Bathing through Time and Landscape: Everyday Encounters and Reconstructions at Huaqing Hot Springs (1000–1900)

Abstract

Abstract Despite the long-standing interest in hot springs in China, this subject has remained understudied. This article explores how the most famous hot springs in China, the Huaqing Hot Springs 華清池 at Mount Li 驪山, were selectively reused and negotiated by different social groups from the tenth to the nineteenth century. It retraces the historical process of reconstructions at the Huaqing Hot Springs by local officials, religious practitioners, literati, and local inhabitants after the Huaqing palaces were abandoned by the Tang central court. In the post-Tang life of the Huaqing Hot Springs, the long-term co-existence of activities between various social classes and across the gender divide are deeply rooted in the local everyday usage of the hot springs. This article reveals multiple transformations within continuity in reimaging and reconstructing the hot springs landscape in Chinese history.