HISTORY

For centuries, the Chinese have sought inspiration and self-knowledge in nature. Hence, their gardens evoke the natural world. Because land has always been expensive in cities, urban gardens are relatively small, but the space devoted to rocks, plants and water seems much greater than it actually is because of the clever ways in which garden designers lead the visitor from one unique vantage point to another.

Associated with leisurely culture in upper class households, the Classical Chinese garden represented something new and pregnant with meaning. While traditional Chinese city planning may be described as ordered and predictable, the garden symbolized an environment free of these constraints . . . spontaneous, complex, and philosophical.

OTHER CHINESE GARDENS

There are other kinds of ornamental Chinese gardens. The largest are the various Imperial Gardens, constructed in and around Beijing by various emperors who spent fortunes in money and manpower to build them. They were intended for the use of the royal families and were a complement to the Forbidden City. Some of these beautiful sites have been destroyed, but many linger today in other guises. The Beijing Zoo, for instance, is built upon the site of a garden once owned by a prince of the Ching Dynasty.

A different sort of Chinese garden celebrates the arts of Penjing and Bonsai. The garden seen at left is called Yun Xiu Yuan and is a Suzhou- style Penjing garden featuring over a thousand Bonsai, Penjing and Rock Penjing creations. It is located on the grounds of a large Chinese garden in Singapore.

Although flowers do not figure prominently in the Classical Chinese garden, they appear in other gardens.

The image to the right, "Peach and Plum Blossom Garden" is a painting depicting a scene which has also been immortalized in words. In it, Li Bo (701-762), a famous Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.), is shown spending an evening with his cousins in a garden of peach and plum trees in full bloom. In China, these two trees are thought to be brothers; their close relationship symbolized by intertwining branches.

In addition to various ornamental gardens, the Chinese cultivated herb and vegetable gardens. The abundance of gardens should not surprise the visitor who remembers the Chinese saying, "He who plants a garden plants happiness."