Information on "Cultural Connotation of Classical Gardens in China"

When it comes to architectural art, we can't ignore the modeling of gardens, especially the classical gardens in China. The gardens in China are known as "the mother of world gardens", and the construction of gardens is the crystallization of the wisdom of working people. China has a long history and cultural heritage, which makes China's garden architecture unique and poetic. The connotation of garden is just a treasure house. Dig it and you will appreciate another style.

China has had gardens for a long time, and our ancestors started gardening activities as early as the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. This garden originally appeared in the form of a cave, only for emperors and nobles to hunt and enjoy. With the development of history, gardens are constantly improving and progressing. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were groups of landscapes, including earth mountains, ponds or terraces. The elements of the garden have been basically possessed by this period, which is different from the original garden.

Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties is a turning point in the development of gardens in China. The introduction of Buddhism and the popularization of Laozi and Zhuangzi's philosophy have turned gardens into advocating nature. Classical gardens in China originated from nature, which is higher than nature, with the theme of expressing the natural landscape and free layout of nature; Rockery, pond and pond are natural, which fully embodies the national cultural characteristics of "harmony between man and nature" and shows the world outlook of harmony and unity between man and nature.

Gardens reached a mature stage in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Bureaucrats and literati build their own gardens or participate in gardening, and integrate poetry and painting into the layout and landscaping of gardens, making garden architecture not only a masterpiece of craftsmen, but also a masterpiece of literati, and making the humanistic landscape of gardens stand out.

Everything has certain elements, and the gardens in China are no exception. Generally speaking, the classical gardens in China are composed of six elements: mountain building, pond management, plants, animals, architecture, plaques, couplets and stone carvings. In order to express nature, mountain building is one of the most important factors in gardening. In Qin and Han Dynasties, Shanglinyuan used the earth dug by Taiye Pool to build an island, symbolizing the sacred mountain in the East China Sea, which was the first man-made mountain. The existing Humble Administrator's Garden in Suzhou, Yan Garden in Changshu and Yu Garden in Shanghai are all famous gardens in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

No matter what kind of flower garden, water is the most vital factor, and you can't live without water. So the garden must dig a pool to divert water. There are three ways to control water in ancient gardens: cover, partition and break. Covering is to cover the winding pool shore with buildings and greening. The partition is to build a dam on the water, or to have a floating promenade to cross, or to build a tortuous stone bridge, or to wade through the stones. As "Garden Governance" said, "If there is no end, the bridge will be broken". When the water surface is very small, (such as a clear spring pool) can be supported by rocks, with fine bamboo and rattan and crested ibis. Although it is a pool, it can make people feel the wind in Shan Ye.

Plants are another important factor. Flowers and trees are like the hair of a mountain, and there is no beauty in a waterscape without flowers and trees. Natural gardens deliberately express natural beauty, and the selection criteria of flowers and trees are also very strict. When it comes to graceful posture, crown shape, branch density and bark texture, they all pursue natural beauty. Second, talk about color beauty, red maple leaves, green bamboo leaves, mottled wolf elm, magnolia, crape myrtle and so on. Strive to maintain the natural color of the park all year round; Third, the taste is fragrant, which requires the plants to be elegant and quiet, not too strong and delicate; Don't be too light, it is difficult to do it intentionally. Four stresses on the realm, the contrast effect of flowers and trees on the landscape of garden rocks is often related to the spiritual realm of the garden owner. For example, bamboo symbolizes purity of character, pine and cypress symbolizes strength and longevity, lotus symbolizes cleanliness and flawless, orchid symbolizes seclusion and hermit, pomegranate symbolizes many children and grandchildren, and Wei Zi symbolizes high officials and rich people.

Ancient gardens in China used various methods to separate the space, so as to achieve the effect of winding paths leading to secluded places. The main method is to use various buildings. For example, the use of leaky windows makes the space neither endless nor hinders the visual fluency. Looking through the leaky window, exquisite floral decorations and colorful patterns have a strong national flavor and aesthetic value; Through the leaking window, bamboos are blurred and swaying, pavilions are hidden from time to time, and clouds fly far away, creating a profound and broad space realm and interest. Garden buildings often have halls, corridors, pavilions, buildings and platforms. Artificial caves and stone steps all show natural beauty. All buildings are in harmony with the natural environment such as heaven and earth, and all parts of the garden are interrelated, so that the garden embodies natural, indifferent, quiet and implicit artistic characteristics, and receives the ornamental effect of changing scenery, getting better and better, and seeing the big from the small. Learn from nature, blend in with nature, conform to nature and express nature-this is the place where China ancient gardens embody the national culture of "harmony between man and nature", which is the biggest feature independent of the world forest and the fundamental reason for the eternal vitality of art.

