what artists are able to do since most forms of art must be sanctioned by the authorities. This was evident during the Cultural Revolution when artists’ freedom of expression was curtailed.[Lopez. (1996) Page.6] [Lopez. (1996)Page.17]
The Song Dynasty
The culture of the Chinese embodies a set of values that determine social interactions of the people. Its foundations are based on religious, traditional and philosophical mindsets. The components of culture include both physical and abstract. The Chinese culture is believed to be practiced for over 5000 years and has evolved into a formidable national system contributed by a geographically enclosed landscape and agricultural civilization.
China has many regions each with distinct sub cultures because the regions are distinct and cannot be harmonized under one administration. For the last few several decades, the country has experienced the greatest economic reform leading to an upsurge in industrialization. The models of business practiced in China are a mix of state owned, joint stock companies, collective investment companies, the private sector as well a foreign investments. This creates a cocktail of characteristics which make it difficult to make out a Chinese model of management.
The Chinese cultural evolution is diverse with both regional and generational differences. Through the Han, Tang, Zhou and Song dynasties, China managed to craft a niche for itself informed by strong communist ideologies and totalitarianism (San, 2014). The cultural variables define the social and economic relations of everyday China because of their unique characteristics contributed by their religious practices such as Confucianism which pronounces the three bonds of society; loyalty to authority, obedience and fidelity, which are metrics of relationships between superiors and sub-ordinates and between family members. The Confucian system is based on three guides for rulers, fathers and husbands. It has the doctrine of the mean and five virtues of compassion, modesty, wisdom, loyalty and decency. The dynasties that heralded formalized the way Confucian system into rituals that formed the basis of thinking and behavior change.[(San, 2014)Page 302.The dynasties]
Daoism or Taoism was another school of thought espoused by the Chinese people in the 6th century. It focused on the belief system regarding the flow of the universe. Later many other forms of mindsets were integrated into the Chinese society including Christianity, Legalism, Taoism, Buddhism and Communism. The current Chinese society is a product of long processes of cultural transformations throughout the ages. Of all the ideologies adopted over the periods, Confucianism has been the most dominant historical foundation of Chinese cultural values. These values include societal order, which reflects the Chinese sense of civilization based on learning, role playing in a structured state order. Hierarchy emanates from ethical values and family organization through paternalism. Reciprocity gives a guarantee of adequate trust to conduct transactions. Control of the scarce resources and through intervention by the state. Insecurity is associated with the totalitarian state with weak ownership laws and a strict work ethic. Collectivism is a horizontal order where family is identified as the basic social unit. Knowledge supports the institutional fabric and transcends the Cultural Revolution and persecution of intellectuals during the Imperial period.[(Lopez, 1996).Page.12. The Chinese Religions]
In the years following the Cultural Revolution, many arts and crafts were prohibited in China but towards the close of the last century, efforts to re awaken Chinese traditions were made and remarkable progress is significantly visible. In both ancient and modern times,the culture of the Chinese id highly complex and is synonymous with ideographic language. The written language consists of ideograms, which are complex symbols used as a form of preserving the culture. Literacy is highly valued in Chinese culture and it is one aspect that distinguishes the Chinese from most Asian peoples as it is used to dev...