欲望是无止境的，因而人类对景观的营造或改变存在着无节制的风险，甚至会带来破坏。从人类进化和发展的历史来看，人类并没有约束自我欲望的基因，却在追求欲望满足的过程 中不断暴露出攫取、扩张的贪婪本性——拥有财富和权力的权贵们的宫殿和园林无限制扩大，以便收储不断膨胀和更新的欲望。技术进步和工业化大生产在满足资本家的财富野心的同时，也让更多的人在欲望的驱使下，试图更高效地攫取自然资源：农田、工厂和城市因此不断蔓延，农药、化肥因此被无节制地使用。这一切都致使人类唯一的家园面临巨大危机：气候变化、洪涝频发、海平面上升，大地景观正在经历剧变，人类或将自身埋葬在欲望的深渊之中。如圣雄甘地所言：“地球上提供给我们的物质财富足以满足每个人的需求，但不足以满足每个人的贪欲。” [3]

幸好，欲望是可以和自然和谐共生的。当最基本的生理和安全需求得到保障以后，人类可以通过合理利用自然景观的服务，而不是一味消耗自然资产，来满足其他更高层次的需求。为了满足对认同和归属感的欲望，人们可以开采大量的石材，用尽人力物力，来建造高耸入云的纪念碑和宏大的庙宇，也可以在村口种植一片风水林，立一根木柱，如同早年汉族先民在跨越千山万水，从战乱的中原大地来到南方山林中，在陌生的土地上寻求安身立命之所时所做的那样。而当他们在旷野上播下一粒种子、栽下一棵树苗时，他们便在自然中留下了印记，这些生命不仅将成为他们与这方土地连结的象征，也将塑造其生于斯、长于斯的后代们的归属与认同。为了实现自我价值，人们可以像愚公移山那样叩石垦壤，也可以在崖壁上用矿物颜料描绘秀美山川、奔腾的野马和舞动的恋人——这便是艺术。对景观的艺术性想象和再现，包括景观的设计和创作，都可以最大限度地满足人类的欲望：缥缈的海上仙山和高峻的昆仑仙境，都是人们对死亡的恐惧和对长生不老渴望的表达；陶渊明所描绘的武陵秘境是对安宁与和谐社会的期盼的流露；《溪山行旅图》和网师园则承载了人们对远离尘世、遁迹山水之间的自由生活的向往。

正因为如此，人类高层次的欲望可以在不破坏自然的前提下得到最大满足，而这正是现代生态科学意义上的生态系统服务，即景观设计学中所称的“景观服务”。

以下为文章英文版本

引用格式及所在主题刊详细信息见文末

DESIRES AND LANDSCAPES

YU Kongjian

Professor of College of Architecture and Landscape, Peking University; Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Landscape nourishes not only human’s body and mind, but also human desires, from survival and physiological needs, to the sense of belonging and identity, and the self-actualization, all of which arise from landscapes.

From the first day of standing on the ground with both feet—instead of arboreal inhabitation—human beings, driven by the desire for survival, hunted herbivores around the edge of grasslands and forests while protecting themselves from beasts hidden in the tall grass; they also learned to make best use of natural environment, knowing the uses and dangers of terrains and landforms, the rocks in the wilderness, and plants and wild animals, and to use body senses to find companions and safe places for inhabitation and reproduction. Evolutionary Anthropology and Evolutionary Aesthetics hold that human’s inherent desires for survival and reproduction shape our perception and aesthetics of landscapes [1] : The landscape structures and elements related to survival are the stimuli to sublimity, while those related to reproduction provoke the desire for beauty [2] . This is of course an extremely simplified interpretation on the relationship between landscapes and human emotions, where the landscape is meaningful: a lone tree on the barren, as “an island in the sea,” means the hope of life, and the flat ground on cliffs and the caves in the mountains symbolize the birth and reproduction of human beings.

Human desires also influence the formation of cultural landscapes on the earth. The historical landscape is the imprints of human desires on the land, and the existing landscape traces the cultivation of human desires nowadays. The continuous pastures, farmlands, and orchards all manifest human desires; industrial areas and urban sprawls all mirror the human’s desire for material abundance; the Great Wall lying on the borders of ancient China and the Grand Canal contacting with the Yellow River and the Yangtze River illustrate human desire to control the nature; the Versailles Park and the Summer Palace display the desire for ruling of the French and Chinese royal families; the Triumphal Arches in ancient Rome, the Victory Avenue of the Third Reich (Siegesallee des III Reiches), or the enormous squares or the large-scale landscape avenues often found in today’s Chinese cities all accent the overweening desires of urban decision-makers.

Desire is endless. Therefore, human’s unrestrained creation or alteration might cause irreversible damages on natural landscapes. The history of human evolution and development tells us that inherently human beings do not constrain their desires; rather, human beings’ greed keeps increasing in the process of satisfying desires. The wealthy and the powerful expand their palaces and gardens unlimitedly for new desires. Technological advance and large-scale industrial production not only satisfy capitalists’ growing desires for wealth, but also accelerate the exploitation on natural resources, resulting in continuous sprawls of farmlands, factories, and cities, and the reckless use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers. All of these have caused the earth, the only homeland of mankind, to face severe crises such as climate change, frequent floods, rising sea levels, etc., and the landscape is undergoing dramatic changes—human beings may bury ourselves in the abyss of desire. As what Mahatma Gandhi once warned, “There is enough on earth for everybody’s need, but not for everyone’s greed.” [3]

Fortunately, human desires can harmonize with nature. When the primary physiological and safety needs are met, humans can wisely utilize the services of natural landscapes—instead of immoderately consuming natural resources—to satisfy our higher-level needs. For the identity and the sense of belonging, humans build towering monuments and grand temples by extensively mining stones, which exhaust manpower and materials. Alternatively and wisely, this desire can be realized by simply planting a Fengshui forest, or erecting a wooden pillar at the gateway of the village where we live, just like what the early Han ancestors did when they fled from the war-torn Central Plains to the hilly and forested southern region. The seed they sowed, or the sapling they planted have linked them with the new land and the nature, and further become symbols of homeland to their descendants. For the self-actualization, one can move away hills by removing or flattening rocks and cliffs, or regard them as prototypes for art creation by depicting beautiful natural sceneries, galloping wild horses, and dancing lovers on with mineral pigments—this is art. The art of imagination and reproduction of landscapes, including the landscape design and landscape creation, can satisfy human desires in the greatest sense. In Chinese culture, such creations include the fairy tales of the misty Mount Penglai in the sea and the majestic Kunlun wonderland in the mountain, both expressing the fear for death and the desire for immortality; the Land of Peach Blossoms described by Tao Yuanming, representing an ideal society of harmony, tranquility, and peace; and the painting Travelers among Mountains and Streams , as well as the Master of the Nets Garden exactly illustrating the expectation of free life in nature away from the mortal world.

In this sense, human’s high-level desires can help achieve the greatest satisfaction without destroying nature. This is precisely the ecosystem services in modern Ecology Sciences, or the landscape services in Landscape Architecture.

参考文献

[1] Dutton, D. (2003). Aesthetics and Evolutionary Psychology. In J. Levinson (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook for Aesthetics. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

[2] Burke, E. (1757). A philosophical enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful. Retrieved from https://www. bartleby.com/24/2/

END

参考引用 / Source:

Yu, K. (2020). Desires and Landscapes. LandscapeArchitecture Frontiers, 8(6), 4-9. https://doi.org/10.15302/J-LAF-0-010001

翻译 丨 张健、田乐、崔婧沄

制作 丨 许恒源