Characteristics and differences between Chinese gardens and Western gardens

The art of gardening is a material means and spiritual creation that expresses the most direct and closely connected relationship between man and nature. Traditional Chinese and Western gardens in their respective thinking, culture, based on the formation of different forms, in the East and West of cultural differences and traditional gardens in the comparison of similarities and differences, we can find the following aspects of the differences: First, the origin of the differences: China's Han Dynasty as the main body of culture in the process of thousands of years of long-term development, gave birth to "Chinese garden" Such a long history and long history of the garden system. In the eleventh century B.C., King Wen of Zhou built Lingtai, Lingnuma, Lingpu can be said to be the earliest royal gardens. During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period and the Western Han period, the rapidly developing gardens took shape. The function of the garden from the earlier hunting, the gods, seek immortality, production-oriented, and gradually transformed into the late recreation, ornamental-oriented. Due to the primitive nature worship, the emperor's Zen activities, people have not yet constructed a fully conscious aesthetic consciousness. However, the basic idea of "learning from nature" inherited as a lineage of Chinese gardens has taken root, and it takes nature as an aesthetic object rather than an object of struggle. The formation process of this idea is based on the powerful force of human beings to follow nature and return to nature, and this simple behavioral environmental consciousness is determined by the stable cultural inherent ideas. The origin of Western gardens can be traced back to ancient Egypt and ancient Greece. The eastern Mediterranean coastal area is the cradle of Western civilization. More than three thousand years ago BC, the Nile River fertile alluvial soil, suitable for agricultural cultivation, but because of its annual flooding, the receding water needs to measure the cultivated land and the development of geometry. Ancient Egyptians according to their own needs and flexibility in garden design, is the world's earliest rule-based gardens. Five hundred years B.C., represented by Athens, the liberal democratic politics brought the prosperity of the garden, the ancient Greek gardening, such as the ancient Greek architecture has a strong rational color, is through the organization of nature, the formation of orderly harmony. Ancient Greece was conquered by ancient Rome, the art of gardening was also inherited by ancient Rome, and added the West Asian gardening factors, developed into a large-scale courtyard. By this time, the western garden prototype basically formed. The budding period of the Western garden embodies the spirit of human beings to better live with the harsh environment of nature to fight, it comes from the agricultural producers to develop, the spirit of enterprise. The concept of "the harmony between man and nature" and the pursuit of rationality have been embodied in Western gardens. Based on their different geographical environments, different attitudes and concepts of nature, the development of traditional Chinese and Western gardens has produced very different results. Western gardens have been inextricably linked to order from the very beginning, and from the very beginning they have fought against nature and tried to conquer it in order to produce what they consider to be harmony and beauty. And Chinese gardens from the beginning on the basis of respect for nature to imitate nature, reproduce nature, they use the sustainability of nature in the self-service at the same time "create" a natural garden, become man and nature in harmony, harmony and integration of natural beauty of the garden style. Man and nature in the origin of the unity, with the development of space and time changes, people passively from with nature to transform the evolution of nature. In this process, the Chinese and Westerners from different perspectives to recognize nature, but also in different ways and attitudes to transform and conquer nature, therefore, the Chinese and Western gardens of their different characteristics, it is the differences in culture caused by. Second, the differences in cultural background: garden is a way of dialog between man and nature. To explore the development of the garden, it is necessary to explore the cultural spirit and ideological basis behind the garden. 1, the difference in worldview Chinese people attach importance to the harmony of the whole, Westerners attach importance to analyzing the differences. Chinese philosophy is concerned about the unity of opposites, emphasizing the harmonious relationship between man and nature, man and man. And Western philosophy advocates the independence of the objective world, subject-object separation, opposite but not compatible. Dialectical thinking in ancient China is much more developed than in the West, and this way of thinking focuses on the overall concept and the unity of opposites. Both Confucianism and Taoism focus on observing things from the whole and on the connection between things. Laozi and Confucius focused on observing the opposites of things and their mutual transformation. Ancient Chinese infiltrated this idea of cosmic pattern into gardening activities, thus forming a unique art of group space. Compared with the clear and objective eloquence of the West, most of the ancient Chinese philosophers had the flavor of Taoism and Buddhism, attending Zen to understand the Way, but never had a clear answer. Chinese gardens have this flavor, as Chinese painting more writing than brushwork, the Chinese people pay attention to harmony, "music, heaven and earth and also", so in the garden also pay attention to the implicit, deep, illusory, especially real and imaginary, a major feature of Chinese gardens. Western gardens are square and rigorous, straight axis, at a glance. And China's gardens pay attention to "step by step", in the cover even if it is a small garden can be pulled out of a great depth of the scene, which is the mystery of hiding but not revealing, outside the meaning, outside the voice. 