Boults Е. Illustrated history of landscape design

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CHINA

MIDDLE AGES/ CHINA

NATURE’S SPLENDOR IN A GARDEN

As much as Moorish gardens provided a

respite from harsh nature, the gardens

of China and Japan provided an afﬁ rma-

tion of nature’s largesse. The landscape

of China is characterized by steep

mountains, bountiful plains, peaceful

lakes, and dramatic waterfalls. Chinese

gardens reference all of the country’s

natural treasures.

The history of gardening in China

extends back to the ancient dynastic

emperors who built hunting parks and

pleasure gardens as expressions of royal

SHIH TZU LIN: The Lion Grove garden at Suzhou dates from

1342. The “mountain” shaped by the rockery is evocative of

the Lion Cliff at Tien Mu mountain.

power. Governments were often weakened

by excessive spending on lavish imperial

gardens. When Yangdi, heir to the Sui dy-

nasty (589–618), ascended the throne

in the late 6th century, he undertook

several large-scale public works projects,

including the construction of an extrava-

gant palace garden at Loyang. A fanta-

syland over 75 miles in circumference, the

garden reportedly contained mechanical

ﬁ gures, mature trees that were artiﬁ -

cially enhanced for seasonal effect, and

16 pavilions surrounding a man-made lake

6 miles long.

ROCKS AND WATER: The deﬁ ning nat-

ural features of China—mountains

and lakes—are represented in its

gardens.

Lakeside Pavilion

A light boat greets the honored guests,

far, far, coming in over the lake.

On a balcony we face bowls of wine

and lotus ﬂ owers bloom everywhere.

Chinese gardens expressed a cosmology

based on a fusion of Confucian, Dao-

ist, and Buddhist tenets. While each

religion advocated different strategies

for achieving spiritual freedom, all shared

a common respect for nature. Historic

Chinese gardens imitated the balance

of opposites found in nature, referred

to by Daoists as the forces of yin and

yang. Rock and water structured the

garden: rocks symbolized mountains, a

male force (yin), and water symbolized

yang, a female force. In fact, the word for

“landscape” was composed of words that

meant “mountain” and “water”—shan

shui. The principle of yin and yang can

also be seen in the contrast of the recti-

linear geometry of cities, structures, and

decorative elements (representing human

artiﬁ ce) with the free-ﬂ owing irregular

forms of gardens (representing nature).

Daoism advocated the idea of eternal life

through contact with mystical Immortals

who inhabited mountainous islands in an

eastern sea. Thus, gardens contained

lakes and rockery that imitated the

mountain dwellings of the Immortals.

These lake-and-island estates set a

precedent for garden form and had

particular inﬂ uence on later Japanese

gardens. Rocks themselves had powerful

associative meanings in Chinese gar-

dens. Rock formations, ﬂ owers, paving

patterns, and architectural features all

communicated the theme of a garden.

Confucian society was ordered by a

moral imperative for civil service and a

pursuit of the cultural arts. As a tradi-

tional art form, garden making in China

was studied along with painting, poetry,

and calligraphy by scholar-ofﬁ cials seek-

ing status. Confucian order can be read

in the urban form of imperial cities, such

as Chang-an (Xian, today). During the

Tang dynasty, Chang-an was home to

more than 1 million people and created a

metropolitan aesthetic that was later

adopted by the Japanese.

POETIC GARDENS: Like a hand scroll unrolls from right to left, revealing a succession of individual scenes, a Chinese garden is

experienced as a series of visual events. These three scenes represent Wang Wei’s villa and are combined with lines of his poetry.

MIDDLE AGES/ CHINA

COSMOLOGICAL AND FUNCTIONAL DIAGRAM: The 6th-century grid layout of

Chang-an was based on geomantic principles and reﬂ ects Chinese political hierarchy.

MIDDLE AGES / CHINA / TANG DYNASTY

SCHOLAR GARDENS OF SUZHOU

During the Tang dynasty (618–907),

China was at its peak of national pow-

er. Trade and culture ﬂ ourished. The

thriving city of Suzhou was located on

the great canal system that eventu-

ally linked the Yangzi River (Chang Ji-

ang) in the south with the Yellow River

(Huang He) in the north. Economi-

cally prosperous and rich in scenery,

Suzhou was known as the “Venice of

the East.”

Here, scholar-ofﬁ cials

retired from government service and

built rustic country estates, embrac-

ing an aesthetic of solitude, learning,

and poverty. “Scholar gardens” were

private retreats, places for self-devel-

opment and communion with intimate

friends, distinct from elaborate impe-

rial gardens. Suzhou itself remained a

haven for artists, particularly during

the Ming dynasty.

