Where to Look at a Picture: The Reconstruction of the “Audiencing” in the Inheritance of Ancient Chinese Paintings

The display mode of modern museums smoothes out the space-time differences of ancient Chinese paintings, which leads to the destruction and misreading of the “historical context” of the paintings. In order to better inherit traditional Chinese art, we should study the paintings from the perspective of “audiencing” and try to restore the context in which they were first viewed (or used) as well as the corresponding viewing methods. The reconstruction of the “audiencing” will help to understand the functions, forms, meanings and styles of the paintings and thus enable modern people to have more “understanding and sympathy” for the ancients who made and used these images. Written materials, pictorial representation and literary descriptions can provide supporting evidence for the reconstruction, but such evidences must be treated with extreme caution.