The ancient Chinese garden, also known as the traditional or classical Chinese garden, has a centuries-old cultural history rich in unique features. The classic curved bridge is used in many Chinese gardens. The pavement of a Chinese Scholar's Garden might include intricate natural patterns or simply dirt depending on the wealth and mission of the owner. Decoration consists of calligraphy carved into rocks or walls, and lattice windows. Some windows have the shape of different objects such as apples, pears, circles, and pentagons. Infinitely varied in type and artistic arrangement, the charming Chinese garden system is considered to be the best among the three most renowned systems of garden construction in the world. With a history spanning almost 5,000 years, the Chinese garden has attracted devotees among garden enthusiast from around the world.

The origins of the Chinese garden can be traced back to the end of the Shang Dynasty (BCE 1700 - 1027) and the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty (BCE 1027 - 771). At that time, the garden was called You or For Your Amusement, which translated to an enclosure reflecting concinnity, for the raising of animals for hunting. The early Chinese garden was more of a carefully designed wood or park, for the purpose of hunting rather than a garden in the modern-day British sense. During the Han dynasty, this garden-park or Yuan became a regular extension of the emperor's villa. Here the emperor could relax in a restful atmosphere, perhaps with guests, where the affairs of state could be discussed and decided. The Lin Yuan Imperial Garden was originally established during the Qin Dynasty (BCE 221 - 207), but was expanded during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, who also greatly expanded the territory of the Western Han Dynasty itself. This was at a time when China's famous Silk Road trade, the Silk Road being located in Western Han territory, was at its peak. The enlarged garden-park had a pond, the Tai Qing Chi, and boasted three man-made islands called Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yinzhou. Each of these islands had small palaces, pavilions, and diverse living quarters. It also had a wide variety of fascinating plants. Today, this type of pond-and-island, garden-park arrangement is referred to as the Qin & Han Style.

The period of the Wei Dynasty (CE 220 - 265) all the way through the Southern and Northern Dynasties (CE 420 - 588) was an important period in China. During these times, the economy flourished and society prospered. In this period of bounty, China's administrators became scholar-bureaucrats who pursued aesthetics and natural beauty in all things. It had become the prevailing custom among persons from the upper classes to make a journey to a famous site of natural beauty such as a particularly beautuful mountain range or a river purely for pleasure. Influenced by this practice, the architects of the garden-park expanded the garden-park from a relatively small, well-tended hunting grounds to an area comparable to a modern-day nature park, incorporating mountains and rivers. This greatly expanded garden-park was dubbed the garden with natural mountains and rivers.

Beginning with the Sui Dynasty (CE 581 - 617) and through the Tang Dynasty (CE 618 - 907), garden architects began to show an interest in integrating the grand plan or scheme of the garden with literary and artistic themes. They constructed gardens based on the descripton of the elements of a particular scene from a famous poem or painting, thus paying homage to the author of the literary or artistic work. Sometimes an landscape architect would construct an exact replica of a given scene from a famous literary or artistic work. Thus the concept of the garden-park as a garden with natural mountains and rivers became the garden imitating mountains and rivers.

The Chinese garden continued to flourish during the period from the Song Dynasty (CE 960 - 1279) through the Yuan Dynasty (CE 1279 - 1368). During this period, garden architects became skilled at incorporating large rocks or boulders into the garden-park. Rather than just imitating the works of authors and artists, the designers of garden-parks increasingly drew in the authors and artists themselves in the creation of garden-parks and the interaction between the creator-designer of garden-parks and the participating community of authors and artists brought about rapid advances in the scope and design of the Chinese garden.

The golden era of Chinese garden construction took place during the Ming (CE 1368 - 1644) and Qing (CE 1644 - 1911) Dynasties. The construction of The Royal Gardens at Beijing was undertaken during the period stretching from the reign of Emperor Kangxi to Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty. The main themes pursued by the architects of gardens of the period were natural, enjoyable, poetic and graphic. Especially scenic parts of a garden were further enhanced by the addition of buildings, inviting greater participation on the part of the viewer, thus breaking with the former notion of artistic detachment; the garden increasingly became a place in which to live rather than just a place to be viewed. The continued obsession with gardens in Chinese society increased to a point where the largest of gardens, sometimes referred to as a garden of gardens, even incorporated subsections devoted to the imitation of smaller famous gardens.

Types of Chinese Gardens

Chinese gardens are cosmic diagrams, revealing a profound and ancient view of the world and of man's place in it. They have also been places where great poets and painters have met and worked, settings for peaceful contemplation, family festivals and elaborate dramatics. Clasical Chinese gardens can be catergorized in four areas; landscape parks, domestic courtyards, and sacred gardens.

Chinese Landscape Parks - China had parks during the Shang Dynasty (1766-1111 BCE) in which the scenery was as much valued as the sport. But these were not gardens in the modern sense, they were natural parks. The term hills and water was similar in meaning to the western landscape. The stones, an essential component of Chinese gardens, came from Lake Tai near Suzhou and became a feature of scholar gardens.

