Terra sebv s acta mvsei sabesiensi s

Terra Sebus: Acta Musei Sabesiensis, Special Issue, 2014, p. 475-489 

 

 

TYPOLOGICAL FEATURES OF CHINESE CULTURE  

IN THE MING DYNASTY (1398-1644) 

 

 

Rimma Kashifovna BAZHANOVA



 

Dmitry Evgenyevich MARTYNOV



 

Yulia Aleksandrovna MARTYNOVA



 

 

 

Introduction  

The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) was the final stage of traditional Chinese 

cultural development. Spiritual and artistic synthesis, cultivated through a 

symbolic world view, reached perfection during this period, but also began 

show features of stagnation, which became determinative in the following 

centuries. The obliteration of symbolic reality and the replacement of a 

symbolic world view by a naturalistic one characterises the development of 

Chinese cultural processes in the Modern age.

1

 

 

Methodology  

The main difficulty in the study of symbolism is the incomparability of 

conceptual language and symbolic reality. Symbolism is in reality inseparable 

from consciousness, from a functional perspective. Works of contemporary 

researchers of symbolism - P. Berger, D. Sperber, P. Bourdieu - show that 

the roots of symbolism can be found in the premises of human activity, 

which correspond to the history of sociality as a set of moments of 

experience. In this sense, symbolism corresponds to Bourdieu’s concept of 

“habitus” - non-fixed aspirations of people reproducing the objective 

structures of society.

2

 

Modern Sinology has formulated conclusions regarding total artistry 

as a specific feature of Chinese culture. Art runs through Chinese life “from 

                                                 



 Kazan State University of Culture and Arts, Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation; e-

mail: [e-mail]. 



 Kazan Federal University, Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation; e-mail: 

[e-mail]. 



 Kazan Federal University, Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation; e-mail: 

[e-mail]. 

1

 Malyavin 2003, p. 11. 

2

 Bourdieu 1990, p. 9. 

www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html   /   www.cimec.ro

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R. K. Bazhanova, D. E. Martynov, Y. A. Martynova 

 

 

476

the highest theoretical spheres to the most ordinary manifestations and such 

universal presence is probably its most characteristic feature.”

3

 Artistic 

creativity, aesthetics and ethics, ritual and music, calligraphy, painting, 

poetry and dance imbue not only spiritual, but also everyday life. In terms 

of universalism, a configuration of artistic experiences accumulated by 

Chinese masters can be distinguished by the dominance of several 

components. In course of the general evolution of the artistic experience, 

the cosmism and synaesthesia conventional to Indian culture was adapted 

by Chinese masters, who introduced new categories and strategies that 

reached the level of specific universals not only of the culture, but also of 

actual artistry. It seems that a very characteristic dynamic of the Chinese 

variant of artistry is a mechanism for the conservation of traditional creative 

principles whilst sharpening the form and content in a direction of 

increasing sophistication. It should also be noted that Chinese philosophical 

and aesthetic traditions are characterised by the absence of creationism: the 

world, in the view of these traditions, arises from some hidden foundation, 

like a flower emerging from a bud. The world is not perceived as being 

divided into spirit and matter, rather reality is interpreted as a process or a 

state of flow of the vital force, qi. The world does not consist of the 

material and the spiritual, it is “energetic.”

4

 

The universe, in Chinese traditional thought, has organic integrity; a 

man is equal to the cosmic forces of heaven and earth and occupies a 

central place among them. This, however, does not imply recognition of the 

absolute freedom of will. Chinese behavioural norms operate according to 

specific limitations: every deed and action of the individual is evaluated in 

terms of etiquette and morality. Thus, naturalism, vitalism, holism, 

humanism and ethical imperative are the philosophical and cultural 

foundations of the Chinese world view.

5

 

In understanding the essence of Chinese artistry, the idea of the 

interpenetrability of matter and spirit is of great importance. Between spirit 

and substance, matter and consciousness there is no insurmountable 

boundary. They are no more than different modi of a single entity. All that 

exists in the universe is qi, endlessly passing from one form to another. That 

is why reality, in Chinese thought, is determined through the identification 

of change; reality is a subjectless medium of transformations in which all 

things mutually embrace each other, and so form merges with being. The 

most reliable evidence of the Dao (Way) is considered to be the element of 

                                                 

3

 Titarenko 2010, p. 13. 

4

 Jullien 1996, p. 18-19. 

5

 Torchinov 2005, p. 14. 

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