| “Jing” is an important meta-concept in the field of landscape architecture. Scholars in the
industry have explored the term “jing” from various perspectives. Scholars such as Wang Juyuan,
Yang Rui, and Wang Shaozeng believe that “jing” is closely related to the essence of landscape
architecture as a discipline. Wang Shaozeng even argues that “jing” will further facilitate the
construction of the discipline’s system. Other scholars also point out that “jing” has a significant
impact on garden design and landscape architecture theory. Therefore, it can be seen that “jing” is
gradually becoming a key issue in the construction and development of landscape architecture.
However, the origin, development, and evolution of the term “jing” itself need further exploration.
Yang Rui has preliminarily discussed the origin of the term “jing” and used the words “jingjie” and
“yijing” to explore the cultural and aesthetic significance of “jing”, citing numerous examples from
traditional Chinese thought, religion, poetry, etc., as the philosophical basis and theory of “yijing”.
However, the introduction of the initial form, original meaning, and subsequent evolution of “jing” is
very brief. At the same time, traditional Chinese thought, religion, poetry, etc., have had a significant
influence on traditional gardens. Therefore, the origin, role, and inclusiveness of “jing” in the
aforementioned fields are worth studying, but Yang Rui did not elaborate on these aspects.Academics
often use the method of studying the form and meaning of characters from original materials and
classic texts to explore the origins and development of a word or term. This paper uses original
materials such as oracle bone script and bronze inscriptions to explore the initial appearance and
evolution process of the character “jing”, starting with its original form “jing”. It traces the evolution
of “jing” from oracle bone script to regular script, studies the configuration and core meaning of
“jing”, and then explores the original meaning of “jing” based on its configuration. Since the article A
Probe into the Cognition of “Jing” Through the Compound Words in Sibu Congkan has already sorted
out the meaning and usage of “jing” and found that Daoism, Buddhism, and poetics have had a
significant influence on the evolution of “jing”, this paper will further explore the specific origin,
role, and process of meaning change of “jing” in the fields of Daoism, Buddhism, and poetics, and
sort out its content and patterns.Research on the original configuration of “jing” and its original form
“jing” reveals that “jing” is a complex entity that includes time, space, and people. It also identifies
“people” as the key element among the three, consistent with Yang Rui’s viewpoint. This
characteristic of “jing” is highly compatible with the connotation of the landscape architecture
discipline. Subsequently, the exploration of the original meaning of “jing” and its origin, role, and
evolution in Daoism, Buddhism, and poetics reveals that “jing” plays an important mediating role in
these fields. Its connotation has expanded from physical space to a spiritual space that carries
perception, consciousness, and aesthetics. The rich connotation of “jing” has played a crucial role in
the discipline of landscape architecture in terms of research and design objects, evaluation criteria,
creation methods, historical and cross-disciplinary integration, discipline identification, and
theoretical guidance. This paper explores the origins and development of the character “jing” from
both form and meaning, producing innovative research results: (1) By searching the “Sibu Congkan”,
it updates the latest appearance time of the character “jing”, moving the latest appearance time from
the Eastern Han Dynasty (139 AD) to the Western Han Dynasty (77 BC-6 BC); (2) In terms of form,
starting from “jing”, it discovers three possible configurations of “jing” in oracle bone script,supplementing the configuration methods mentioned in Yang Rui’s paper; (3) In terms of the evolution of meaning, unlike Yang Rui’s focus on “yijing” and
“jingjie”, this paper emphasizes the evolution of the single character “jing”, supplementing the origin, role, and evolution of “jing” in traditional Chinese
thought, religion, and poetry. In short, “jing” originated from Zhuangzi’s concept of “xiang biao”, with added characteristics of infinity and human
psychological factors, continuously sublimating to the subjective spiritual level. Through its objective spatial meaning and usage, “jing” served as a translation
term in Buddhist scriptures, entering Buddhism and incorporating Buddhist consciousness, paving the way for its entry into poetics. However, its objective
space and subjective consciousness did not intersect. Later, “jing” became an abstract carrier for describing new creative experiences in poetics, bringing the
Buddhist practice method of “zhiguan” into the creative concept of “poetry born from the static state”, with “jing” in poetics also having multiple forms of
existence, achieving a good integration of objective space and subjective consciousness. |