The existing classical gardens in China include the Summer Palace, chengde mountain resort, Humble Administrator's Garden and Canglang Garden. Are representatives of gardens. Through them, you can truly feel the charm of gardens and discover the profound meaning of China's classical culture.

Characteristics of gardening techniques in China ~ ~ ~

First of all, the landscape of China's classical gardens mainly imitates nature, that is, the natural scenery is created by artificial power, reaching the artistic realm of "although some people do it, it is natural". Therefore, in addition to a large number of buildings, the garden also needs to cut mountains, plant flowers and trees, imitate the natural landscape by hand, or take ancient landscape paintings as the blueprint to participate in the emotional appeal of poetry and form many picturesque scenes. Therefore, the classical gardens in China are a combination of architecture, mountain ponds, gardening, painting, sculpture and even poetry. This feature of China classical gardens is mainly determined by the nature of China gardens. Because whether feudal emperors or bureaucratic landlords, they not only covet the rich material enjoyment of the city, but also want to seek "the joy of mountains and rivers" without bearing the pain of fatigue. Therefore, their gardening, in addition to meeting the needs of living and enjoying, is more important to pursue beautiful mountain scenery, so as to achieve the purpose of living in the city and still enjoying the fun of mountains and forests.

Secondly, due to the long-term feudal social and historical conditions, most of the classical gardens in China are closed, that is, there are walls around the gardens and the scenery is hidden in the gardens. Moreover, except for a few royal palaces, the area of gardens is generally relatively small. To reproduce the beauty of natural landscape in a small scale, the most important and difficult thing is to break through the limitations of space and let the limited space show infinitely rich landscapes. In this respect, China classical gardens have high artistic achievements and become the essence of China classical gardens.

Generally speaking, the most important way for China classical gardens to break through the space limitation and create rich landscapes is to adopt tortuous and free layout, divide scenic spots and spaces, and "borrow scenery". The so-called tortuous and free layout is relative to the geometric pattern layout commonly used in gardens in some countries in continental Europe. This tortuous and free layout is particularly prominent in small private gardens in the south of the Yangtze River. What they emphasize is deep twists and turns, and the so-called "Jing Gui Shen, no bend, no depth" is this technique. For example, at the entrance of most gardens in Suzhou, rockeries, small courtyards and leaky windows are often used as barriers to properly block the sight of tourists, so that people can only vaguely see the corner of the garden scenery when entering the garden gate, and only after several twists and turns can they see the whole picture of the hills and pavilions in the garden. Suzhou Lingering Garden has a compact layout, a wide variety and wonderful scenery. Leaky windows are used at the entrance of the garden gate to emphasize the profound twists and turns in the garden. As for the scenery in the garden, it is not like the axial view of western gardens, but moves with the hovering plane, changing the scenery in turn. Others opened many beautiful windows and holes in the walls on both sides of the corridor, through which people passed. It is like a landscape frame, reflecting the scenery in the garden into the beautiful windows and holes like landscape painting.

Regarding the method of dividing scenic spots and spaces, the whole garden is divided into several scenic spots by skillfully using landscapes, trees, flowers and buildings. Each scenic spot has its own characteristics, and the key scenic spots that can reflect the main characteristics of the garden are highlighted. For example, the Humble Administrator's Garden, the largest garden in Suzhou, includes three parts: the middle section, the western section and the eastern section, among which the middle section is the essence of the whole garden. At the same time, the area of water accounts for about three-fifths of the whole park, with pavilions and pavilions, and most of them are near the water. The shape is light and lively, and all directions are as empty as possible to capture the natural scenery of Jiangnan water town. The treatment of space in parks lies in the use of mountains, ponds, trees, pavilions and pavilions, and less use of walls. The spaces in the old gardens are interlinked and permeated with each other, forming rich levels. Another example is the Summer Palace in Beijing, which is very big, with a total park area of about 3.4 square kilometers. It can be divided into many scenic spots, some of which form a big garden with small gardens, such as Humor Garden. But among many scenic spots, Kunming Lake and Wanshou Mountain are its essence. It is these key scenic spots that constitute the main features of these gardens. No matter how big or small each garden is, as long as the main attractions are very distinctive, even if other aspects are slightly lacking, it can still leave a deep impression on people.

