China

ne could hardly understand the nature and process of development of the Chinese mastery of gardening without being familiar with Chinese painting and fine arts, as a whole. This is because the Chinese art of gardening was not a pursuit of specialists in horticulture or architecture. Since ancient times these fields had been left to the poets, artists, monks and literary people, as they were believed to comprehend nature best. Therefore, they were capable not only of reproducing it, praising it in poems, drawing it in their paintings but also of featuring it in the gardens made for poetic seclusion and philosophic meditation. Poetry, painting and gardening have been deeply integrated. 

These three means of creating performance had one and the same goal – to glorify the beauty of landscapes and highlight the contrasts and harmony of the scenery. 

The three major religions in China preached adoration and maximal identification with nature. And since rocks, mountains, lakes and rivers are the most impressive nature ornaments, they were the once that had an impact on and were re-created in the gardens. Unfortunately, another tradition led to tremendous losses of knowledge about the beautiful historical gardens. When a noble man or the emperor himself died, his hire never settled in the present estates, so they were abandoned.

The Chinese masters arranged gardens following strict philosophical and aesthetic rules. Every element had a deep symbolic meaning. Rock formations, stones and mountains represented the skeleton of the Earth. Water streams were compared to the veins and arteries of human body. So, the perfect combination was “earth” and “water”. 

For the purpose of gardening were used rocks, fantastically shaped by the currents in the lakes or rivers. When placed vertically, they resembled minute coastlines. Rock shapes formed even caves sometimes. Often one could even see a separately placed original rock, almost like a statue, for admiration.

The art of gardening in China reached its peak of development during the Sung period (960 – 1280 A.C). Unfortunately, only certain poems and Marc O’Polo’s records provide data about garden composition at that time. What we can be sure about is the presence of certain elements such as lakes, islands, pavilions, cascades, meadows, groups of trees, decorative caves, streams pine – trees, bamboo woods and weeping willows. The palaces of Kubilai, emperor of China (13th century A.C.) which took up enormous space from the territory of Peking represent a marvelous example from that time. 

According to Marc O’Polo, an artificial mountain rose near the fortified walls. When the emperor heard of a beautiful tree growing somewhere, he had it brought by elephants to his palace no matter how large and heavy it was. They planted it in this mountain where all the trees were beautiful. The ditches which were left after the building of the mountains have been transformed into lakes full of fish, swans and other birds. Kubilai took his astrologer’s advice:” The one who plants trees will live long.” So, except from creating the mountain, he lined all the roads with trees providing pleasant shades in summer and landmarks in winter when everything else was covered with snow.

It was not until the 17th century, that British ships reached the Chinese shores for the first time and the European world acquired more profound knowledge of the Eastern culture. Many records tell about the Summer Palace of the Chinese Emperor Quinlong. The immense area was divided into separated “intimate” yards designed with pools, canals, swamps and also paths, winding through multicolor flower massifs, pavilions, placed amid verdant vegetation (bamboo, pine-trees, peaches, cedars, juniper, magnolias, plum-trees, weeping willows, roses, jasmines, chrysanthemums, peonies, lotuses, etc.), rounded terraces all of which were built with great respect towards Nature. 

Container gardening was also a most popular means of communicating with nature in private homes. 

Almost everything in the garden had a deep symbolic meaning. We can say with no doubt that the Chinese art of gardening established the main laws of horticulture in the Far East.