Chinese Domestic Courtyards - In the strict sense of enclosed outdoor space, the classic Chinese garden was a rectangular domestic courtyard attached to a dwelling. Even in neolithic times it was customary for a dwelling to face south and for settlements to be on a north-south axis. The interest in orientation led to the art of feng shui. Courtyards were enclosed by buildings and there were no windows on the outside walls. The wealthy often had more than one courtyard. The Emperor of China had many courtyards with specialized roles using the design principles of strict geometry with a north-south axis. In winter sun entered from the south; in winter the sun was too high to gain entry.

Sacred Chinese Gardens - The type of space which best merits the name Chinese garden was the product of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. Scholars used these ideas to make private gardens attached to their dwellings.

Confucianism is associated with the geometrical order of Chinese domestic and town planning. It grew out of China's ancient religion of ancestral worship and was known as the Way of Heaven. Confucius (K'ung-fu-tzu or Kongfuzi, 551-479 BCE) believed scholarly pursuits improved a person, particularly that of the noble arts: rites, music, writing, mathematics, chariot driving and archery. These became the basis for educating the good man. They fostered the traditional Chinese virtues of sensibility, self-control and harmony between man and the universe which equipped a man to serve the government. Bureaucrats were scholars.

Taoism is linked to Lao Tzu but did not develop until 200 years after his death dated between 600 and 300 BCE. The Tao is the inexpressible source of being, a divine principle which underlies the natural world. This evolved into a mystical religion which turned away from the artificialities and etiquette of Confucius. The good man was seen as one whose life rested on naturalness not wealth or status. This became associated with a more natural approach to the design of gardens. Taoism was also associated with a search after the elixir of life, helped by journeys to the Isles of the Immortals in the Eastern Sea. The Isles became an important theme in Chinese art, and later, Japanese art. They fitted easily into the older theme of woods and water painting.

Buddhism came to China from India, probably with merchants on the Silk Road. It was then adopted by the Emperor and transformed through contact with Chinese civilization. This brought a monastic tradition to China though it was not necessary to join a monastery. Laymen could hope for nirvana if they lived as Buddhists and they need not to deny the old religions. Two strands developed, with ten schools. Ching't'u that emphasized rebirth in the Pure Land of the West and Ch'an that emphasized meditation. Chinese gardens, like the rocks used to form them, were aids to that type of meditation.

China had an assimilative attitude towards religion. Confucian geometry was joined through Buddhism and Taoism to a mystical appreciation of nature in garden design. Buddhist monastries began making idealised landscapes and the imperial family was soon to follow in their lead. The marriage of geometry and naturalism can be seen in the drawings of a Buddhist monastery in Hangzhou and the imperial garden of Jingshan Park north of the Forbidden City and on its axis. It was through Buddhism that the Chinese love of woods and water came to influence the design of vast landscape parks such as the West Lake and the making of Chinese gardens in courtyards within the Forbidden City.

The Chinese Scholar's Garden is a place for solitary or social contemplation of nature. Chinese gardens were created in the same way as a combination of landscape and paintings together with poems. This was called the poetic garden. The design of Chinese gardens was to provide a spiritual utopia for one to connect with nature, to come back to one's inner heart, to come back to ancient idealism. Chinese gardens are a spiritual shelter, a place they could be far away from their real social lives, and close to the ancient way of life, their true selves and nature. This was an escape from the frustration and disappointment of the political problems in China. They used plants as symbols. Bamboo was used in every traditional Chinese garden. This is because bamboo represents a strong but resilient character. Often pine is used to represent longevity, persistence, tenacity and dignity. The lotus is used to symbolize purity. The flowering plum is one of the most important aspects of a Chinese garden, as it represents renewal and strength of will. Flowering peaches are grown for spring color and sweet olive as well. The chrysanthemum is use to symbolize splendor, luster and the courage to make sacrifices for a natural life. Peonies symbolize wealth and banana trees are used simply for the sound they make in the breeze.

Origins of the Classical Chinese Garden

The earliest attested Chinese garden appears during the Shang Dynasty. It consisted of a raised platform surrounded by lush vegetation in the palace where feasts were held. Successive dynasties expanded this idea into imperial hunting parks with scenic compositions of rocks and plants. By the time of the Han Dynasty Chinese gardens could be classified as either royal, religious, or scholar. This triple classification is divided into several regional styles; Beijing Royal Gardens, Central China Gardens, Yangtze River Gardens, Lingnan Gardens

The Chinese scholars garden was built by and for the scholar class of civil servants. They first appeared during the early imperial era, and developed into high art by the Song Dynasty. The original impetus was a strict class division that caused careerist officials to give up hope of advancement in the civil service and retreat into a more contemplative life. Culturally, this class of people was under immense Confucian pressure in their publics and so sought a more carefree Daoist existence in their private lives. The design of a garden drew on such diverse fields as fengshui, botany, hydraulics, history, literature, and architecture. The task was considered so complex that only a scholar was capable of completing it, thus his garden was a measure of his knowledge. For the same reason poetry was a primary part of the garden design, as knowledge and composition of poetry served as an intelligence test for the scholar class. The garden served multiple functions as semi-public extension of the house and a place; of retreat, for festivity, for study of poetry, for romance. The social and cultural importance of the garden is attested in Chinese literature, particularly the classic Novel Dream of the Red Chamber which unfolds almost exclusively in a garden.

