Spring Dawn and Su Causeway: History and Landscape Culture of Hangzhou’s West Lake / edited by Antonio José Mezcua López and Xiaolin Duan.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

López, Antonio José Mezcua, editor.

Duan, Xiaolin, editor.

Series:

Sinica Leidensia ; 176.

Asian Studies E-Books Online, Collection 2026.

Sinica Leidensia ; 176

Asian Studies E-Books Online, Collection 2026

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Asian Studies.

History.

Chinese History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (350 pages) : illustrations.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : BRILL, 2026.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

What lies beneath the enduring charm of West Lake? This volume reveals how this iconic Hangzhou landscape evolved from a swamp into a public space and, ultimately, a powerful cultural symbol. Through new interdisciplinary research, it reframes West Lake within long-term landscape formation, showing how interactions between people and nature shaped its preservation, aesthetics, and commodification. Chapters uncover overlooked histories—from water myth to dredging, from material culture to global reception—demonstrating how West Lake became a place where knowledge, art, and identity were continually remade. This book offers a fresh model for landscape and place studies in China and the broader East Asian cultural sphere.

Contents:

Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Figures and Tables

Notes on Contributors

Introduction

Antonio José Mezcua López and Xiaolin Duan

Part 1 Water in Literature

1 Between the Placid Mirror and Roiling Waves: the Materiality of Water and the Literary Imagination of Hangzhou in Poetry of the Tang-Song Era

Benjamin Ridgway

2 The Early White Snake Tradition and Water Myth in the Cultural History of West Lake

Roland Altenburger

Part 2 Water in Management

3 Challenges to the Water Control of West Lake from the Tang to the Ming Dynasties (8th to 17th Centuries)

Silvia Freiin Ebner von Eschenbach

4 Hangzhou’s West Lake in the 2th Century—Conceptual and Other Milestones

Thomas H. Hahn

Part 3 Material Culture of West Lake

5 Drinking, Sightseeing, and Place Knowledge: the History of West Lake Tea

Xiaolin Duan

6 Form Appreciation, the Feeling of Vitality, and Imagining Mountains: the Rock Culture of West Lake in Hangzhou

Kai Gu

Part 4 West Lake and Overseas Conceptions

7 Marco Polo’s Quinsai and West Lake in the European Imagination

Antonio José Mezcua López

8 Importing a Cultural Landmark: the Genealogy of West Lake Painting of the Kanō School

Mengyuan Chai

9 West Lake in Korea: Literal and Visual Imagination during the Goryeo and Joseon Periods

Youenhee Kho

Part 5 Other “West Lake(s)” as Urban Lakes

1 From West Lake to the Summer Palace: Hangzhou’s Impact on the Evolution of Scenery in Beijing’s Western Suburbs

Danxiu Chen

11 Hồ Tây, the West Lake in Hanoi: a Cultural Landscape in Vietnam

Cristina Nualart

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9789004762497

OCLC:

1603128544

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004762497 DOI