Leiden University Student Repository

Deng, Yiping (2020)

Mount Sumeru Being Contained in a Mustard Seed: The Culture of Windows in Early Modern China (1500-1800)

Bachelor thesis | Chinastudies (BA)

A window serves as the eye of a building. This thesis attempts to approach the windows of early modern China, roughly from the late Ming to the early Qing period. With the findings, it shows that windows served as a practical element as well as a culture symbol. On the one hand, a window could be used to enhance light effects and air circulation; with the coverings, windows created a shelter of privacy for both people inside and outside; windows were also taken into the account of architectural design as an evocative pictorial device. On the other hand, it represented social status and wealth. Windows were also silent statement of the so-called elegant taste, ya. Apart from these, the window motif in literature and art could help to frame an erotic space. It can be concluded that in the early modern period, a window had not only practical functions, but also shouldered multiple cultural symbolic implications.

China

Windows

Early Modern China

Art

Architecture

Culture

Author

Deng, Yiping

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Chinastudies (Bachelor)

Supervisors

Lin, Fan

ECTS Credits

10

Language

en