The garden is one of the important
types of architectural art. It is essentially aimed at organizing an environment
rich in temperament and interest and full of the beauty of artistic conception
through the so-called four gardening elements including mountains, rivers,
structures and plants, as well as the organic components such as roads, interior
settings. In comparison to ordinary structures, the spiritual character of
gardens is more outstanding, and it requires that artists have greater and
higher ingenuity and imagination.
Compared with other gardening systems of the
world, such as European or Islamic, Chinese gardens have their distinct national
characteristics:
a. Paying attention to natural beauty.
Chinese gardens carry out processing and transformation of the original terrain
and land form by following the principle of "making it seem like nature", or
seem naturally formed, so as to satisfy people's feeling of getting close to
nature.
b. Pursuing many twists and turns. Nature
itself is ever-changing and interesting. Chinese horticulturists who emulate
nature necessarily pursue changing, free-style composition. It is of a
completely different system compared with the Western landscape gardening theory
of compels nature to accept the symmetrical rules.
c. Advocating artistic conception. Beautiful
environment created by Chinese horticulturists does not stop at the stage of
formal beauty, but tries to express inward feeling through outward scenery.
Therefore, the ultimate key to the high or low level and success or failure in
the creation of Chinese gardens depends on the cultural level, and the high or
low level and crudeness or refinement of esthetic temperament and the interest
of the creator.
Chinese horticulture began in the Qin
Dynasty (1644-1911), and two royal garden construction upsurges occurred during
the Qin/Han (221BC-220AD) and Sui/Tang (581-907) dynasties. Private gardens saw
great development by men of letters during the Tang and Song dynasties, and
entered the peaking stage in the Ming and Qing dynasties (1644-1911). The
achievements in gardening during the Qing Dynasty attract greater attention,
representing an important component of the third development upsurge in Chinese
architecture. Almost all of the existing gardens were preserved during this age.
The extant royal gardens are in the vicinity of Beijing, while private gardens
of a higher artistic level are mostly 1concentrated in areas south of the
Yangtze River. They constitute the two major schools of Chinese gardening.