| Chinese garden | |||||||||||
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 This picture of the Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai (created in 1559) shows all the elements of a classical Chinese garden – water, architecture, vegetation, and rocks. | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 中國園林 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 中国园林 | ||||||||||
| Literal meaning | China Garden-Woods | ||||||||||
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| Chinese classical garden | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 中國古典園林 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 中国古典园林 | ||||||||||
| Literal meaning | China Classical Garden-Woods | ||||||||||
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The Chinese garden is a landscape garden style which has evolved over three thousand years. It includes both the vast gardens of the Chinese emperors and members of the imperial family, built for pleasure and to impress, and the more intimate gardens created by scholars, poets, former government officials, soldiers and merchants, made for reflection and escape from the outside world. They create an idealized miniature landscape, which is meant to express the harmony that should exist between man and nature.[1]
The art of Chinese garden integrates architecture, calligraphy and painting, sculpture, literature, gardening and other arts. It is a model of Chinese aesthetics, reflecting the profound philosophical thinking and pursuit of life of the Chinese people. Among them, Chengde Mountain Resort[2] and the Summer Palace,[3] which belong to royal gardens, and several the Classical Gardens of Suzhou[4] in Jiangsu Province, which belong to private gardens, are also included in the World Heritage List by UNESCO. Many essential elements are used in Chinese gardens, and Moon Gate is one of them.[5]
A typical Chinese garden is enclosed by walls and includes one or more ponds, rock works, trees and flowers, and an assortment of halls and pavilions within the garden, connected by winding paths and zig-zag galleries. By moving from structure to structure, visitors can view a series of carefully composed scenes, unrolling like a scroll of landscape paintings.
- ^ Michel Baridon, Les Jardins - paysagistes, jardiners, poḕts. p. 348
- ^ Centre, UNESCO World Heritage. "Mountain Resort and its Outlying Temples, Chengde". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
- ^ Centre, UNESCO World Heritage. "Summer Palace, an Imperial Garden in Beijing". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
- ^ Centre, UNESCO World Heritage. "Classical Gardens of Suzhou". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
- ^ Bei, Yu-ming; 貝聿銘 (2003). Yu Bei yu ming dui hua. Mu Bo, Bing Lin, I. M. Pei, Gero von Boehm, 波姆, 林兵. (Chu ban ed.). Tai bei shi: Lian jing. ISBN 957-08-2657-6. OCLC 271635555.