The Paradox between “Vulgarity” and “Elegance”

——The Aesthetic Trend and the Implied Cultural History of Genre Paintings in the Song Dynasty (960-1279)

Abstract: The paper elaborates the vulgarity and elegance of genre paintings in the Song dynasty (that is, the popularization and the identification of the painters in the imperial art academy as “the special literati” as well as the literati’s changing aesthetic values in the genre painting). It also conducts profound explorations of the implied cultural history as well as the integration between those literati’s aesthetic values and the public tastes in the genre paintings.

Keywords: Genre paintings in the Song dynasty; vulgarity; elegance; the integration of vulgarity and elegance

*Corresponding author, Shaoqing Lü: School of Cultural Industries, Nanjing University of the Arts, Nanjing, China, E-mail: 809316758@qq.com