Orient Landscape Masterpiece---Suzhou Gardens
szga...@my-dejanews.com
For detail visit our web site http://www.szgarden.com.cn
Welcome to contact us for academic exchange szga...@public1.sz.js.cn
By Suzhou Gardens Administration Bureau
Chinese classical gardens form a system of art that takes pride in its high
artistic achievement and unique sytle.Its artistic value and strong
influence has placed itself in a prominent position in the world history of
landscape gardening .The classical gardens of Suzhou ,represented by the
Humble Administrator's Garden£¬the Lingering Garden,the Master-of-Nets
Garden and the Moutain Villa with Embracing Beauty ,make a most refind type
of Chinese classical gardens.Their prominence in Chinese landscape
gardening engenders a universal value and ,to our opinion ,puts the
classical gardens of Suzhou in the right position to make the application
for a place on the World Heritage List.The specific reasons are as follows:
1.The Classical Gardens of? Suzhou Claim to Be Unique for its Value in the
Chinese History of Landscape gardening as well as in the World History of
Landscape Gardening.
The birth and growth of the classical gardens of Suzhou reflects,from a
point,the development of the politics,economy and culture in ancient
China.The gardens are the significant material data that lend a big help to
the studies of Chinese history,Chinese culture and their role in the world
culture.The classical gardens of Suzhou are the principal representives of
the Oriental system of landscape gardening that stands abreast with the
Occidental system of landscape gardening. The garden construction in
Suzhou, which has lasted more than 2000 years, is really a long scroll
unfolding the history of Chinese landscape gardening. Therefore,the
prominence of the classical gardens of Suzhou in Chinese landscape
gardening makes the classical gardens of Suzhou important in the world
history of landscape gardening. Meanwhile,since the construction of the
gardens has covered many branches of natural sciences and social
sciences.the existing classical gardens of Suzhou, in their perfect
structure and good preservation,offer much help to the studies of Chinese
architecture,humanities,aesthetics, philosophy,botany,hydraulic engineering
,environmental science and folklore as the rare material data.
2. The Freehand Landscape Gardening as the Guideline in Composing the
Classical Gardens of Suzhou is a Main Fountainhead of Chinese Landscape
Gardening
In China,the art of landscape gardening stems from the art of painting
..especially from the freehand landscape brushwork of the Tang and Song
scholars. The gardens organized on the very theme are truly the scholastic
landscape ink and wash standing in three dimensions.In the long lapse of
development,two catagories of gardens have taken shape :one is the imperial
gardens clustering around Beijing,and the other,the private gardens nestled
mostly in the beautiful setting of the city of Suzhou.Beijing,and the
other,the private gardens nestled mostly in the beautiful setting of the
city of Suzhou. As the tow catagories of gardens have been constructed in
the backgrounds so different in terms of politics,economy,climate and
geography,the dissimilarity between them is conspicuously visible in
respect of their scales .layouts,dimensions of the buildings ,architectural
styles ,colour--applying and what not. The imperial gardens excel in their
magnitude,magnificence, a multitude of bold colours and a neat formation;
whereas the private gardens,with those in Suzhou as their best
expression,impress people with the small and exquisite designing,the
flexible style ,and the quiet elegance.The highly elevated freehand skill
of landscaping in the private gardens,which is the keynote of the classical
gardens of Suzhou .made its way to the imperial gardens at a later time.So
now,the presence of this scholastic approach is discernable in the general
tone,the de3tails in arrangements,the architectural characteristics and
many other aspects in the imperial gardens.
3.The Classical Gardens of Suzhou Fuse the Two Seemingly Contradictable
Concepts----"To Live in a Comfortable House"and "To Live Close to Nature"
The classical gardens of Suzhou is a kind of architecture that combines the
house with the garden.They are such a place where one can feed his
eyes,divert himself and reside. This type of residence is a clever
invention of the Chinese people and it reveals the fact that in the cities
dense in crowds but scanty in natural scenery,the human inclination to
nature has never dwindled away but been directed skillfully into forming
this special kind of architecture .Here,the two concepts,"to live in a
comfortable house"and "to live close to nature",merge.In the Humble
Administrative Garden,the Lingering Garden,the Master-of-Nets Garden and
the Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty, a large number of traditional
buildings have been kept up well in their full varieties ,in a manner of
being on show in amuseum. These buildings stage a systematic and overall
manifestation of the Suzhou style buildings in terms of their
layouts,structure ,modeling
,characteristics,colour-applying,decorating,furniture and furnishing.Being
typical of the house in the south of the Yangtze in the Ming and Qing
Dynasties ,the buildings truly tell what a high level of inhabiting
civilization had been achieved in this area by that time. The Suzhou style
of buildings also influenced the architectural styles in the cities all
over the area south of the Yangtze,serving as a model for the
composition,decoration and engineering of the buildings in those areas,
4.The Classical Gardens of Suzhou Are Rich in Cultural Connotations
One obvious feature of the classical gardens of Suzhou is that the
gardens,being a cultural heritage,carry the message of the traditional
culture. The title inscriptions of the halls and pavilions,the parallel
couplets,the inscribed stelae,the carved bricks or wooden screens,even the
choice of trees and flowers,or the arrangement of rockeries,decorative as
they are,all serve as a vehicle some prevailing ideas of olden times:some
are giving lectures on the ethics in Confucianism,Buddhism or Taoism;some
are preaching the maxims and the virtuous deeds of the great sages of the
past,in the good hope that people may develop a lofty temperament to their
credit ,yet some of them,being poems and essays ,are hinting at the veiled
beauty of the garden so as to trigger off the visitors' imagination and
help them acquire the satisfaction of its best kind;as for the well-chosen
and well-arranged trees,flowers and rockeries,they normally connote the
refined taste and the spritual pursuit of the garden owners.In the
gardens,special attention must be given to the unreplaceable role of the
Chinese calligraphy. All the written matter?-- the records of events,the
essays giving vent to opinions,the poems disclosing feelings,and
whatsoever--is written in calligraphy,and what is more,the calligraphy in
the gardens are without exception the excellent pieces done by the most
reputed calligraphers or scholars of the past dynastic times.Therefore,the
gardens are often considered an exhibition of the masterpieces of the great
calligraphers and scholars.