Elements of Classical Chinese Garden Design

To be considered authentic, a garden must be built and planned around seventeen essential elements: 1) proximity to the home; 2) small; 3) walled; 4) small individual sections; 5) asymmetrical; 6) various types of spatial connections; 7) architecture; 8) rocks; 9) water; 10) trees; 11) plants; 12) sculpture; 13) jie jing (borrowed scenery); 14) chimes; 15) incense burners; 16) inscriptions; 17) use of feng shui for choosing site. The variety of sensory features enhance a garden's appeal. Windows frame garden views. Trees and flowers provide aroma. Even the intricate designs of pavement and gravel offer tactile enjoyment. Suzhou, in eastern China is widely known for its numerous classical private scholar gardens.

The aesthetics of the garden are judged by its conception, approach, layout, scenes, and borrowing. The conception is the measure of how well the garden reflects a painting or poem. The approach describes how the garden may express the idea of nature beyond the theme. The layout is the use of multiple layers of scenery to create a sense of the infinite in the finite. the scene is how well paired two opposite scene are and how they create harmony. finally the borrowing or borrowed view is how artfully distant views are incorporated into the whole.

Chinese gardens are built not planted. The basic form of the garden is created by ponds and mounds. China is mostly covered in mountains, thus they have occupied a special place in the collective imagination since the Neolithic. The mountain in the Chinese imagination is magical place. An axis mundi where ancient wise men live on a diet of minerals and rare high altitude herbs. These men called immortals have access to knowledge and skills unknown to ordinary men. A mountain of the right type is a dragon of Qi and all its associated benefits. In myth certain mountains are themselves sacred. The elaborate grottoes of rock serve the same function, a small piece of the mountain through which to stroll, full of caves where immortals live. The pits dug to heap these mounds are used as ponds and streams. With the right properties such a pond may be the home of a dragon of Qi. The pavilions are placed in this landscape of mounds and ponds at auspicious points. Together the mound, pond, and pavilion create the primary form of the garden. A secondary layer is created by plants. In literature this secondary role is well attested. Finally, individual taihu rock is added for accent, like sculpture in a European garden.

Architecture - The garden scenes are all constructed to be best viewed from a pavilion. A more dynamic although inferior scene may be scene from a path. It is the location of the building; however, that determines the circulation of paths. The path itself can become architectonic by the the addition of roof and screen walls. These screen walls often have have moon-shaped doorways and small windows in the shapes of vases and apples.

Rock - Decorative Chinese scholar's rocks are used both for structural and sculptural purposes. The sculptural Taihu rock is especially prized because it represents wisdom and immortality, and is only procurable from Tai Lake, just west of Suzhou. During the Song dynasty, they were the most expensive objects in the empire. Such rocks, combined with streams and pools, form the basis of a garden's plan. The Chinese word for landscape is shan shui which literally means mountains and waters while a common phrase for making a garden means digging ponds and piling mountains.

Water - Water is an important element in Shanghai's Yuyuan Gardens. Chinese gardens usually feature a central pond and several offshooting streams. The softness of water offsets the solidity of the rocks, while also acting to reflect the constantly changing sky above. Goldfish, carp, and mandarin ducks are three of the most commonly raised fauna. The goal of the design is to make the scenery beautiful, the surrounding is quiet and cool, and the landscape wonderful. Temples, resthouses and short bridges are common features. Also, small fountains were a favorite.

Plants - Many garden plants have essential symbolism. Pine trees represent wisdom and bamboo represents strength and upright morality. Plum trees are also extremely valuable to the Chinese for their beautiful pink and white blooms during winter. Chrysanthemums were also extremely well-loved because of their autumn bloom when most plants wither and die. Chrysanthemums symbolize the perfect Confusician scholar. Peonies symbolize wealth and power, and the lotus symbolizes purity and is also a revered Buddhist plant. Climbing roses, camellias, ginkgos, magnolias, jasmine, willows, sweet osmanthus, and maples were also planted. The plum blossom is one of the Four Junzi Flowers in China, the others being orchid, chrysanthemum, and bamboo, and symbolized nobleness. The Chinese see the blossoms as more of a symbol for winter rather than a harbinger of spring. It is precisely for this reason that the blossoms are so beloved, because they bloom most vibrantly amidst the winter snow while all other flowers have long since succumbed to the cold and died. Thus, they are seen as an example of resilience and perseverance in the face of adversity, and thus has also been used as a metaphor to symbolize revolutionary struggle.

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