Researcher re-grows imperial gardens' story

Since 2017, Zhu has led club members to consult ancient maps, court archives, paintings, surveying and mapping data, satellite images, and historical photos to conduct on-site investigations and try to restore the complex.

"We employed restoration research methods, such as cross-referencing historical documents, interpreting aerial images, and applying deductive digital modeling to pinpoint the location of Changchun Garden," says Zhu.

After years of effort, they reconstructed the complex's historical layouts during the reigns of Emperor Qianlong and Daoguang. They gained an understanding of the garden's boundaries, design principles, and inner and outer spatial configurations.

"Restoring the complexes is the most fundamental work to study the area. This restoration is not about rebuilding on ruins, but about using historical analysis and drawing techniques to reconstruct the gardens' appearances in different historical periods precisely, and to use that as a basis for further theoretical research," says Zhu.

Restoration is an ongoing process, Zhu adds. Because written records of Changchun Garden are limited, much must be inferred from textual research, and precision has limits. "As we compare archaeological advances and new findings with historical documents, we will be able to reconstruct the garden more accurately," he says.

In 2022, Zhu achieved his doctorate and was recruited by the Beijing University of Agriculture as a teacher. That same year, the University's School of Landscape Architecture established a studio to research the Three Hills and Five Gardens, where Zhu serves as lead and continues his work with several other teachers and students.

Based on earlier reconstruction efforts, Zhu and his team have contributed to the real restoration of ancient gardens. In 2024, after the Summer Palace repaired its Hall of Nurturing Clouds, a complex originally built in Emperor Qianlong's period for reading amid rising clouds, Zhu's team was invited to design its garden.