An example of a typical scholar’s gar-

den from the Tang era is the riverside

villa of Wang Wei, a painter, poet,

musician, and Buddhist scholar. Wang

Wei painted 20 views of his estate,

showing pavilions set amid the hills

of the scenic Wang Chuan valley, 30

miles from the capital at Chang-an.

Neither the garden nor the original

paintings survive, but extant cop-

ies illustrate how he composed the

garden as a series of individual views

set within the larger context of the

landscape.

WANG CHUAN: The 8th-century villa designed by Wang Wei was a poetic

construction of hills, streams, and forests.

Deer Park

Nobody in sight on the empty mountain

but human voices are heard far off.

Low sun slips deep in the forest

and lights the green hanging moss.

PAINTING AND

GARDENING

MIDDLE AGES / CHINA / SONG DYNASTY

The height of landscape painting and

gardening occurred during the cul-

tural and economic prosperity of the

Song dynasty (960–1279). After 50

years of turmoil following the collapse

of the Tang dynasty, the first Song

emperor reunified the country and

established a capital in the northern

city of Kaifeng. The centralized power

of the Song emperors facilitated ur-

ban and economic growth, and made

possible extraordinary achievements

in technology, such as the invention

of movable type.

The Northern Song emperor Zhao Ji

(Song Huizong, ruled 1100–1125) was

a painter, patron of the arts, and avid

collector of rocks and trees. Built in

accordance with the geomantic prin-

ciples of feng shui, his palace garden,

Gen Yue, included an artiﬁ cial mountain

over 200 feet high to block the evil

forces that he believed kept him from

producing a male heir.

When Kaifeng fell to a rival clan in

1126, the Songs were forced south

and eventually established a new cap-

ital at Hangzhou, on the picturesque

shores of the man-made West Lake.

Here, rugged peaks gave way to rolling

hills; the landscape was more gentle

and lyrical, as represented in the

poems and paintings of the period.

Daoism and Buddhism were stronger

influences in the south. The Daoist

belief in a universal flow of energy

can be seen in the mania for placing

rocks in the garden. Rocks formed the

skeleton of the garden like mountains

formed the skeleton of the earth.

Individual rocks were appreciated

and collected during the Tang dy-

nasty, but rock adulation reached

its ultimate expression in the Song

dynasty. To the Buddhist, rocks

represented the creative forces of

nature—the more weathered, the

more magical.

ROCK ROOM: The most valued rocks came from Lake Tai, where unique forces of

erosion created the characteristic apertures and shapes prized by Song collectors.

THE PLUM DOOR at Shih Tzu Lin

frames a view of the courtyard.

Magnolia Basin

On branch tips the hibiscus bloom.

The mountains show off red calices.

Nobody. A silent cottage in the valley.

One by one ﬂ owers open, then fall.

MIDDLE AGES / CHINA / SONG DYNASTY

Garden design and landscape painting

shared a language of visual conven-

tions that was established during the

Song dynasty. Garden layouts were

inspired by compositional techniques

used by landscape painters. Land-

scape paintings of the Northern and

Southern Song dynasties expressed

different attitudes toward nature.

Northern Song paintings were in-

tended to be realistic portrayals of

nature’s awesomeness. Southern Song

paintings were more personal expres-

sions of nature, evoking mood. Artists

brought the subject matter closer to

the viewer. Unessential elements were

reduced; space was implied by large

voids in the composition. Song paint-

ings are referenced in medieval Japa-

nese literature and had a profound

inﬂ uence on Japanese garden design.

The “Golden Age” of the Song dynasty

ended in the early 13th century. Genghis

Khan conquered territories in Persia,

Russia, and China, and over a period of

75 years the rest of China fell to the

Mongol rulers. Kublai Khan captured

Hangzhou in 1279 and formed the Yuan

dynasty. He moved the capital to Beijing

and built extravagant palace gardens

and hunting parks to rival those of any

former emperor. Literary accounts,

including those of Marco Polo, described

an artiﬁ cial mountain covered with rare

trees and green stones.

During the successive Ming and Qing dy-

nasties, large-scale imperial parks were

again built by the emperors in Beijing.

As trade with the West resumed, a new

merchant class built impressive gardens

of their own; these are discussed in

subsequent chapters.

NORTHERN SONG: The “mountain scrolls” of Northern Song paintings often

show a diminutive human ﬁ gure within a vast landscape dominated by natural

features. Atmospheric effects created a layering of vertical space—trees were

outlined against misty voids. Distance and spatial depth were captured through

the manipulation of foreground, midground, and background elements.

