The Art of Classical Chinese Gardens (3)

In the classical gardens that still exist today, one finds a harmonious interplay between nature and architecture. Decorative structures unite with cliffs, trees, flowers and hills to create artistic scenery. Gardens are supposed to resemble a sequence of continually changing landscapes. Paths wind through the grounds in a zigzag pattern, revealing new views of halls, trees, bridges, pavilions and hills. Even in the most confined places, architects have succeeded in creating a succession of varying landscapes. For example, when one opens a door into a small courtyard with no exit, he may find clumps of bamboo and rock and get an balustrade fixed on top of a wall and think it borders a hanging garden.
The most important element of a garden is water, in any form, such as ponds, lakes, streams, rivers and waterfalls. The flowing water gives pulsating life to the garden’s cliffs, stones, trees, bushes and flowers.
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, bamboos and plum trees provide greenery. Among the most popular flowers are lotuses, peonies, chrysanthemums and orchids. Special flowers are planted to attract bees or butterflies. These small insects make the gardens more lively.
Among the most important structures of garden grounds are walkways, pavilions and bridges. Timber frame construction plays a decisive role here. Pavilion-like houses have neither a harsh nor dominating effect, but rather blend effortlessly into their general surroundings.
Above all, it is the walkways that are most noticeable in gardens. They traverse the complex, subdivide it, connect the different groups of buildings and lead the visitor to the most important points.
Long corridors in the gardens are not only the passageways but also serve as resting places for people. The winding corridors are like belts linking everything together. They provide a covered veranda and function as shelter from the rain and shade from the sun.
The walls of the walkways and houses feature openings and gateways in many shapes: round moon gates, oval, angular, in the shape of vases and bottles, etc. They offer a view into the next courtyard, into the next scene and often look like the frame around a landscape painting. The fine latticework which can be seen in windows is attractive. Many walls wave on the top so they look like clouds. Looking at the walls, one can imagine the mountains rising and falling in the distance.
Pavilions were built in especially imposing places, such as on top of a hill or on a small island in the middle of a lake. Open on all sides, they offer a good view and invite the visitor to take a short rest. Various types of bridges can be found on the grounds: flat stone slab bridges from which one can comfortably watch the fish in the water, high arched bridges and swinging bridges which subdivide and at the same time ornament the grounds.
The technique of Chinese garden building has exerted a great influence on other countries. As early as in the 6th century, Chinese garden building was introduced into Japan, where gardens were given Chinese names. During the 18th century, the British developed a landscape park after the Chinese prototype. Later the enthusiasm for Chinese-style gardens spread to the European Continent. For example, twenty such scenic parks were built in Paris.
In 1980, a Chinese garden named the Astor Court (Ming Xuan) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City was built; later, a Chinese garden named Fanghua Yuan was constructed for the 1983 Munich World Garden Exhibition in the former West Germany. A miniature model of he Garden of the Master of Nets in Suzhou was produced in 1982 for a display at the Pompidou Center in Paris.

The Art of Classical Chinese Gardens (2)

The traditions of Chinese landscape gardens have their origins far back in history. Records of the Historian, written by Sima Qian in the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.- 25 A.D.), tells us that in the Shang Dynasty (16th- 11th century B.C.) there were special places called “you” (enclosure) for the rulers to enjoy the beauty of nature. Often these were gigantic reserves in which all kinds of animals were kept and where the rulers enjoyed hunting.
After Emperor Qin Shihuang unified China, the Shanglin Garden was built. Emperor Wu Di of the Han Dynasty followed the scale of the Shanglin Garden to build the Taiye Pond, in which there were three rockeries-Penglai, Fangzhang and Yingzhou. This layout of three hills standing in a pond greatly influenced the art of gardens for later generations and became one of the main methods for building classical Chinese gardens. In the Western Han Dynasty people began to build private gardens. The development of classical Chinese gardens during the 400 years of the Han Dynasty laid the foundation for the art of Chinese gardens.
In the Tang and Song dynasties, the art of Chinese gardens matured. Private gardens in the Song Dynasty also developed rapidly. The private gardens were mainly built with streams or gills or all kinds of plants and flowers of halls and pavilions.
The Ming and Qing dynasties were the golden ages of garden building. The imperial garden Yuanmingyuan is regarded as the masterwork of this period. 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, for the 500 gardens built in South China, mainly in Wuxi, Yixing, Jiading and Ningbo.
A Chinese garden is not just a park or something attached to a building. It is a world in miniature. The art of Chinese gardening is a way of reconstructing nature. This is achieved by recreating landscape. In classical Chinese gardens, the flowers, grass, trees, rocks and ponds reflect natural scenes. Halls verandas, pavilions and bridges blend well with the natural sceneryof mountains and rivers.
Classical Chinese gardens were influenced by landscape painting and pastoral poetry. Horticulturists chose the most impressive natural scenery in paintings and recreated it in their gardens, the way a painter captures the natural scenery of mountains and rivers in a small picture.
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 mountainous 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 mountainous area and enjoy the beauty and serenity of nature.

The Art of Classical Chinese Gardens (1)

The art of classical Chinese gardens is part of China’s traditional culture. Many people say that if you have never walked through a Chinese garden, you cannot say that you have really visited China.
The art of Chinese gardens has a history of more than 3,000 years. Now China has about 1,000 classical gardens. Different from classical European gardens, in which geometric pattern dominates, Chinese gardens are made to resemble natural landscapes on a smaller scale. Classical Chinese gardens fall into two categories: imperial and private. The gardens in North China were mostly imperial property such as the Beihai Park, the Summer Palace in Beijing, and the Imperial Summer Resort in Chengde. The gardens in the South usually belonged to high officials and wealthy merchants. Many of them spent their years of retirement there in leisure.
Imperial gardens are large in area. The Summer Palace, for instance, has an area of 290 hectares while the Imperial Summer Resort, the largest imperial garden in China, covers more than 560 hectares. Most imperial gardens have three sections: the administrative section, residential section and recreational section. In large imperial gardens, the main buildings are connected by an imaginary line in the middle of the garden on a south-north axis. Other buildings scattered among hills and waters are linked by subordinate lines, forming a well-designed symmetry and adding more beauty to the chief architectural complex.
Most private gardens are found in the South, especially in cities south of the Changjiang River. Private gardens were mostly built at one side or at the back of residential houses. In almost every case, there in a large space in the garden set in a landscape of artistically arranged rockeries, ponds, pavilions, bridges, trees and flowers. Surrounding the beautiful scene are small open areas partitioned by corridors through which visitors can enjoy the scenery, buildings in the garden are open on all sides and are often situated near the water so that the whole scene can be enjoyed.Suzhou, known as the home of gardens, displays the most and the best Chinese traditional private gardens. The great many gardens in the city are good examples of Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing garden styles.