What are the characteristics of classical garden architecture in China?

1. The scale is grand. The emperor can use his political privilege and strong financial resources in economy to occupy a large area of land to build gardens for his own enjoyment, so its scale is far from that of private gardens. China's earliest imperial garden, Ling Yue, is 35 kilometers away from Fiona Fang, and Shanglin Garden in Qin and Han Dynasties is more than 15 kilometers wide. The Xiyuan in Luoyang in the Sui Dynasty is 1 kilometers per week, with the sea in it, 5 kilometers per week. The Forbidden Garden in the north of Chang 'an Miyagi in the Tang Dynasty is 16.5 kilometers from north to south and 13.5 kilometers from east to west. Genyue in Tokyo during Huizong in the Northern Song Dynasty was rebuilt on the basis of the man-made mountain system-Long Live Mountain, which is "more than ten miles around the mountain" and overlooks the north, with the Jinglong River "with a long wave and a distance of more than ten miles". In the Yuan Dynasty, Taiyu Pool in Xiyuyuan, a metropolis, was "five or six miles wide, adding a flying bridge in the sea, starting from the temple of Yingzhou and surrounding the stone city". On this basis, it was expanded into the South China Sea, the North Sea and the China Sea in the Ming Dynasty. The summer resort built in the Qing Dynasty has a perimeter of 1 kilometers and contains 564 hectares of lakes and mountains. Yuanmingyuan covers an area of more than 2 hectares, and Changchun and Wanchun Gardens cover more than 15 hectares. The Summer Palace, which was built at the latest, covers an area of about 287 hectares. Obviously, the scale of royal gardens is beyond the reach of temple gardens and private gardens. And its scale is basically inversely proportional to the backward continuation of history. The number and scale of royal gardens also reflect the rise and fall of a dynasty's national strength to some extent.

2. Free choice of garden site. Royal gardens can not only enclose the original mountains and lakes, such as the summer resort in Qing Dynasty, but also the mountains in the northwest are natural mountains and the lake scenery in the southeast is transformed from natural lakes. It can also be cut by stacking, just like natural mountains, lakes and seas, such as Genyue in the Song Dynasty and Qingyi Garden in the Qing Dynasty (the northern mountain scenery is artificially stacked). In short, any area that the royal family likes can be constructed as a royal garden.

3. The building is magnificent. Epang Palace, built by Qin Shihuang, is "five steps to the first floor, ten steps to a pavilion", and Weiyang Palace in Han Dynasty is "the palace and the pavilion are restored, and it is flourishing day by day". By the Qing Dynasty, the number and types of buildings in the garden were increased. With the abundant financial resources in the hands of the royal family, the weight of the buildings in the garden was increased, and the formal beauty of the buildings was highlighted. As a most important means to reflect the royal style, the aesthetic value of garden buildings was pushed down to an unparalleled height. On its color, resplendent and magnificent, fully embodies the rich gorgeous and noble court color.

4. Strong symbolic meaning of imperial power. In ancient times, all palaces, temples and tombs directly related to emperors all used their layout and images to embody the concept of supreme imperial power. As one of the important constructions, the Royal Garden is no exception. In the period of Yongzheng and Qianlong in Qing Dynasty, the expansion of imperial power reached an unprecedented level in China feudal society, which was fully reflected in the royal gardens built at that time. The symbolic meaning of imperial power was broader and more complicated than before. For example, the nine islands in the back lake of Yuanmingyuan symbolize Yugong Kyushu; Fuhai in the east symbolizes the East China Sea; In the northwest corner, the highest earthen mountain in the whole garden, Zibi Mountain House, symbolizes Kunlun Mountain, and the whole garden layout symbolizes the national territory, thus expressing the imperial power implication of "All over the world, is it the king's land?"

5. Fully absorb the poetry and painting of Jiangnan gardens. Northern gardens imitated Jiangnan, which had been seen as early as the middle of Ming Dynasty. In the area of Haidian Town in the northwest suburb of Beijing, there are many lakes and springs, and bureaucrats and nobles have bought land here to make gardens, many of which consciously imitate the garden style of Jiangnan water town. This trend naturally affected the royal gardening. During the reign of Emperor Kangxi, Zhang Ran, a famous gardener in the south of the Yangtze River, was appointed to build rockeries for Yingtai and Jingming Garden in the West Garden. Later, he and Ye Tao, a painter from the south of the Yangtze River, presided over the planning and design of Changchun Garden, and the gardening skills in the south of the Yangtze River began to be introduced into royal gardens. However, it was during the Qianlong period that Qianlong was in office for more than 6 years and went to the south of the Yangtze River six times. Because of his "envy of Jiangnan," As a reference for royal gardening, it contributed to the climax of royal gardening imitating Jiangnan since Kangxi. They combined the gardening art of the north and the south, the royal and the folk, and made their gardening skills reach unprecedented breadth and depth.