De Vesting Tijen Tsing Weij.

Title

De Vesting Tijen Tsing Weij.

Description

View of the fortress Tyen-Tsing-Wey in China.

ca. 1760

Artist

Schley, van der (1715-1779)

Jakob van der Schley (1715 -1779) was a Dutch draughtsman and engraver. He studied under Bernard Picart (1673-1733) whose style he subsequently copied. His main interests were engraving portraits and producing illustrations for "La Vie de Marianne" by Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (1688-1763), published in The Hague between 1735 and 1747. He also engraved the frontispieces for a 15-volume edition of the complete works of Pierre de Brantôme (1540-1614), "Oeuvres du seigneur de Brantôme", published in The Hague in 1740. Most of the plates in the Hague edition of Prévost's "Histoire générale des voyages" are signed by van der Schley.

Historical Description

During the Qin Dynasty of the first emperor Qin Shihuangdi, much was unified, thus laying the foundations for a common cultural identity, including the Chinese script, consisting of thousands of Chinese characters, which is considered to be the oldest still used writing system in the world. According to the myth, China's history spans 5000 years, in which Chinese culture and science, especially Chinese languages, Chinese names, Chinese philosophy, Chinese cuisine, Chinese folk belief and traditional Chinese medicine have developed. However, the historical influence of Chinese traditions and cultural practices has not been confined to this narrow definition, as it has also spread to other Southeast Asian countries like Thailand, Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, etc, through the establishment of overseas Chinese communities. The East Asian cultural sphere shares a Confucian ethical philosophy, Buddhism, Taoism, and it historically has shared a 3,000-year-old ancient Han Chinese writing system. The core regions of the East Asian cultural sphere are generally taken to be Greater China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Chinese music, Chinese literature, Chinese painting, Chinese architecture, Chinese garden art and Chinese martial arts are typical of the style of Chinese art.