An Aesthetic Cultural Study On Furniture Fashion In The Late Ming Dynasty Centered On Jiangnan Region

As the peak of the history of traditional furniture and a typical model of the aesthetic culture in the Ming Dynasty,furniture in the late Ming Dynasty has been attracting extensive attention from scholars at home and abroad since the first half of the 20th century.At present,the academic research on the form and technology of furniture in the late Ming Dynasty has been perfected,and there is no shortage of highlights in the discussion on the relationship between the style of "Ming Style Furniture" with "ancient and elegant charm" and the taste of classical literati.However,it’s not hard to see on a careful investigation that not all of the furniture fashion in this period is consistent with the elegant taste of classical literati,but on the whole presents complex,pluralistic,and even contradictory characteristics.And the existing achievements to discuss and explain it is still insufficient.The unique furniture fashion in Jiangnan Region of late Ming Dynasty was closely related to the special cultural context formed by social economy,philosophical trend of thought,aesthetic concept and custom belief.If we cannot fully understand and grasp the context,we cannot reasonably explain many aesthetic cultural phenomena in the field of furniture in this period,clarify its development trend and reveal its national characteristics.Using the research method of the unity of theory and practice,logic and history and from the academic perspective of cultural anthropology,this paper combs and demonstrates the ideas,customs and beliefs of people in Jiangnan Region of late Ming Dynasty,investigates and analyzes the furniture related materials in the literati notes,local chronicles,images and physical relics at that time,and carries out the "aesthetic cultural study" of furniture fashion in this period.It tries to restore the unique ideological origin,interest of The Times,cultural character,humanistic value and aesthetic characteristics of furniture fashion in this period,and reveals the special mechanism and internal law of the evolution of ancient aesthetic culture reflected by it.Besides the introduction,the paper is divided into five chapters.The first chapter combs and grasses the unique historical and cultural background that bred the aesthetic fashion of furniture in Jiangnan Region of the late Ming Dynasty.Firstly,it investigates and analyzes the material conditions for the prosperity of Jiangnan Furniture Culture in the late Ming Dynasty,such as the prosperity of industrial and commercial cities and consumption,the drastic change of social structure,the historical inheritance of furniture form and technology,etc;Secondly,it analyzes and demonstrates the turn of the ideological field of the late Ming Dynasty from Neo-Confucianism to Yangming’s theory of the Mind,and then to the "blending Confucianism and Zen" of Wang Ji and Taizhou School.Thirdly,it combs and reveals the regional culture and folk customs of people in Jiangnan Region of the late Ming Dynasty,such as "extravagance","belief in ghosts and gods and offer sacrifices to them",and discusses the basic situation of Buddhist belief which has a deep relationship with furniture culture at that time.It points out the revival of Buddhism under the ideological trend of mind learning and the rise of the status of Pure Land Sect with strong secularization,especially the subtle changes of a large number of literati represented by Yuan Hongdao and Feng Mengzhen from single respect for Zen to "the syncretism of Zen and Pure Land" and even "emphasizing Pure Land over Zen".The second chapter demonstrates the influence of the ideological trend of mind philosophy in the late Ming Dynasty on the furniture fashion in Jiangnan Region from the dimension of "body".First of all,it investigates the mainstream aesthetics of the furniture before the late Ming Dynasty,and discusses the importance and emphasis of the ancient people on the ethical and moral factors carried by furniture;Secondly,it combs and analyzes the affirmation of the individual and its perceptual body from the philosophical level by Wang Gen and Li Zhi of Taizhou School,and points out that advocating the body and sensory pleasure has become the mainstream discourse of this period to a large extent;Finally,it demonstrates and reveals that in the new cultural context of "body consciousness" undergoing dramatic changes,aesthetic subjects of furniture in the late Ming Dynasty attach much more importance to body comfort,body maintenance and sensory pleasure than their predecessors,and clarifies that the fashion of furniture in this period has gradually changed from "ethical concern" to "body