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.