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and form-in-movement are among the awkward translations 15 Shi Cunlong 2008a.
that result. There do, however, exist specialist art-historical 16 On the canal system connecting Beijing to the Grand Canal, see
terms of recent coinage that do the same kind of conceptual Hou Renzhi 2001; Shi Cunlong 2008b.
work. One is ‘situation’. I used this term above in a temporal 17 The Altar of Mountains and Rivers would later become the Altar
of Agriculture (Xiannongtan 先農壇), and the Altar of Heaven and
sense to describe Beijing’s historical conjuncture around Earth would become the Altar of Heaven (Tiantan 天壇).
1450. But one can also characterise the city itself in all its 18 On Beijing ritual sites in this period, see Deng Wenlin 2002.
plasticity as a situation, in which case one comes close to the 19 This formalised forest literalises the Song-dynasty architectural
place-in-movement dimension of the Chinese concept of metaphor that treats wood pillars as tree trunks and the bracketing
system holding up the roof as brackets and leaves. See Feng Jiren
shi. For the form-in-movement dimension, though, a more 2012.
33
useful concept may be ‘scape’, one which I have been 20 On trees at Beijing ritual sites, see note 19. See also Anami 2004.
developing in an ongoing series of publications. ‘Scape’, as 21 At the end of his life, Ruan An had his residence turned back into a
34
I use the term, denotes the perceptual emergence of temple. On Ruan, see Wang Jidong 2011; Yang Chunyu 2011.
provisionally stable form in an artwork. These two terms, 22 The figure of 193 used here comes from Naquin 2000, 114.
23 Naquin 2000, 259.
situation and scape, belong to a contemporary art-historical 24 The modern Zhongnanhai, currently inhabited by Chinese
frame of reference that can accommodate non-Western Communist Party leaders. See Jiang Shunyuan 1992, especially
analytic concepts like shi as well. This is the intersection at 83–4; Yan Chongnian 1991.
which movement can be developed as one useful analytic 25 The modern Jingshan Park. See Zheng Lianzhang 1990; Wang
Hong 2002.
lens through which to explore the specificity of the Chinese 26 The modern Imperial Garden. On its earlier existence as the
past. Qin’an Dian garden, see Wang Zilin 2007; Huang Ximing 1990.
27 On the supply of wood to Beijing, see Gao Shouxian 2006; Liu Xu
Notes and Chen Xibo 2010; Feng Zuxiang, Zhang Caite and Jiang
1 Owen 1992, 590–1. Yuanzhen 2008; Tian Peidong 2012; Wen Zhenjun 2007.
Unfortunately, it was not until the late 15th century that the Ming
2 On scansion, see Hay forthcoming. emperors got involved in reforestation, and even then they paid
3 On these unpleasant conditions, see Gao Shouxian 2004. attention only to frontier places where the absence of forest made
4 I gratefully acknowledge the help of Sylvia Wu and Jiaqi Liu in China vulnerable to invasion.
preparing the maps in Pls 5.3 and 5.10.
5 See Hou Renzhi 1979; Wan Yi 1990; Jiang Shunyuan 1991. 28 Wen Zhenjun 2007.
29 For reasons of national security, in 1453 the elephant handlers were
6 See Hou Renzhi 1979; Jiang Shunyuan 1991; Xu Weidong 2002; not allowed to return to their own country, despite their pleas to be
Chen Xibo and Han Guanghui 2010. See also Wang Jidong 2011.
7 Han Dacheng 1991. released from service. See MSL Yingzong shilu, 225 (Jingtai 4/first
month/ninth day [17 February 1453]). I would like to thank Bruce
8 Atwell 2002. Rusk for his generous help with research on elephants in 15th-
9 Yin Junke 2003. century Beijing.
10 Zhang Bizhong 1999. 30 Yan Chongnian 1991, 232.
11 The preceding account is based on the following studies: Yin Junke 31 For the regulations governing the deployment of elephants, see
2003; Li Xiaocong 2002.
DMHD, juan 228, 1121 ‘Xunxiangsuo’ 馴象所.
12 Wang Fu’s two paintings in Pl. 5.4 show water springing from the 32 A 16th-century handscroll in the National Palace Museum entitled
mountains at Jade Spring and the destination of the water: the lake Heralding Departure (Chujing tu 出警圖) depicts an imperial
around which the Yuan Forbidden City was built; note the procession to the imperial tombs in which one elephant draws a
waterspout through which the water arrives. Although Wang Fu’s chariot, preceded by a row of three elephants with ornaments on
authorship has been contested by Kathlyn Liscomb (1988–9), I do their backs; Na Chih-liang 1970, figs 13 and 14.
not find her arguments convincing.
13 Hou Renzhi 1979. 33 For a discussion of paintings as situations, see Hay 2007, especially
14 Yin Junke 2003. 453–5.
34 Hay 2007; Hay 2010, 448–52.

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