Cheng - Li In Yangzhou: Identity And The Evolution Of Painting

Yangzhou culture began to be prosperous from prostrated in the 17th century, and the achievements of ChengSui were also affected and became mature gradually on the poem, traditional Chinese painting, calligraphy and seal carving in the key period. If Yangzhou failed to achieve prosperity in the field of culture at that time, it is impossible to facilitate ChengSui’s artistic ideas and skills, even there is no chance that attracted him to live here for a long time. At the same time, remarkable achievements from ChengSui in literature and art had played a positive role in promoting the development of Yangzhou culture.According to the current literature, Master ChengSui (1607-1692) who lived at the beginning of the Qing dynasty was always be labeled. Although ChengSui’s achievements in art have got the attention and praised highly from academic circle gradually in recent years, most research results have been confined to the appreciation level of painting and seal carving works as a whole. In my dissertation, I found that ChengSui’s experience of more than 30 years in Yangzhou has a decisive influence on his whole career, and this kind of influence plays a very important role in his artistic evolution. However, this historical events were not taken seriously by the academic circles.Based on some basic problems of ChengSui lived in Yangzhou, the dissertation discusses the subjective and objective reasons of shuttling between Yangzhou in detail, and introduces the basic life, interpersonal relationships, creative arts of ChengSui in Yangzhou at first. During this period, people like some Qing Dynasty Officials, merchants of Anhui, relatives, teachers and friends formed a huge social network in continuous expansion which laid a solid foundation that ChengSui could be embraced and assimilated into life. Then dissertation discusses that ChengSui had multiple identities in Yangzhou, such as poet, painter, carving master etc., and points out that how these identities helped him to survive and develop in Yangzhou. Thereby it tried to look at the process of he possessed and show his talent from multiple angles, and reveals the fact that his multiple identities were the results that diversification of social culture worked. Finally, the dissertation sorts out the causal logic of the great changes in ChengSui’s painting art when came to Yangzhou before and after, compares and discusses three aspects of creative practice trends, techniques and artistic conception through the specific landscape paintings, and I’ve concluded that evolution of ChengSui’s style is the result of the Yangzhou cultural environment for tens of years.Based on ChengSui’s activities in Yangzhou in the early Qing Dynasty as the center of study for the first time, the dissertation analyses and discusses about ChengSui’s historical facts of Yangzhou, focuses on how the cultural environment of Yangzhou did affect the activities of creation, and develop a corresponding relationship between each other. The case of ChengSui gives us a very important topic in the invisible that how the cultural people maintain and develop themselves under the influence of regional culture. According to the interaction of living conditions and cultural social ecological system in Late Ming and Early Qing Dynasty, the dissertation attempts to provide a living case and relevant academic research from the real and objective point of view.