The tradition of the literati in Chinese design: the poetics of memories

The theme of the "spirit of place" has long been popular in modern architecture and environmental design, which was developed by the Norwegian architect Christian Norberg-Schultz in the 1970s and 1980s. This idea turned out to be close to Chinese designers, especially those of them who inherited the ideas of the literati (wenren), and through the prism of Western ideas they took a new look at their own tradition. The purpose of the study is to identify some characteristic features of modern Chinese design culture associated with the influence of the literati on it. We believe that this specificity is largely related to the poetics of memories, the understanding of space as a series of images transforming and flowing into each other, "metamorphoses of being." The object of research is the products of the artistic and design culture of the literati and designers rethinking their tradition. In the course of researching the traditional aesthetics of literati, we rely on the works of the Russian sinologist V. V. Malyavin, as well as on Chinese and Japanese authors. Speaking of the modern version of this aesthetic, we turn to the texts and projects of architect Wang Shu, designer Song Tao, photographer Sun Jun, etc. Initially, wenren is a man of high moral qualities, then a scientist and an official. Traditionally, the life of the literati is solitude and even hermitage, hence the theme of memories in their work. In addition, this is "amateurism", an unprofessional passion for the "elegant" – painting, music, etc. Aesthetically, it is an elegant, but unassuming beauty of the "ya". The tradition of "hidden meanings" and "pure offers" is also associated with the literati culture. Influenced to a large extent by the culture of the literati, many Chinese designers of the twentieth century turned to the poetics of memories and even the theme of nostalgia, interpreting space as a series of transforming images where the present is intertwined with the past, and the natural with what is made by human hands. The traditional concept of a "garden house" is certainly felt today, when the interior space is likened to a relief, and the relief is thought of as a dwelling.

Chinese design, literati, wenren, poetics of memories, house-garden, spirit of the place, nostalgia, Wang Shu, Sun Jun, elegance ya