Traditional Gardens

Introduction

The Chinese consider gardens a serious art form, and as with painting, sculpture and poetry aim to attain in their design the balance, harmony, proportion and variety that are considered essential to life. In fact there is a saying which goes, ‘the garden is a landscape painting in three dimensions’. Through a combination of such natural elements as rock, water, trees and flowers and using such disciplines as architecture, painting and poetry, the garden designer sought to attain an effect which adhered to the Daoist principles of balance and harmony between man and nature.

Chinese gardens can be divided into three types: the Imperial garden, the private garden and the scenic site. The earliest Imperial garden dates back to the late Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1027 BC) in the form of an Imperial hunting ground. This was followed by the Shanglin garden built by the Emperor Qinshihuangdi (r. 221-207 BC) in his capital at Xianyang. The latter, completed by the Han Emperor Wudi (r. 140-87 BC), is thought to have been the inspiration for Beijing’s Summer Palace. The first private gardens, also known as literati gardens, appeared during the Northern and Southern dynasties (420-589). Scenic sites, such as at Chengde’s Imperial Mountain Resort, were large-scale gardens built amidst areas of great natural beauty. These were primarily intended as the pleasure grounds of the Imperial house, but were also sometimes employed for military exercises and as retreats for diplomatic negotiations.

Of these Chinese gardens, it is the private garden that is of most interest when visiting the ‘Garden City’ of Suzhou. The most intimate of the trio, it was designed as a retreat for the gentleman-scholar; a personal space to escape the chaos of the city. It was during the Tang dynasty (618-907) that the literati garden reached its height, although a comprehensive treatise on the subject did not appear before 1634, written by the painter-gardener Ji Cheng. One of the key axioms of the Chinese treatise is the requirement for the garden to ‘look natural, though man-made’. Also stressed is the harmonious combination of opposites, that is of the large and small, of the revealing and concealing and the vertical and horizontal.

Design elements

A common feature of Chinese garden architecture is the waterside pavilion, a derivation of an ancient wooden house supported on stilts. It became the fashion to build waterside pavilions upon the garden pond so that half the structure was built on land, while the other half was raised on stilts above water. To maximize the view from the pavilion, decorative windows were placed around its periphery. Such a waterside pavilion can be seen in the Humble Administrator’s Garden.

A key element of Chinese gardens is their covered corridors, built to allow their inhabitants to enjoy the garden even under conditions of rain and snow. These covered walkways fall into two categories: those which connect buildings and those which are built around the shore of a small pond or lake. As with the waterside pavilions, corridors often have windows or “scenic openings” acting as picture frames through which the stroller might enjoy pre-arranged views of hidden points in the garden. These scenic openings are designed in a variety of shapes from simple circles, squares and ovals to the more imaginative forms of lotus petals, garlands or bay leaves.

Oftentimes the most exquisite features of Chinese gardens are found in their small details. Such is the case with their patterned footpaths, often a complex mosaic of colored pebbles. These may present such geometric designs as a square within a circle signifying the ancient belief that the “heaven is round and the earth square”, good luck omens such as the bat and crane, symbolic of good fortune and longevity, or the fishing net portending affluence. Alternatively, they may incorporate scenes from traditional paintings and legends.

We will take you to visit two of Suzhou’s most beautiful gardens. The first, the Garden of the Master of the Nets, though one of the smallest gardens here, is considered one of its finest. Constructed in the twelfth century and then, after a period of abandonment, restored during the eighteenth century, it was the residence of a retired official. The eastern part of the garden served as the residential area, with the central part serving as the main garden and the western part as an inner garden. The second, the Humble Administrator’s Garden, was so-named after a Jin dynasty (1115-1234) poem which reads, ‘Watering the garden and selling vegetables constitute a humble administrator’s business.’ Originally the home of the Tang Poet, Lu Guimou, the garden took its present form during the Ming dynasty and is perhaps one of the most representative of Ming dynasty garden designs.