Classical Gardens
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General information
History of classical Chinese garden
The characteristics of Chinese garden
Elements for creating the garden
Categories of classical Chinese garden
Ways of creating the garden’s view
General Information
Classical Chinese garden also can be called traditional
Chinese garden. With its long history, rich cultural
significance, special characteristics, and charming
artistic enchantment, it has been regarded the most
important and leading gardening system among the
three gardening systems in the world.
General Information
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The Chinese consider gardens a serious art form and
as with painting, sculpture and poetry aim to attain in
their design the balance, harmony, proportion and
variety that are considered essential.
The art of the Chinese garden is closely related to
Chinese landscape painting - it is not a literal imitation
of a natural landscape, but the capturing of its essence
and spirit. It is a landscape painting in three dimensions
The garden is created by the human hand, but should
appear as if created by heaven.
General Information
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Now China has about 1,000 classical gardens. The
most important examples of Chinese landscape
gardens are located in Beijing, Chengde and cities
south of the Yangtze river such as Suzhou and
Wuxi.
History of classical Chinese garden
The art of Chinese garden has a history of more
than 3,000 years. The Records of the
Historian(《史记》), tells that in the Shang
Dynasty, there were special places, called “You”
(囿)，for the rulers to enjoy the beauty of nature.
After Emperor Qin Shihuang of the Qin
Dynasty(221BC-206BC) unified China, Shanglin
Garden(上林苑 ) was built. It shows that the garden
was called ‘yuan’(苑).Emperor Wudi of the Han
Dynasty followed the scale of the Shanglin Garden
to build the Taiye Pond in the Shanglin Garden.
History of classical Chinese garden
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In the Western Han Dynasty people begun to build private
gardens. The development of classical Chinese garden
during the 400 years in the Han Dynasty laid the
foundation for the art of Chinese gardens.
In the Tang and Song Dynasties, the art of Chinese garden
matured. Private gardens in the Song Dynasty also
developed rapidly. The private gardens were mainly built
with streams or hills or all kinds of plants and flowers or
halls and pavilions.
History of classical Chinese garden
The Ming and Qing Dynasties were the golden age of
garden building. In the middle and the late Ming
Dynasty, the artists summed up their experience in
designing gardens by writing articles about gardens,
which laid the foundation, in theory, as well as in
practice.
Chinese garden culture matured as a comprehensive
school of its own during the this period of time, after the
practice of many preceding dynastic periods, and rose to
become one of three garden construction schools along
with Western Asia and Europe.
The characteristics
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The creation of classical Chinese gardens
depended on mountains, rivers, buildings,plants,
animals and even the weather. In these gardens
usually the ground is like that of a mountain area.
This kind of garden layout imitates real terrain.
The hills in classical gardens provide natural
surroundings for visitors. Looking at the hills,
people feel as if they live in a mountains area and
enjoy the beauty and stillness of nature.
Elements for creating the
garden ——Rocks
Decorative rocks, sometimes termed Chinese scholar’s rocks, are
used both for structural and sculptural purposes. The sculptural
Taihu rock is especially prized because it represents wisdom and
immortality, and is only procurable from Tai Lake, just west of
Suzhou. During the Song dynasty, they were the most expensive
objects in the empire. Such rocks, combined with streams and
pools, form the basis of a garden's plan. The Chinese word for
landscape, shan shui, literally means "mountains and waters"
while a common phrase for making a garden means "digging
ponds and piling mountains".
Elements for creating the gardenWater
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Water is the blood of a traditional Chinese
garden. The most important element of a
garden is water, in any form: ponds, lakes,
streams, rivers and water-falls. The
movement of flowing water gives pulsating
life to the garden’s cliff, stones, bushes and
flowers.
Elements for creating the gardenPlants
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Trees and flowers, especially in private gardens, are
carefully selected for the overall layout of the gardens,
because of the limited space. Plants and flowers
reflecting the beauty of the four seasons are planted. In
spring, peach trees blossom; in summer, lotuses
blossom; in autumn, the maple leaves change color;
and in winter, the evergreen, bamboo and plum trees
provide greenery.
Among the most popular flowers are lotuses, peonies,
chrysanthemums and orchids. Special flowers are
planted to attract bees and butterflies. These small
insets make the gardens more lively.
plum
peony
lotuse
Azalea
Elements for creating the gardenStructures
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Among the most important structures of garden
ground are walkways, pavilions and bridges. Timber
frame（木质结构） construction plays a decisive
role here. Pavilion-like houses have neither a harsh
nor dominant effect, but rather bend effortlessly into
their general surroundings.
More specificly, we can divide the structures in
classical Chinese gardens into the following :
Lobby(大厅), Corridor（廊） ,Parlour（客
厅）, Waterside Kiosk （凉亭）,Storied Chamber（房间） ,
Bridge ,Storied Pavilion （阁）, Pagoda（塔）, Kiosk ,
Wall .