2, the difference between the view of nature: the mainstream of Chinese philosophical tradition is the harmony between man and nature, "Yi Chuan" put forward the coordination of man and nature, its "Elephant Chuan" said: "cut into the way of heaven and earth, auxiliary phase of heaven and earth's appropriate", and the "Department of the Rhetoric": "range of heaven and earth's chemistry, but not, curved into the world of all things and do not leave. " The moderation of nature must be in line with its own laws, assisting nature should be moderate, emulate the natural function of creation but not excessive, and used to achieve all things without lack, are both aggressive and maintenance of nature, moderation and harmony, and different and must interact and change. The idea of reverence for nature in Chinese architecture is first expressed in the special aesthetic taste of the Chinese people. The aesthetic principle of peace and nature, although on the one hand it is based on the scale of human nature, but it is also inseparable from the idea of revering nature. For example, the main purpose of gardening is "borrowing scenery". "The garden outside the scene is wonderful in the 'borrowing', the scene outside the scene lies in the 'time', flower shadow, tree shadow, cloud shadow, wind sound, bird song, flower scent, intangible scene, tangible scene, intertwined into a song." Visible, traditional Chinese gardens are exactly skillful in this, wonderful in this. Obviously artificial mountain, water, garden, but also to borrow flowers, birds, insects and fish, odd mountains and thin water, to create a "like the heavens open, like heaven" situation. Especially in the south of the Yangtze River garden, the more is a small garden, the more attention to the beauty of nature. Bai Juyi in Mount Lu to build a grassy hall, a poem said "how to wash my ears, the head of the house flying down the spring; how to purify my eyes, masonry under the white lotus; left hand with a pot, the right hand Prime five strings ...... weary bird to get the lush forest, dry fish also clear spring, shed this want to go, the earth is more difficult and dangerous." This ideal of the Chinese literati, into the fireworks of the world, made into a private garden. Even if the royal garden, but also than the western royal garden has more leisure and fun. Aristotle put forward the competition for nature, F. Bacon said: "to order nature, we must obey nature," the purpose is to conquer, he also said: "must be added to the nature of the clamping stick, forcing her to draw a confession," in order to better conquer her. Kant declared that man is the master, that "the supreme legislation of nature must be in our hearts," and that "the (innate) laws of reason are not derived from nature, but are laid down to nature by reason." And Hegel simply declared that the "Absolute Idea" is the master of nature, that nature is the "externalization" of the human spirit, and that reason creates nature! Bacon and Kant were the forerunners of modern science. In the mainstream of the Western philosophical tradition, almost one-sided is man and nature are never harmonious and compatible, but you and I only live and die of mutual incompatibility. In the development of western gardens, we can see from the development of agricultural planting and irrigation to the development of ancient Greece to organize the nature, so that the order of nature, are people for the mandatory constraints of nature. Western garden after ancient Rome, the Renaissance to the second half of the seventeenth century the formation of the French classical garden art style, has always emphasized the struggle between man and nature. This is because from the thought of Democritus as the representative of the atomistic worldview of the Western ethical views and values have a certain degree of influence. "Man is also composed of atoms, and man is a microcosm of the universe." This idea was later gradually developed and shaped into a value system that focused on individuality, promoted human dignity, and emphasized the human being, so that Western humanism was guided by people's interest in exploring, exploiting, and controlling nature. They affirmed the individual, affirmed the reality of life, the competition for survival, and promoted the development of the garden. It can be seen that the development of Western cultural thought, from the man and nature separate from the understanding of nature, explore the laws of nature. 