History of Chinese Garden

The ancient Chinese gardens, also known as traditional Chinese gardens or classical Chinese gardens have centuries-old history, rich culture and unique features. Rich in various types and full of artistic charm, ancient Chinese gardens are considered to be the best among three systems of garden building in the world. In the history of nearly 5,000 years, the gardens found their places and also add a lustrous and brilliant oriental pearl to the world heritage treasure-house.

The history of Chinese garden can be dated back to the Shan and Zhou dynasties. At that time, the garden was called "You" or "You for play", which means enclosure the views of concinnity and concision, and raising the animal for hunting. After the Han dynasty, the garden was build as a villa of the King, which is called "Yuan". The emperors can have a rest and deal with the affairs of the state. "Lin Yuan", an imperial garden, had decades of buildings which enlarged the area based on the Qin dynasty in the period of Wu Emperor in the Han Dynasty. Tai Qing Chi, a pond in the garden, had three man-made islands which are called Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yinzhou. There were many little palaces, pavilions and rooms on the islands. It also had many kinds of wonderful plants. Now, such technique is called the Qin and Han Style, which build the islands in the pond and embellish them the man-made hills and stones.
The period from the Wei dynasty to the Southern and Northern dynasties was an important period in China. During these times, the economy was flourishing and the civilization was prosperous. The scholar-bureaucrats were seeking natural beauty. And it had become a prevailing custom to take a journey to the famous mountains and rivers for pleasure among the persons from upper class. Influenced by this fashion, the techniques of the garden building were turned to weigh more on nature and took the mountain and river as its main body, which were called "the garden with natural mountains and rivers".

Began in the Sui dynasty and the Tang dynasty, the architects always had the interest in the integration of the garden to literature and art. They built the gardens based on the scene what the poems and paintings described and praised and used the traditional expressive skills which were usually used in literature and art for reference. Sometimes, the architects even built the gardens completely the same as the painting. So it had experienced an innovation from the "the garden with natural mountains and rivers" to "the garden with imitating mountains and rivers".

The gardens also had flourishing days during the Song and the Yuan dynasties. During those times, the architects were better skilled in managing the rocks. Many litterateurs and artists were entering into the project which made the artistic conception of the gardens advanced quickly.

It was the peak time for the garden building in the Ming and the Qing Dynasties. Building of Royal Gardens was activated during the period from Emperor Kangxi to Emperor Qianlong in the Qing dynasty. Natural, enjoyable, poetic and graphic were the main ideas pursued by the architects. Placing buildings in the garden was the main technique to make a scenic spot. The function of living was also reinforced, compared with the function only for viewing before. Some huge gardens imitate not only natural mountains and rivers, but also other famous gardens in other places, so you could enjoy the "garden of gardens".