Space Of Wufu:Interpreting Heritage In Zoucheng Historical Neighborhood

Space and place, as twin-words in "movement and pause", can define and interpret each other. They are not only closely related with human beings, but also connect the future with the past. During the process of modernization, circulation of capitals, political economy and many other discourses of Western modernity generally take part in the reorganization and production of time and space. When meanings of places are confined in the terror of "time-space compression", cultural tradition and tension, which is based on distinctive places, are also be challenged and dissolved. At the end of20th Century,"spatial turn" brings new perspectives and enlightenment to the exploration of time and space, education, heritage studies, place and language in Humanities. Try to break the domination of Western-originated Authorized Heritage Discourse with standards of "materiality","authenticity", and "universality", Cultural Heritage studies turn to take "place" as a new focus to explore the indigenous meaning of cultural heritage. In this sense, cultural memory, historic sites, community engagement are also involved in the meaning making of local places. Through the cultural interpretation of Wufu system in Chinese Classics, this thesis takes a deep mapping of space narrative and polyphonic interpretation of historic neighborhood of Southern District in the hometown of Confucius and Mencius, Zoucheng, Shandong province, China. By taking perspectives from Cultural Heritage, Cultural Memory and Social and Cultural Geography discipline, it aims to explore the indigenous cultural meanings of spatial governance with family involvement. With ethnography as my methodology, annotations of Chinese Classics, local gazetteers, cultural memory, family genealogy, stone tablets are all taken as cultural texts in the weaving of cultural fabrics of places, which attempts to recover the aura of local places and revive the cultural tradition of Chinese culture nurtured in Qufu and Zoucheng for thousands of years. It is found that Wufu system in Chinese culture is not only the original cultural landscape arranged by Emperor Yu after he taming the flood, but also the spatial governance with filial piety and virtue spread from the center of goodness to four directions. In the same vein, as one of the important family branches in Southern District of Zoucheng-Pigeon House, should not only be taken as an ancient vernacular dwelling inscribed on the heritage list, but also a spiritual tradition of intimacy, benevolence and harmony within Wufu. Therefore, in the trends of international community-based heritage management, cultural interpretation of Wufu Space in this thesis could provide a new perspective to the meaning making of places and heritage management, thus to promote the heritage practices of using the past for the future, and carry forward traditional Chinese culture in the process of intercultural communication.