The construction characteristics of royal gardens
1. Large scale
The emperor was able to use his political privileges and strong economic resources to occupy large areas of land to build gardens for his own enjoyment. Therefore, the scale was far beyond what private gardens could match. . It is obvious that the scale of royal gardens is beyond the reach of temple gardens and private gardens. And its scale is basically inversely proportional to the backward continuation of history. The number and scale of royal gardens also reflect the rise and fall of a dynasty's national power to a certain extent.
2. Free choice of garden site
The royal garden can either surround the original mountain or real lake, such as the Qing Dynasty Summer Resort, where the mountain in the northwest is a natural mountain and the lake in the southeast is transformed from a natural lake; it can also be stacked on top of each other. The masonry and excavation look like natural mountains, lakes and seas, such as Genyue in the Song Dynasty and Qingyi Garden in the Qing Dynasty (the northern mountain scenery was artificially stacked). In short, any area that the royal family likes can be organized into a royal garden.
3. Architecturally rich
With the abundant financial resources in the hands of the royal family, the architectural weight in the garden is increased, and the formal beauty of the building is highlighted, as the most important means to reflect the royal style, thereby integrating the aesthetic value of garden architecture. It has surpassed unparalleled heights. In terms of its body shape, it is graceful and luxurious; in terms of its color, it is resplendent and magnificent, fully embodying the rich, gorgeous and noble palace color.
4. Strong symbolic meaning of imperial power
In ancient times, all palaces, temples, and mausoleums that were directly related to the emperor used their layout and image to reflect the concept of supreme imperial power. As one of the important constructions, the royal garden is no exception. During the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty, the expansion of imperial power reached an unprecedented level in Chinese feudal society. This was also fully reflected in the royal gardens built at that time, which symbolized imperial power.
5. Comprehensively absorb the poetic and artistic charm of Jiangnan gardens
Northern gardens imitating Jiangnan have already begun to take shape as early as the middle of the Ming Dynasty. The area around Haidian Town in the northwest suburbs of Beijing is home to numerous lakes and springs. Bureaucrats and nobles have bought land here to build gardens, many of which consciously imitate the garden style of Jiangnan water towns. This trend naturally also affected the royal gardening. They integrated the gardening art of the north and the south, royal and folk, and brought their gardening skills to an unprecedented breadth and depth.
An overview of traditional Chinese garden art
Traditional Chinese gardens are an important part of Chinese traditional culture. As a carrier, it not only objectively and truly reflects the different historical backgrounds of Chinese dynasties, the rise and fall of social economy and the level of engineering technology, but also distinctively reflects the evolution of the Chinese people's outlook on nature, life and the world. It contains the influence of philosophical or religious thoughts such as Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, as well as traditional arts such as landscape poetry and painting; it embodies the diligence and wisdom of Chinese intellectuals and skilled craftsmen. And compared with Western garden art, it prominently expresses the Chinese nation's yearning and love for nature and a beautiful living environment. In 1990, China's scenic Mount Tai was included in the World Cultural and Natural Heritage List by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Since 1994, the Summer Resort in Chengde, the Summer Palace in Beijing, the Humble Administrator's Garden, the Lingering Garden and the Environmental Protection Agency in Suzhou have Xiushan Villa has been included in the World Cultural Heritage List by UNESCO, thus becoming the most common cultural wealth of all mankind. This further proves that Chinese traditional gardens have impressive artistic power and irreplaceable uniqueness. It is unique in the forest of world cultures and has been popular for thousands of years.