3, the difference between practical rationality: rationalism in both China and the West. The so-called rationality is a kind of reflection on the totality of a self-awareness to grasp. Rationality occurs naturally, only in different degrees and directions. The Chinese nation is characterized by the spirit of practical rationality. Chinese people are based on a kind of overall ontological thinking, and rationality tends to be concretized. Westerners, on the other hand, tend to be abstract. That is why I call Chinese rationalism concrete rationalism and Western rationalism abstract rationalism. It is better to talk to Chinese people by giving more examples and discussing facts, while talking to Westerners, we can talk more about concepts, methods, and laws, and their theoretical rationality is well developed. They have developed theoretical reasoning. Therefore, we tend to talk about writing articles, while Westerners talk about composing essays. From the point of view of the whole historical trend, Chinese rationality emphasizes more on concreteness. This has advantages and disadvantages, just as any method has its own limits. Chinese rationalism is practical, a pragmatism of character cultivation. The Chinese emphasize social consciousness, but they focus on how to cultivate character in a collective society so as to fit in with social consciousness and not be criticized. This creates an individualism that is different from the Western pragmatism, which is aimed at protecting oneself. Western pragmatism is utilitarian, they pursue the individual's utilitarianism, and also believe that the individual's pursuit of utilitarianism is ultimately consistent with the utilitarianism of the whole (society). This is the most basic assumption of Western liberal economics: you pursue individual goals and end up out to reach the goals of the whole. As Keynes said: there is an invisible hand, so that the pursuit of the self, and finally reached the goal of the whole. This kind of pragmatism is concerned with efficiency and effectiveness, and after the Civil War it was an important reason for the rapid development of the U.S. economy. This is very different from the pragmatism advocated by Taoism, which emphasizes the process, realm, and spiritual state of cultivation. The natural winds of China led to a similar climax in the art of gardening in the second half of the seventeenth century. In ancient China, Taoist thought had a special character. Under the model of the "unity of heaven and man", human values were attributed to nature, leading to changes in nature. This is the value orientation of Chinese culture. From the garden or natural landscape style before the Han Dynasty to the Tang and Song Dynasty, the development of poetry and painting had a significant impact on gardens, making them not display the physical order of the universe as in the West, but rather a kind of love and reason between man and nature. By the time of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it showed the charm of classical Chinese gardens. This humanistic value emphasizes the whole and focuses on unity. At the same time, it maintains the continuity and durability of Chinese thought and culture, and has become a system of Chinese gardens, solid in today's reasons. Western culture attaches importance to the exploration of natural "truth" and continuous innovation, is a scientific value orientation. This rational thinking prompted the western gardens to have different performance in different times. The development of western gardens at a higher level began in Italy during the "Renaissance" period. The fifteenth century was a period of rising commercial capitalism in Europe. Political stability and economic prosperity inevitably brought cultural development. People's minds were liberated from the religious shackles of the Middle Ages and became fully aware of their own abilities and creativity. The "liberation of human nature" combined with a renewed understanding of the splendid culture of ancient Greece and Rome, thus creating the Italian "Renaissance" climax, garden art is also part of this cultural climax. In the middle of the sixteenth century, the concept of aesthetics changed, and the layout of gardens became more symmetrical and purely ornamental. In the second half of the seventeenth century, French classical gardens appeared, a manifestation of rationalism, reflecting the capitalist yearning for a more "rational" social order, thinking that rational things have value, and advocating the analysis of the garden, precision and logic, advocating the "noble" and "elegant". "and" elegant and clean "and emphasize the artificial beauty over the natural beauty. This is a typical classical aesthetic value, which fully embodies the innovative value of Westerners to transform nature. Conclusion: The exchange and fusion of Chinese and Western cultures, seeking cultural harmony is unstoppable. The reconstruction and development of Chinese and Western garden culture should be the reconstruction of the cultural consciousness and concept behind the garden. First of all, it should be based on the reasonable kernel of each side, and then draw on each other's valuable side for the shortcomings. Specifically, as far as Chinese culture is concerned, it emphasizes the rationality of society and morality, and abandons the weakness of individuals; it draws on the reasonable kernel of Western culture that emphasizes the originality and scientificity of individuals, and abandons the closeness and isolation of individuals. Only in this way, Chinese garden creation may be in-depth, it is possible to present a new style in the new period.