concern" and "interest concern".The third chapter demonstrates and explains the influences of the classical aesthetic taste of "true" and "plain" on the aesthetic fashion of furniture in Jiangnan Region in the the mind philosophy context of the late Ming Dynasty.First of all,it analyzes the "true" interest of classical aesthetics centered on "nature and plain",which originated from Taoist aesthetics and gradually integrated Confucian aesthetics and Zen aesthetics,and demonstrates its revival in the ideological trend of the philosophy of the mind and its popularity in various fields of literature and art;Secondly,it demonstrates and reveals the reflection of the classic "true interest" in the aesthetic culture of furniture in the late Ming Dynasty,such as the love of people at all levels led by Jiangnan literati such as Wen Zhenheng and Mo Shilong for the"natural" furniture shapes such as tree roots and withered vines,the furniture materials with beautiful natural textures such as Huanghuali and marble,and the admiration for the plain and simple style furniture made by Suzhou craftsmen.The fourth chapter analyzes and demonstrates many new features of furniture aesthetic culture in Jiangnan Region in the late Ming Dynasty in the trend of romantic literature and art.First of all,it analyzes and reveals the expansion of the aesthetic implication of "true" category under the influence of the "Crazy Zen School" of the philosophy of the mind and the romantic literary movement,and expounds the formation of the world outlook and outlook on life of people in the late Ming Dynasty.It also demonstrates the canonization of "true" of the subject’s emotion,personality and even desire,by the romantic literary movement initiated and practiced by Yuan Hongdao and Tang Xianzu et al,and points out that it breaks through the paradigm of"gentleness and sincerity" in Confucian aesthetics;Secondly,it analyzes and explains the reflection of the new "true interest" of romantic aesthetics based on "emotional nature" in the field of furniture aesthetics in the late Ming Dynasty,such as the exquisite feeling of furniture aesthetic subject "expressing feelings on things",the emphasis and pursuit of furniture innovation,novelty and personalization by furniture creative subject,aesthetic subject and critical subject,and to a certain extent,the furniture aesthetic cultural landscape of materialization and eroticism.The fifth chapter discusses and explains the influence of the customs and beliefs of people in Jiangnan Region in the late Ming Dynasty on the decorative patterns and styles of furniture.First of all,taking the Buddhist character "卍" as an example,this paper investigates and compares the furniture decoration interest before and after the late Ming Dynasty,and points out that its popularity in the furniture of the late Ming Dynasty is much higher than before;Secondly,it analyzes the differences in religious thought and aesthetic purport between Pure Land Sect,which was popular at all levels in the late Ming Dynasty,and Zen sect,which was popular in the Tang and Song Dynasties,and reveals their different attitudes towards Buddhist symbols and Buddhist idols.This paper demonstrates that in the context of pure land belief that attaches great importance to Buddha’s "body" and "appearance",the cultural legitimacy of applying the "卍",one of the "thirty-two auspicious appearances of Buddha",to furniture decoration was established;Finally,it is clarified that the popularity of the context of pure land belief has also promoted the prevalence of furniture decorative patterns like vase and longevity character as well as the "treasure decoration style" in the late Ming Dynasty and later times.which not only carry the auspicious metaphor of the blissing Pure Land,but also closely related to the secular life ideals of the citizen class,such as peace,longevity and wealth and so on.The conclusion part summarizes and combs the main findings of this study,in particular,the specific impact and mechanism of action of the social and cultural context such as mind philosophy in the late Ming Dynasty,romantic literary and art trend of thought,Pure Land belief etc.of the times,on furniture aesthetic fashion in Jiangnan Region.It points out so much cultural phenomena,such as the late Ming Dynasty furniture aesthetic subject’s emphasis on perceptual body content which is far more than the predecessors,the taste of "advocating novelty" of furniture aesthetics and creative subject,the prevalence of auspicious patterns mixed with faith and secularity on furniture,are not only closely related to the commodity economy and furniture technology level in this period,but also the product of the unique cultural context of the late Ming Dynasty.