Fort Water

This thesis explores the construction timeline of Shuizhongpu水中堡in Yuzhou蔚州,Hebei province in conjunction with the spatial changes of state and village in the Xuan Da region宣大区域along the Great Wall during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.Centering upon scholar X’s assertion that visual changes reflect the dynamic and reciprocal interactions between village space and villagers’attitudes, the thesis builds a "thick description" of the Yuzhou villagers’mental world by investigating the attitudes of officials, gentry, and villages towards village construction, and thereby revealing deeper insights into the rebuilding of Yuzhou village during different periods.Firstly, in the context of the war between the Ming government and the Mongolian forces, the construction of Yuzhou’s villages appears to be characterized by "space determined". This is embodied in the contemporary construction practices of "land clearance" and "reinforcement": destroying temples and building strong defensive walls between villages in order to take advantage of the natural space between the brooks and the tableland. This type of Space Dependence is embodied in the "Northwest model" which combined the Zhenwu temple in the north part of the village with a series of defensive construction in the northwest part of the village. In other words, the "Northwest Model" shows the fusion of defensive functions and centralized faith.Secondly, after the Long Qing Accord, society existed more peacefully, and the "dominant mentality" of the villagers became a primary factor in the expansion of the village, and this changed the original situation of the village being hemmed in by the walls. The center of village began to move from northwest to south, and a new wave of mass temple construction based around the theater tower began to emerge, demonstrating that the villagers were delineating and aportioning their daily existence in a new way. Especially in regard to the coexistence of villages, this transition shows villagers’ particular attention to their village axis. It further reveals the multiple and continual relations between villages, as well as the multifaceted and frequent interactions between regional society and the government or neighboring families.The Long Qing Negotiation caused several levels of changes in Yuzhou village construction and expansion that determined a shift from "Space Determined" to "Mentality Led" that reflects the transition from the villagers’ collective mentality of surviving desperate times to considering the quality of daily life as a nationality and family. In addition, in the analysis of structural changes in village’s space, this thesis has also made new discoveries regarding the "Northwest Model" and several other aspects of spatial relationships. Through a deep analysis of the mentalities of different strata of Yuzhou society, the author also reveals a relationship between the changes of attitude and village vision, material factors, and villagers’thinking in different periods. At the same time, the author also demonstrates the continual influnce of national power upon different spaces in Yuzhou region.This thesis seeks an interdisciplinary approach to the premise of Art Historical enquiry. It does not simply study the visual and physical factors, but rather the structures of space and mentality that they are based upon, and deliberately brings the villager, as the builder of space, into the academic enquiry. This thesis comprises a new attempt to provide a more grounded and comprehensive study of the dynamic relationship bewteen visual and material culture, and demonstates a brave exploration of the reconstruction and expansion of Art History, and a new kind of dialogue between Art History and other disciplines.