This dissertation explores the philosophical and aesthetic continuities and changes of the shanshui genre and the ongoing relevance of Chinese philosophy, in particular Daoism, within a subfield of modern and contemporary Chinese art. This dissertation has been created in dialogue with these traditions. Reflections on how this research has impacted my own art practise is intertwined with the historical and analytical discussion. This multi-threaded, multi-disciplinary dissertation has been written as a form of dialectical discourse which employs both analytical and personal writing. As such it combines elements of visual art-making as both artistic expression and research process; art historical research and analysis; and, ongoing self-reflections around both practices. In addition to the analysis of the art of a selection of contemporary Chinese artists, my art-based research led to the creation and discussion of a series of artworks, including the core painting series and exhibition titled, For a Moment, Silence in 2016. My research led me to the conclusion that shanshui is much more than a traditional visual form in Chinese art history for it offers a unique modality of thinking, perceiving and engaging. This, in turn, is based on a fundamental and dynamic perception of the interrelatedness of all things in the world, a perception which is embedded in a classical Chinese worldview. I demonstrate from various angles that by connecting the personal with the art historical, as well as with a philosophical and a pragmatic understanding of traditional Chinese philosophy, the experience of shanshui can be internalized through contemporary art practice as a method of reflective and experiential learning. / Graduate / 2022-11-07

Considéré généralement comme objet de l’art, sujet de la littérature et catégorie de l’esthétique chinoise, shanshui, les « montagnes-eaux », est censé relever d’un sentiment et d’une conception de la nature relativement différente de celle de l’Occident. Or la construction moderne de shanshui au prisme de la nature n’intègre la multiple pratique paysagère historiquement fondée dans la tradition lettrée, inextricablement liée à l’invention des montagnes-eaux : l’érémitisme, la recherche d’immortalité, l’excursion, la réunion littéraire lettrée, la création poétique, picturale et du jardin. Centrée sur l’histoire tri-séculaire après la chute de la Dynastie Han, en exposant les conjonctures particulières, analysant la notion ‘ziran’ dans l’étude du Mystère, rassemblant et traduisant les écrits et poèmes thématiques qui témoignent des mouvements et tendances extra-mondains dans les milieux lettrés sous les Wei-Jin (220-420), cette thèse vise à montrer que shanshui, plutôt que d’être constitué par la dualité nature/art, est inventé comme un paradigme confrontant, dans une bipolarisation de la réalité lettrée à cette époque, l’espace confucéen et l’espace taoïste, le service et la retraite, les affaires mondaines et la recherche de l’idéal par-delà la société. Autour de shanshui se cristallisent les idées-valeurs comme l’authenticité, la dévotion, la vertu, la liberté, le naturalisme, le mysticisme, la créativité et la transcendance immanente, en cela, nous supposons la co-naissance des montagnes-eaux et d’un idéal-type de l’humanisme classique chinois. / Generally regarded as the object of art, the subject of literature and Chinese aesthetic category, Shanshui (mountains-waters) is believed to be relevant to aesthetical feelings as well as the philosophical concept of nature that is different from that of the West. However, the modern construction of Shanshui through the prism of nature does not integrate the multiple landscape practices historically founded in the gentry's tradition, which had contributed to the invention of mountains-waters: eremitism, immortality seeking, excursion, gathering of literary circles, and the creation of poetry, paintings and gardens. Focusing on the history of Wei-Jin (220-420) after the fall of the Han dynasty, exposing the particular contexts, analyzing the notion of 'Ziran' in the Xuanxue school, gathering and translating the writings and thematic poems showing the extra-mundane movements and tendencies in literate milieus under this time, this thesis aims to show that Shanshui, rather than being constituted by the duality of nature and art, has been invented as a cultural paradigm to confront, in a bipolarization of the reality of ruling gentry class, the Confucian space and the Taoist space, service and disengagement, mundane concerns and pursuit of the Ideal beyond society. Around Shanshui the ideas and values such as authenticity, deep affection, virtue, liberty, naturalism, mysticism, creativity and immanent transcendence are crystallized, in this way, we may assume the co-birth of mountains-waters and an ideal type of Chinese classical humanism. / 山水研究以往側重于詩歌，繪畫與哲學分析，并普遍將山水視為自然再現，自然情感與某種不同於西方自然觀的審美表達。然而，“相對不同”的判定卻是建立在自然／文化兩分的現代二元范式的“普世應用”上的。因為僅僅強調山水源於“發現自然”並不能整合與山水緊密相關且貫穿於士傳統中的文化實踐：如隱逸，遊仙，遊覽，雅集，以及對世外理想之境的不懈書寫，描畫與營造。本論文考察了魏晉時期(220-420)的社會，政治與文化背景：名教自然的對立，隱逸遊仙的結合，魏晉風度，衣冠南渡，僑立，宗教興起，道釋義理在文化士族內部經由玄學促生的思想轉向等；通過分析魏晉玄學中的自然概念，整理翻譯相關的歷史文本與詩歌，試圖說明，與其說山水是自然／藝術的二元構建，毋寧說山水是士階層在仕與隱，經世與玄遠，世表與塵外的現實兩極化中所創建的一種文化範式。圍繞山水，凝聚了一系列具有重要文化特徵的理念与價值——保真，養身，自足，逍遙，自然主義，暢神玄覽，內在超越與審美理想。這意味著與山水共生的是一種中國古典人文主義的理想型。