In ancient Chinese mythology, the Yaochi where the Queen Mother of the West lived and the Hanging Garden where the Yellow Emperor lived were both described as beautiful gardens. Green mountains and clear waters are exactly the living environment that people dream of. According to ancient written records, in the late Yin and Zhou Dynasties of China's slavery, a royal garden with a radius of dozens of miles appeared - Pu, which was the prototype of traditional Chinese gardens. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, more magnificent landscape palaces were developed, covering an area of ??hundreds of miles, and were formed by arranging a large number of palace annexes in the natural landscape environment. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the ideas of Buddhism, Buddhism and Taoism led to the emergence of garden-style temples - temple gardens. At this time, simple landscape poems and landscape paintings led to the development of gardens for literati and officials. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the level of landscape poetry and landscape painting was at its peak, so the freehand landscape garden came into being.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the development of freehand landscape gardens reached its climax, and the art of gardening became more mature and perfect. At this time, both emperors, generals, and literati were pursuing a more authentic life experience in gardens and placing more aesthetic feelings and social concepts into them. This gives Chinese gardens a strong symbolic character. This symbolic feature is first reflected in the naming of the garden and the scenic spots in the garden. The name of a Chinese garden is not directly related to the name of the garden owner, but more to the personality ideal of the garden owner. The predecessor of the Summer Palace in Beijing was called Qingyou Garden. After it was rebuilt in 1886, the Queen Mother of the West took the initiative to change the name to Chonghe. The empress who once listened to politics from behind the curtain hopes that the world will be peaceful and she will be able to "live her old age". The name of Wuxi Jichang Garden expresses its owner's desire to live freely. There are more than one "Grand View Tower" and "Grand View Garden" in China and its literary works. This not only means that this place has a broad vision and beautiful scenery, but also means that people who visit and live here should be open-minded and optimistic. According to historical records, there was a garden within a garden in Shanglinyuan, a famous royal garden in the Han Dynasty, called "Bowang Garden", which means that climbing high to look far and being close to nature can nourish and sublimate people's spirit. According to expert research, as early as the 6th century AD, traditional Chinese garden art was spread to South Korea and Japan, where it took root, blossomed and bore fruit. In the 18th century, traditional Chinese garden art spread to Europe, which had a great impact on the popular and regular British and French gardens at that time. For a time, imitation of Chinese natural gardens became a fashion in Europe. At the same time, European painters and missionaries were invited to create a group of Western-style buildings in the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, China, which were mainly in the Rococo style and blended with Chinese national cultural forms, pioneering the cooperation between Chinese and Western gardens. The highest state of traditional Chinese gardening art is that although it is made by humans, it appears to be created from the sky. This is actually the embodiment of the idea of ??harmony between nature and man in traditional Chinese culture in gardens. Specifically, the extensive and profound traditional Chinese gardens are built according to the following principles:
1. Frame the landscape. Due to China's vast territory and beautiful mountains and rivers, the Chinese have had a special affection for nature since ancient times, especially the living environment surrounded by mountains and water. Mountains and water are considered to be the most important elements in Feng Shui theory. A combination of yin and yang. Confucius once pointed out: "The benevolent enjoy the mountains, and the wise enjoy the water; thus combining the landscape with human character. China's unique geographical conditions and humanistic background gave birth to the landscape view that has had an important impact on Chinese gardening. No wonder the Chinese are so Enthusiastically creating gardens in natural landscapes, or constructing natural landscapes in urban gardens
2. Simulating fairyland As early as 2,000 years ago, Qin Shihuang sent people to the legendary East China Sea several times. The three immortal mountains - Penglai, Fangzhang and Yingzhou went to obtain the elixir of immortality, but they failed. Therefore, he built Penglai Mountain in his Lanchi Palace to imitate the fairyland to express his strong desire for immortality. And carried forward this tradition, and built the Penglai, Fangzhang and Yingzhou three immortal mountains in the human liquid pool of Jianzhang Palace in Shanglinyuan. Since then, the tradition of one pool and three mountains has been created.
3. Moving. The sky is shrinking and the earth is shrinking. An important feature of Chinese tradition is to use limited space to express infinite connotations. Liangyue in the Song Dynasty was once known as the beauty of the world, and the Jiuzhou Qing in the Yuanmingyuan of the Qing Dynasty was the most beautiful place in China. The layout is condensed into a small landscape unit to reflect the idea that the world is full of people. Wen Zhenheng, a gardener in the Ming Dynasty, also emphasized in "Changwu Zhi" that "a peak can bring great beauty to Qianxun, and a spoon can bring great beauty." The gardening concept of “Wonderful Rivers and Lakes”.
