Before climate policy, there was landscape painting—how visual culture illustrated ecological concerns in imperial China.

Chinese landscape art has been more than an aesthetic tradition for centuries; it has been an outlet for ecological thought and resource management. Sustaining Landscape shows how paintings, maps, and everyday objects like fans and ceramic pillows documented responsible stewardship and exploitation of the natural world. These images did not just capture China’s diverse landscapes but also critiqued social inequities and environmental degradation.

Combining art history, environmental studies, and political thought, this book offers a fresh outlook on pre-industrial sustainability and the ways visual culture shaped governance and ecological awareness. As debates over climate and global policy continue today, Sustaining Landscape highlights how the past informs present concerns—revealing a rich and complex dialogue between nature and power.