SOUTHERN SONG: Detailed por-

traits of birds and ﬂ owers were com-

mon themes in Southern Song paint-

ings. The imperial painting academy

founded at Hangzhou focused on the

intimate observation of nature.

MIDDLE AGES / CHINA / SYMBOLISM

THE SYMBOLISM OF POETRY:

Poets, painters, and philosophers

found inspiration in nature and sym-

bolized the emotional relationship

between art, nature, and humans in

their work. The meaning of a Chinese

garden is difﬁ cult to comprehend

without understanding the literary

context in which it was produced.

The courtyard deserted, the moon rises over

the steps—shadows of the balustrade all

over the ground.

THE SYMBOLISM OF PLANTS:

To communicate the theme of a

Chinese garden, gardeners chose

plants more for their physical and

symbolic attributes than for their

sensual qualities. For example, the

lotus, whose roots thrive in the

muddy bottoms of ponds and whose

blossoms reach up to ﬂ oat on the

surface of the water, represented

spiritual freedom. The “three friends

of winter”—the pine, plum, and bam-

boo—signiﬁ ed longevity, endurance,

and resilience. Plants representative

of the four seasons—the orchid,

bamboo, chrysanthemum, and ﬂ ow-

ering plum—also represented the

traits of an ideal gentleman: grace,

resiliency, nobility, and endurance.

MARCO POLO

KUBLAI KHAN

oncerning the Palace of the Great Khan in the capital city of Cathay, which

is called Cambaluc, stands his great palace. It is enclosed all around by a

great wall forming a square, each side of which is a mile in length. The great

wall has ﬁ ve gates on its southern face. Inside of this wall there is a second,

enclosing a space that is somewhat greater in length than in breadth.

oreover on the north side of the palace, about a bow shot off, there is a hill which has been made by art from the earth

dug out of the lake; it is a good 100 paces in height and a mile in compass. This hill is entirely covered with trees that

never lose their leaves, but remain ever green. Wherever a beautiful tree may exist, it is transported bodily and planted on that

hill. In this way the emperor has got together the most beautiful collection of trees in all the world. He has also caused the

whole hill to be covered with the ore of azure, which is very green. And thus not only are the trees all green, but the hill itself is

all green; and hence it is called the Green Mount.

THE TRAVELS of MARCO POLO

rom that corner of the enclosure which is towards

the northwest there extends a ﬁ ne lake, contain-

ing a foison of ﬁ sh. A river enters this lake and issues

from it, but there is a grating of iron put up so that

the ﬁ sh cannot escape that way.

etween the two walls of the enclosure which I have described, there are ﬁ ne

parks and beautiful trees bearing a variety of fruits. There are beasts also

of sundry kinds, such as white stags, fallow deer, gazelles, roebucks, and ﬁ ne

squirrels of various sorts. Parks are covered with abundant grass; the roads

through them being all paved, the rain ﬂ ows off into the meadows, quickening

the soil and producing that abundance of herbage.

VISUAL NARRATIVE

IN THE SPIRIT OF NATURE

A central spine of steep mountains

with dense forests rises from the ocean

to create the small islands and rocky

coastlines of Japan. Warm ocean cur-

rents foster a temperate climate with

hot summers and mostly mild winters.

Streams, waterfalls, and an abundance

of moisture in the atmosphere support

a wide variety of vegetation. An aware-

ness of natural patterns and seasonal

change is integral to Japanese culture.

VIEWS OF NATURE

Nature was perceived in the Japanese

imagination not as a harsh or hostile re-

ality, but as an expression of the divine.

The Japanese recognized the sanctity

of a particular landscape by bind-

ing natural features with straw ropes

(shimenawa) or demarcating space with

torii gates. The ground plane in front of

a temple was often emphasized by an

apron of white sand or gravel and was

considered puriﬁ ed ground. The form

persisted in later Japanese gardens as

a ceremonial and decorative forecourt.

The ephemeral qualities of nature ap-

peared as literary themes and sub-

TREE SPIRIT: Shinto religious traditions venerated natural formations such as rocks, trees, and mountains as domains of an-

cestral spirits, or kami. Prayer strips communicated mortal intentions to the divine.

jects of poems. Scenic descriptions of

idealized landscape features such as

“wild rocky coasts” or “deep mountains”

became embedded in the collective

imagination.

Garden designs were

inspired by these poetic concepts, ﬁ rst

as subtle allusions to nature, and later

as more overt scenography. As a garden

could be a place to write poetry, the

inﬂ uence was circular—iconic imagery

took form in the garden, and garden

scenery inspired poetry.

SHINTO SHRINE: The “wedded rocks” (meteo iwa) at Ise are joined by a shimenawa.

MIDDLE AGES / JAPAN