Research on the Spatio-Temporal Evolution and Value Characteristics of Scenic Heritage Based on Multiple Evidence - Take Fuling Beiyan as an Example

Objective A special type of heritage has existed in China since ancient times - the scenic heritage, which is dominated by traditional ‘scenery’. Scenic heritage has a broad spatial and temporal span. In terms of space, scenic heritage is formed under the macro landscape space system, and its humanistic and aesthetic values are associated with a wide range of space, which needs to be perceived from the ‘overall’ landscape environment perspective, not from the ‘local’ subject of heritage; In terms of time, the scenic heritage is not a static historical section, but is formed in the long-term inter-generational inheritance, and its spatial elements, cognitive scope, and cultural values are constantly changing. The wide spatial and temporal span increases the difficulty of comprehensively identifying and recognising the spatial and temporal characteristics of scenic heritage and its values. As a result, the continuously changing spatial elements and socio-cultural values of scenic heritage cannot be comprehensively identified, resulting in a series of problems such as the static protection of heritage space, and the monotonous and fragmented interpretation of cultural values and historical information. In addition, the documents carrying multiple historical information are numerous and scattered, and it is difficult to carry out comprehensive and repeated archaeological excavation of the scenic heritage as a living heritage, which further increases the difficulty of collecting and integrating historical information. Therefore, there is an urgent need to construct an appropriate research path on the spatio-temporal and value characteristics of scenic heritage, so as to effectively deal with the dual fragmentation of spatial environment and historical information that scenic heritage is currently facing. Methods The study draws on the theoretical perspective of landscape archaeology, which focuses on the overall environment of heritage and explores the anchoring connection between space and culture, and combines the method of multiple evidences and historical evidence to construct a research path on spatio-temporal and value characteristics of scenic heritage based on multiple evidences, in order to try to break through the problems of spatial environment change and fragmentation of historical information faced by scenic heritage. At the same time, the typical case of Beiyan Scenic Heritage is selected for the empirical application of the constructed path. Beiyan Scenic Heritage in Fuling, Chongqing is located on the north bank of the Yangtze River by the mountains and the water, and has gradually become an important humanistic resort through the local construction of successive generations due to its important value as the birthplace of Yili(Chinese philosophy). However, due to the lack of multi-temporal and multi-modal concepts and methods of scenic heritage recognition, the current scope of protection of the Beiyan Scenic Heritage is limited to the Beiyan Inscribed Cultural Relics Protection Units and their nearby historical building areas, which has led to the aesthetic fragmentation of its wholeness with the surrounding natural environment, as well as the loss of the relevance of the city to the landscape. In addition, the failure to fully understand the process of dynamic changes in Beiyan has also resulted in the problems of unclear historical stages of conservation, destruction of key spatial patterns, and monolithic interpretation of cultural values. The study aims to achieve the restoration of historical space, the analysis of spatial and temporal evolution, and the interpretation of cultural associations through the application of landscape archaeological methods such as comparing and contrasting multiple historical evidence of Beiyan's scenic heritage, GIS landscape characterisation, visual field analysis, and spatial evolution analysis. Firstly, in the historical spatial restoration step, the historical information of Beiyan Scenic Heritage is verified based on the comparison and mutual verification of the four types of evidence, namely, chronicles, poems, images, and maps; secondly, in the spatial-temporal evolution analysis step, spatial evolution analysis is adopted to analyse the spatial pattern characteristics of the Beiyan Scenic Heritage and the change law of the elements from the perspective of dynamics; and lastly, the cultural life characteristics associated with the spatial representations are summarised and interpreted based on the spatial analysis, so that socio-cultural associations are inferred from the space. Finally, on this basis, the cultural features behind the spatial representations are summarised and interpreted, and the deeper contents and values of social culture and philosophical thoughts are inferred from the space. Results/Conclusion The spatial and temporal characteristics of the overall spatial association of the Beiyan Scenic Heritage ‘mountain-river-village-yard’, the intergenerational inheritance and expansion process of the key nodes of the Goushen Hall and the Dianyi Cave, as well as the characteristics of the socio-cultural values of the important place of education, the local scenic landmarks, and the places of important local activities were identified. The subsequent conservation of Beiyan Scenic Heritage should focus on reconstructing the overall structure of ‘mountain-river-village-yard’, resetting the internal elements and reshaping the value interpretation and dissemination system on the basis of full knowledge of its spatial-temporal and value characteristics, so as to better conserve and pass on the socio-cultural values of Beiyan Scenic Heritage.