A Space of the Mind offers a guided tour through the history of the literati studio in Song dynasty China. More than just a space for reading, writing, and art, the studio became the central locus for literary production and a core part of literati identity. Yunshuang Zhang shows how the studio emerged as a haven for self-cultivation and scholarly pursuits, allowing Song literati to develop and affirm their status as members of the cultural and intellectual elite.

An exclusive and deeply personal space, the studio was both a physical site and a mental environment for literati to inhabit and fashion themselves as exemplars of moral refinement and elegance. While private, the studio could also be opened up for select social interactions and could provide the studio owner with a sobriquet—a widely circulated name by which both the studio and its owner came to be known. In this way, the studio became not only a space in the mind, but also a space of the mind, such that the studio and the self were intertwined.

Praise:

A Space of the Mind demonstrates the importance of studios in the literary enterprise of the Song elite, asking and answering genuinely fascinating questions about the linkages between textuality, materiality, and spatiality. Every specialist in Song literature and cultural history should read this book and will benefit from it immensely.

—Ari Daniel Levine, author of Divided by a Common Language

A Space of the Mind examines the Chinese studio as a crucial site of self-expression and cultural production. Yunshuang Zhang offers a compelling new interpretation of how the making and experience of space shaped literary and visual culture, providing fresh perspectives on Middle Period and early modern China.

—Xiaolin Duan, author of The Rise of West Lake