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Hsiang Lectures: Emerging Studies on Chinese Poetics: The Studio in the Mind
Dr. Yunshuang Zhang, Assistant Professor of Chinese, Wayne State University
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Abstract:
The studio, or shuzhai 書齋, was an enclosed site specifically used for reading, writing, and artistic creation. Although a few studios were recorded in pre-Song texts, it was during the Song dynasty (960–1279) that the studio had become a prominent cultural space for literati. It was both an object of scholarly representation and the medium through which the literatus’ everyday practices were affected. Even when Song literati had to be away from the physical studio for reasons such as official service or sightseeing, or when they could not afford a physical studio, they were still engaged in constructing a temporary studio or even a virtual studio in their minds.
This talk thus focuses on the strategies that Song literati employed to symbolically assert a separate space apart from the outside world and therefore ensure scholarly enjoyment and mental delight in privacy even under unstable conditions.