4. Poetry and painting. The landscape poems and landscape paintings in traditional Chinese culture profoundly express people’s attachment to mountains and rivers, their pursuit of detachment, and their thoughts of living in harmony with nature. . Therefore, the artistic conception of landscape poetry and landscape painting has become one of the goals of traditional Chinese garden creation. Xie Lingyun, a literati in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, pursued: "Surrounded by mountains, crossed by streams, the beauty of water, stone, forest and bamboo, the beauty of rocks and leisure." "The music is so good", and the thatched cottage built by the poet Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty in Lushan was devoted to the artistic conception of looking up at the mountain, listening to the spring, and admiring the bamboo trees, clouds and stones. In the garden, this kind of poetic and picturesque feeling is especially reflected in the threshold couplets or Yong forehead or The way of carving stones plays a role in highlighting the scenery, and the art of calligraphy has also become an indispensable part of the garden.
5. The unique form of traditional Chinese gardens. The layout does not seem to emphasize obvious and symmetrical axis relationships, but in fact it shows a delicate sense of balance and a strong overall fascination.
One of the important reasons why Chinese traditional gardens can be distinguished from foreign gardens is the uniqueness of their overall form. In this natural garden, imitating the natural mountain and water potential, timeless and unique architectural shapes and structures, colorful trees and flowers, and winding garden roads, they form a series of landscapes that interweave people's emotions and dreams. , unexpected garden space.
6. Excellent gardening techniques. In the garden creation activities of ancient Chinese gardeners, the first job was to look at the land, that is, to analyze the favorable and unfavorable factors inside and outside the garden site based on the Feng Shui theory; and then based on this, the so-called conception, to determine what to express. The theme and content vary depending on the situation. The next step is to use techniques such as cherishing the scenery, blocking the scenery, contrasting the scenery, and framing the scenery to reasonably lay out the four elements of gardening, organize the spatial sequence, and finally elaborate on the details. At this time, the landscape architect must skillfully handle the shape, direction, slope, and changes in convexity and concavity of the mountain, the position of the main peak and secondary peaks, the size, shape and combination of the pool, the use of islands, embankments and bridges, and the shape and grouping of individual buildings. A series of specific issues include the shape and combination of garden plants, the types and planting methods of garden plants, the direction of garden roads and the use of materials. In fact, in addition to designing drawings, ancient Chinese gardeners spent more time on the construction site of the garden to guide the construction, thereby ensuring the implementation of the design intention and facilitating improvisation. Ji Cheng (1582-?), the master gardener of the Ming Dynasty in China, wrote the book "Garden Ye", which incisively discussed the important gardening techniques of traditional Chinese gardens. This is China's first gardening monograph, which has great significance across the ages and serves as a link between the past and the future. The aesthetic feeling of traditional Chinese gardens is multi-faceted and multi-layered. For example, the whole park is divided into several scenic spots, each with its own characteristics and connected with each other. It often maintains an intermittent and continuous relationship through leaky windows, door openings, bamboo forests, rockeries, etc., becoming borrowed scenes from each other, and also contributes to the transformation of scenic spots during the tour. bedding. In various scenic spots, a few bonsais and flower stands are often placed, which seem to bear witness to the vicissitudes of history, the desolation of the world, and the tenacity of life. Of course, a good garden also has a good name and several couplets to be passed down from generation to generation. Wimpy scholars have always paid attention to "little words and careless words". A good name can have profound meaning and endless taste. For example, in the Suzhou Net Master Garden, the so-called "Net Master" is another name for the fisherman. In ancient Chinese culture, the fisherman has the meaning of living in seclusion in the mountains and forests, and also has the meaning of a wise politician. The lyricism of the scenery in the residence makes the scene in front of you and the emotion in your heart blend into one, making the garden more powerful.