The artistic technique of "borrowing scenery" is a traditional technique for China classical gardens to break through the space limitation and enrich the landscape. It skillfully introduces the scenery outside the garden, near or far, into the garden and becomes a part of the landscape. This technique has been widely used in the classical gardens of China and achieved great success. For example, Canglang Pavilion, the oldest garden in Suzhou classical gardens, is good at borrowing scenery. Because the garden outside the garden gate is surrounded by clear water, the garden did not build a boundary wall on this side, but used a cloister with a leaking window to skillfully "borrow" the river view into the garden. Another example is the Summer Palace in Beijing. In order to "borrow scenery" from the nearby Yuquan Mountain and the distant Xishan Mountain, besides giving full play to the artistic effect of "the true meaning of the lake and mountain", it has also been carefully designed in other aspects. For example, in the west dike area of the Summer Palace, except for six bridges with different shapes, there is no tall building screen to block the line of sight. The north-south length of Kunming Lake is also suitable for reflecting all the visible Xishan peaks in the park into the lake. At the same time, the peach willows of the two dikes properly covered the fence, and the boundary between the inside and outside of the park disappeared invisibly. The peaks of the Western Hills, the smoke willows of the two dikes, and the tower shadow of Yuquan Mountain all naturally blend into one scene in the garden, which virtually expands the spatial scope of the garden and enriches the scenery. What is presented in front of people is a picture of the poetic landscape of splendid lakes and mountains. The close shot is the Buddha Pavilion of Wanshou Mountain, the middle scene is the two dikes and Yuquan Mountain, and the distant view is the Western Hills.

This technique of borrowing scenery from China's classical gardens can be summarized into five methods in the book Garden Metallurgy, namely, "borrowing from afar, borrowing from neighbors, borrowing from abroad, borrowing from below and borrowing from time to time". Some of the examples mentioned above mainly belong to borrowing scenery from outside the park, that is, "borrowing scenery from afar" The so-called "borrowing neighbors, borrowing others, borrowing others, borrowing from time to time" mainly means borrowing scenery in the park. The so-called "neighboring borrowing" refers to the scenery not far from the park, which is opposite to each other, sets each other off and echoes from afar. For example, the pavilions, bridges, willows and stones near the "Zhichun Pavilion" in the Summer Palace are harmonious and beautiful. "Borrowing" generally refers to the sky in the garden, such as blue sky and white clouds, or bright moon and stars. But magnificent buildings like looking up at peaks, waterfalls and pines and cypresses can also be called borrowing scenery. If you enter the main entrance of Beijing Beihai Park, you can look up at the unique White Pagoda. "Bend over" refers to watching the reflection of the lake light on the railing and watching the fish swimming in the pond on the porch. "Borrowing time" refers to making good use of the changes of scenery in different periods of the year, such as flowers and plants in spring, shade in summer, red leaves in autumn, snow in winter, sunrise in the morning and sunset in the evening. And you can borrow it in time. For example, in Suzhou Netscape Garden, the important scenic spot "Dianchun Noodles" is based on two sentences in the Peony Poetry of Song Dynasty, "Thank you for being lonely in chemical industry, but still leave the spring breeze in the Peony Pavilion", and borrow peony flowers in late spring as scenery.

Thirdly, China classical gardens are particularly good at using various buildings with strong national styles, such as pavilions, terraces, buildings, pavilions, corridors, pavilions, pavilions, boathouses, pavilions and bridges. Combined with natural water, stone, flowers and wood, it forms a garden landscape that embodies various tastes.

Taking common pavilions, corridors and bridges as examples, their artistic image and artistic realm are original. Such as pavilions, not only have colorful shapes, but also play a role of "finishing touch" and "attracting attention" in the garden. For example, Hu Xinting in Xiyuan, Suzhou, Dongting in Humble Administrator's Garden and Wulong Pavilion in Beihai Park, Beijing. Another example is the corridor, which is not only a route to guide tourists to visit in the middle of the garden, but also plays a role in dividing space and combining scenery. For example, when people stroll along the promenade of the Summer Palace in Beijing, they can enjoy the beautiful scenery of Kunming Lake. The water gallery of Suzhou Humble Administrator's Garden is graceful, and people walk on it, just like walking in Ling Bo; The cloister of Suzhou Yiyuan Garden is separated by a flower wall, and there are all kinds of leaking windows (also called "flower windows" or "flower wall holes") on the wall, which makes the garden bounded and unbounded, seemingly separated and unbounded, with landscapes and endless changes. This kind of leaky window is widely used in Jiangnan classical gardens and is an outstanding creation of ancient architects. Because the original monotonous and boring wall is decorated with leaky windows, it not only adds rich changes, but also different leaky window patterns have become exquisite decorative patterns on the wall. The clever use of the word "leaky" makes the landscape more vivid and dexterous, adding endless interest. The leaky windows in Suzhou West Park and Lion Forest fully reflect this feature.

Bridges in China gardens shine brightly in the world architectural art with their colorful forms. The most prominent examples are the Seventeen-hole Bridge and Daiyu Bridge in the Summer Palace in Beijing. They each decorate the scenery of the Summer Palace with their vivid and unique shapes. In addition, the Wu Ting Bridge of Slender West Lake in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province and the covered bridge of Humble Administrator's Garden in Suzhou are another style, which has become one of the most striking gardens among these gardens.

Characteristics of China's classical garden/architecture thought: "Although it is man-made, it is natural."