NATIONAL IDENTITY IN TRADITIONAL CHINESE ARCHITECTURE AND WALL PAINTINGS: SYMBOLISM, TRANSFORMATION AND ARTISTIC EVOLUTION

The article examines aspects related to the expression of national features in traditional Chinese architecture and art. The generalisation of research data on historical pagodas, temples, small pavilions and murals determines what exactly became signs of national and regional identity in them. Using the examples of outstanding historical objects, it is traced how, under the influence of local traditions resistant to change, borrowed architectural forms, such as pagodas, were transformed and changes in art took place, which is proven by the examples of Buddhist murals in Dunhuang. It analyses how the number of pagodas – dominants, which were supplanted by local forms of temple pavilions, gradually decreased. The symbolism, sacred content and artistic features of polychromy in architecture and art are studied. It is proven that the period of economic and cultural prosperity in the Sui and Tang eras simultaneously became periods of improvement in architecture and art, a period of active form formation and the search for new artistic techniques.