4 Centrifugal or Processional: Divine and Mundane Power in Ancient Chinese Funeral Grids
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Shaoqian Zhang
Abstract
Taking an interdisciplinary approach involving Chinese religious studies and urban planning, this chapter introduces two different types of Chinese grid: One is organized in a radially symmetrical manner, and emphasizes the center as the representation of divine power. The other follows a bilaterally symmetrical order, and it emphasizes the procession and deepening of space in an urban grid along the central axis, to protect and deify the mundane power and spatially consolidate social hierarchies. To many scholars, traditional Chinese political systems can be regarded in terms of reciprocation and negotiation between divine and mundane power. Ideas of hierarchical societies, such as monarchical supremacy and governors receiving their mandates from heaven, constituted the core concepts regulating traditional Chinese political systems. Therefore, in the two types urban grid, their autonomous yet interdependent functioning created a wide variety of spatial patterns and architectural types in temples, altars, palaces, residences and cities. Against this background, my question focuses on the urban planning of ancient imperial Chinese funeral cities, which also follows a grid pattern. One approach in earlier Chinese religious thought was to regard the deceased as divine, with their funeral cities serving as an altar to which the living could send prayers. The other approach was to treat the deceased in a manner suggesting they were still alive. In this knowledge system, the living world and the underground world were entrusted to hold the same structure, demonstrating a yin (decreased) and yang (living) isomorphic cultural model. However, a number of these funeral cities demonstrate a combination of these two types of grid, as well as the two types of approach to the afterlife. By comparing the symbolic and allegorical representations found in these two types of funeral grid, this paper looks at the changing Chinese beliefs in an afterlife and the organizational principles and cultural connotations of traditional Chinese society itself.
Abstract
Taking an interdisciplinary approach involving Chinese religious studies and urban planning, this chapter introduces two different types of Chinese grid: One is organized in a radially symmetrical manner, and emphasizes the center as the representation of divine power. The other follows a bilaterally symmetrical order, and it emphasizes the procession and deepening of space in an urban grid along the central axis, to protect and deify the mundane power and spatially consolidate social hierarchies. To many scholars, traditional Chinese political systems can be regarded in terms of reciprocation and negotiation between divine and mundane power. Ideas of hierarchical societies, such as monarchical supremacy and governors receiving their mandates from heaven, constituted the core concepts regulating traditional Chinese political systems. Therefore, in the two types urban grid, their autonomous yet interdependent functioning created a wide variety of spatial patterns and architectural types in temples, altars, palaces, residences and cities. Against this background, my question focuses on the urban planning of ancient imperial Chinese funeral cities, which also follows a grid pattern. One approach in earlier Chinese religious thought was to regard the deceased as divine, with their funeral cities serving as an altar to which the living could send prayers. The other approach was to treat the deceased in a manner suggesting they were still alive. In this knowledge system, the living world and the underground world were entrusted to hold the same structure, demonstrating a yin (decreased) and yang (living) isomorphic cultural model. However, a number of these funeral cities demonstrate a combination of these two types of grid, as well as the two types of approach to the afterlife. By comparing the symbolic and allegorical representations found in these two types of funeral grid, this paper looks at the changing Chinese beliefs in an afterlife and the organizational principles and cultural connotations of traditional Chinese society itself.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Content V
- List of Illustrations VII
- Foreword: On Grids and Networks XI
- Acknowledgements XV
- 1 Introduction ‒ The Arts of the Grid: Interdisciplinary Insights on Gridded Modalities in Conversation with the Arts 1
- 2 The Networked Artwork: The Grid as Dynamic Relational Form? 22
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Part I: Planting and Planning the Grid
- 3 The Grid Specialized: Practical Town Planning, Artistic Features, and Natural Settings in Twentieth-Century Brazilian New Towns 39
- 4 Centrifugal or Processional: Divine and Mundane Power in Ancient Chinese Funeral Grids 54
- 5 Globalizing Senegal’s Grid-Plan Legacies in Light of Islamic Studies, World History and Urban Studies 70
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Part II: Generating Grids of Computational Arts
- 6 Between Technological and Aesthetic Grids: Philosophical Challenges Posed by AI Artists 83
- 7 Sounds in Grid: History and Development of Grid-Based Musical Interfaces and their Rooting in Sound, Interaction and Screen Design 97
- 8 On Grids of Contemporary Art Production: A Convergence of Artistic, Computational, Craft and Performative Making 109
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Part III: Kinetic Grids: Bridging, Digging, Floating
- 9 Searching for the Grid at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century: When Art and Science Shared their Fragments 127
- 10 Depth as Grid: An Improvisational Actor’s Perspective 143
- 11 How to Do Things with Grids: Anarchitectures of Navigability 157
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Part IV: Grids of Learning: Linguistic, Virtual, Visual
- 12 The Linguistics Relation in the Virtual Grid: A Digital Dialogue 177
- 13 Storytelling in Virtual Reality: A Multidisciplinary and Immersive Experience using Grid Methodology for Students 193
- 14 The Multidisciplinary Learning Grid: A Conceptual Space to Develop Neuropedagogy-based, Arts-integrated Chemistry Activities 204
- 15 Concluding Remarks: Grids of Light, Darkness, and Intermediate Shades 225
- About the Contributors 232
- About the Participant Artists 238
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Content V
- List of Illustrations VII
- Foreword: On Grids and Networks XI
- Acknowledgements XV
- 1 Introduction ‒ The Arts of the Grid: Interdisciplinary Insights on Gridded Modalities in Conversation with the Arts 1
- 2 The Networked Artwork: The Grid as Dynamic Relational Form? 22
-
Part I: Planting and Planning the Grid
- 3 The Grid Specialized: Practical Town Planning, Artistic Features, and Natural Settings in Twentieth-Century Brazilian New Towns 39
- 4 Centrifugal or Processional: Divine and Mundane Power in Ancient Chinese Funeral Grids 54
- 5 Globalizing Senegal’s Grid-Plan Legacies in Light of Islamic Studies, World History and Urban Studies 70
-
Part II: Generating Grids of Computational Arts
- 6 Between Technological and Aesthetic Grids: Philosophical Challenges Posed by AI Artists 83
- 7 Sounds in Grid: History and Development of Grid-Based Musical Interfaces and their Rooting in Sound, Interaction and Screen Design 97
- 8 On Grids of Contemporary Art Production: A Convergence of Artistic, Computational, Craft and Performative Making 109
-
Part III: Kinetic Grids: Bridging, Digging, Floating
- 9 Searching for the Grid at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century: When Art and Science Shared their Fragments 127
- 10 Depth as Grid: An Improvisational Actor’s Perspective 143
- 11 How to Do Things with Grids: Anarchitectures of Navigability 157
-
Part IV: Grids of Learning: Linguistic, Virtual, Visual
- 12 The Linguistics Relation in the Virtual Grid: A Digital Dialogue 177
- 13 Storytelling in Virtual Reality: A Multidisciplinary and Immersive Experience using Grid Methodology for Students 193
- 14 The Multidisciplinary Learning Grid: A Conceptual Space to Develop Neuropedagogy-based, Arts-integrated Chemistry Activities 204
- 15 Concluding Remarks: Grids of Light, Darkness, and Intermediate Shades 225
- About the Contributors 232
- About the Participant Artists 238