And lastly, in the study of the traditional folk customs in the south of
the Yangtze,the classical house--gardens of Suzhou prove to be of much help
since their architectural forms are a material writness to the inhabiting
habits of the people in this area in olden days.
5. The Classical Gardens of Suzhou Are A model for the Art of Chinese
Landscape Gardening as Well as the Important Data Base for the Studies of
the Classical Chinese Gardens.
The Humble Administrator's Garden,the Lingering Garden,the Master-of-Nets
Garden and the Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty were built in the prime
of the gardens of Suzhou.The building of the gardens has given full scope
to the advanced techniques and refined asthetics allowed by the time. These
gardens do not take up much land,but however,they have staged,on their
limited grounds. the most ingenious compositions of a kaleidoscope of
pavilions,terraces,storeyed--towers,corridors,trees and flowers,rockery and
earthen hills,creeks and ponds through quite a number of devices such as
contrast,setting-off,juxtapositioning,"borrowed scenery","making the less
triumph over the more "and "revealing the bigger through the smaller
",Thanks to these garden techniques,the natural beauty has been recreated
,the living place has been decorated,the aesthetics of architecture,nature
and man has been harmonized and,the dream of living in the "urban mountain
and forests",or,"amid the busy city yet nigh nature",realized. In the
evolutionary course of Chinese landscape gardening,or even the world
landscape gardening,the above--mentioned four gardens have taken a
significant position.
A galaxy of the classical gardens of Suzhou have made this city bear the
importance of being a base of the study of Chinese landscape gardening.
Early in the Ming Dynasty,two natives of Suzhou,Ji Cheng and Wen Zhengheng
by name,the great master of Chinese landscape gardening,brought forth two
books on the making of the gardens.Ji Cheng's book,"Garden
Cultivation"dwell on the general principles and the basic techniques;and
Wen Zhengheng's book ."Thing more that Bare Necessities", sets
specifications and requirements to the elements of the gardens. These two
important works summed up the experience and achievements of Chinese
landscape gardening and laid the corner--stone for the studies in this
field.From then on ,more books about classical gardens have been composed,
and one thing should be noticed is that among the books,many of them are
either written on Suzhou gardens or by Suzhou natives ,or both. Here are
but a few instances:"A Book of the Gardens in the South of the Yangtze "by
Tong Jun, a book devoted mainly to the gardens of Suzhou," The Classical
Gardens in Suzhou" by Liu Dunzheng,who is known as a specialist of
classical architecture," Essays on Gardens"and "Chinese Halls"(an article
on those in the south of the lower Yangtze) by the famous garden expert
Cheng Chongzhou, "On the Gardens in the South of the lower Yangtze " by the
well-known garden expert Yang Hongxun, the monumental history of Chinese
science and technology by Dr.Joseph Needham,giving many chapters to the
classical Chinese gardens, and a recent work of influence."Asthetics of the
Classical Gardens",whose author Jin Xuezhi is a native of Suzhou.Seminars
on the relationship between man and nature,a topic of universal
concern,have been held recently in Suzhou by scholars from home and abroad.
These examples,though not many ,help to explain the prominent position
Suzhou hold in the field of the garden art research.
Some Final Words
Suzhou Gardens are a brilliant part of the art and culture of the Chinese
nation,a great creation of the Chinese people,and a big contribution to the
world culture. This valuable cultural heritage belongs not only to the
people of China ,but to the people of all lands as well.
Web Site: http://www.szgarden.com.cn
Address: Gongyuan Road 12
Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
Zip Code: 215006
Telephone: 0086-512-5224929
Fax: 0086-512-5223937
Email: szga...@public1.sz.js.cn
-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own