Categories of classical Chinese
garden
There are two major ways to classify Chinese gardens.
First, they can be classified into imperial gardens and private
gardens according the ownerships of the gardens.
Second, in terms of geographical location, there are northern
garden, which are mostly found in Luoyang, Kaifeng, and Beijing,
with those in Beijing as representatives; gardens in the lower
Yangtze River valley, which are mostly found in Nanjing, Wuxi,
Suzhou and Hangzhou, with those in Suzhou as the most
representative; and the Lingnan school of gardens, which are
found in Guangzhou, Dongguan and Shunde.
The Humble Administrator's Garden
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Covering 51,950 sq.m,the Humble
Administrator's Garden is the largest of all
classical gardens in Suzhou .It is centered upon
the broad expanse of a lake,making up about one
fifth of the total area. With well spaced
buildings,the garden landscape and water scape
are simple,extensive and natural,possessing the
traditional appearances of the Ming Dynasty.It is
divided into three parts;the eastern,middle and
western parts. The house lies in the south of the
garden.
The Lion Forest Garden
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Compactly yet harmoniously spaced,the Lion Forest
Garden has a prominent part for series of man-made
mountains with various buildings around the lake ,and an
artificial waterfall and cliffs at the edge of the lake on the
west. Remains of the 14th century man-made
mountains,covering 1,152 sq.m.and being the largest of all
at Suzhou,can be still seen today.Noted for its labyrinthine
mountains with winding pathways and caverns,old pines
and cypress trees,awesome peaks and jogged rocks of
grotesque shapes resembling dancing lions with striking
and unusral poses,it possesses with pride the true delights
of mountain and forest scenery in limited space with a
flavor of Zen Buddhism.
Imperial garden
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The earliest imperial garden dates back to the late
Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1027 BC) with the
construction of an imperial hunting ground,
followed by the Shanglin garden built by the
Emperor Qinshihuangdi in his capital at
Xianyang. The latter was completed by the Han
Emperor Wudi (r. 140-87 BC) and is thought to
have been the basis upon which the Summer
Palace was designed.
The represants of the imperial gardens: the
Summer Palace and Yuanmingyuan
The Summer Palace
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The summer Palace, located approximately twelve kilometers to the
northwest of Beijing's city proper, was first built in 1750 and rebuilt
in 1886. An outstanding example of imperial gardens in classical
Chinese style, the Summer Palace spreads on an area of 2.9 million
square metres, three fourths of which are water surfaces. Its major
attractions are the Wanshou (longevity) Hill and the Kunming (Jade
Spring)Lake. The garden is a showcase of pavilions in diversified,
exotic designs which are strung together by a corridor more than
seven hundred metres in length and a seemingly unending chain of
balustrades of snow-white marble. With western hills simmering in
the background, the Summer Palace is strewn with postcard perfect
sceneries, including the Yuquan(Jade Spring)Pagoda, the Kunming
Lake, and the bridge with seventeen arches. The huge garden's
artistic style, which is at once kaleidoscopic and harmonious, is
attributable to the unknown designers' ingenious landscaping skills.
Yuanmingyuan
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Yuanmingyuan was composed of three separate gardens:
Yuanmingyuan , Changchunyuan , Qichunyuan . It covers an
area of about 350 hectares with scenic spots up to one hundred.
In 1707 the Qing Emperor Kangxi built the first garden on this
site. In the next 150 years through the reigns of other five
emperors:Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang and
Xianfeng.The garden was constantly expanded to be the
largest imperial garden in the world at the time.
The builders of Yuanmingyuan not only inherited and
developed the traditional gardening art of China by
reproducing many famous natural scenes and gardens south of
the Yuangtze River, but also introduced some European
horticultural techniques.
Yuanmingyuan, located in the northwestern suburbs of
Beijing next to the Summer Palace, is a theme park with
particular historic meaning renovated on the ruins of the
famous imperial garden in the Qing Dynasty.
Ways of creating the garden’s View
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Generally speaking, the Chinese architectuers often use
the following ways to creat a garden and recreate the
nature.
obstructive scenery( blocking view ) , adding the view,
vista line (vista) , opposite scenery (view in opposite
place) , enframed scenery , leaking through scenery ,
borrowed scenery, view borrowing .
远景distant view
近景nearby view
障景obstructive scenery, blocking view
借景borrowed scenery, view borrowing
对景opposite scenery, view in opposite place
缩景miniature scenery, abbreviated scenery
漏景leaking through scenery
框景enframed scenery
尾景terminal feature
主景main feature
副景secondary feature
配景objective view
夹景vista line, vista
前景front view
背景background
景序order of sceneries
景点feature spot, view spot