Sustaining Landscapes

Governance and Ecology in Chinese Visual Culture, 960-1368 CE

By: Gerui. Wang

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Hardcover | 5 September 2025

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Hardcover
222 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
25.4 x 17.78 x 1.91

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Sustaining Landscapes: Governance and Ecology in Chinese Visual Culture, 960-1368 CE examines ecological thought contested amid the rise of the Chinese landscape genre, tracing its intersections with infrastructure governance, natural resource management, and geospatial knowledge. It traces the pre-industrial notion of "sustainability" in policy debates, legal regulations, and arts. Landscape imagery on paintings, maps, as well as mass-produced artifacts such as fans and ceramic pillows documented both appropriate and exploitative use of natural resources, and critiqued on social inequity and political turmoil. This book breaks new ground by bringing together research on visual and material culture with analysis of politics and ecology. Wang argues that the Chinese landscape genre embodied a holistic approach to negotiating debates on human-nature interdependence and people-state relationships. It joins the increasing literature on ecocriticism and offers alternative perspectives to address contemporary challenges, ranging from environmental crisis to global governance.

Industry Reviews

"How to manage the trade-off between short term economic gain and long term environmental sustainability? It seems like a modern question. Surprisingly, it was debated with great insight by thinkers in Chinese history. Even more surprising, it was expressed in subtle ways in Song-Yuan period landscape imagery. Read this fascinating and beautifully illustrated book to find out more!"

-Daniel A. Bell, author of Why Ancient Chinese Political Thought Matters

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