Chinese Flashcards
Yuan Ming Yuan
“Garden of Perfect Brightness”
1725-44 AD
Qing Dinasty
NW Beijing, China // 840 acres
Move from one valley to another - not straight but by windings
From Collections of Three Kingdoms: “The great scnes of Ch’ien Lung’s vanished youth were born again in a garden, and the lost garden is reincarnated for us in the forty painted scenes and their forty names”
“40 Scenes” from Garden of Perfect Brightness, 1744
The buildings of various types, artfully arranged in a “natural” setting that was carefully designed with lakes and streams; hills, bridges, and pathways; and pagodas and the like. Each complex was meant to create a separate vista, while blending into a diverse whole.
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/garden_perfect_brightness/ymy1_essay03.html
Surging Waves Pavilion 960-1279 AD
representative garden of Song Dynasty
2 acres
Idea of unfolding spaces - every space completely different
Scholar’s Rock // Taihu Rocks:
irregular limestone formations from Lake Taihu
prized for irregularity
precious objects to display in garden
Lake Taihu
Source of Schoalr’s Rocks - water in gardens try to imitate it
Nanjing area - driver of Chinese aesthetic
3 Perfections: painting, poetry, calligraphy
arts combined
landscapes linked with the art of 3 perfections
3 friends of winter:
Pine Tree: evergreen, longevity, stamina, immortality
Bamboo: tall & straight, honor
Plum Trees: harbinger of spring, perseverence & hope
Calligraphy in Garden: framing views with calligraphy - perhaps an aphorism - something to think about as you pass through a portal
Lion Forest Garden, 2.7 acres
representing Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368 AD)
rebuilt in 1771 during Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)
Openings different, narrow gaps give entrance to rooms containing rocks
narrow paths - symbolically walking thru mtns - paths crooked to shift viewpoint constantly
Lion Forest Garden, 2.7 acres
representing Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368 AD)
rebuilt in 1771 during Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)
Openings different, narrow gaps give entrance to rooms containing rocks
narrow paths - symbolically waling thru mtns - paths crooked to shift viewpoint constantly
The Humble Administrator’s Garden, 1517 - representing the garden style during Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD)
Wang Xian Cheng
lotus, important plant - food too
compresses entrie landscapes into a small sapce - to make landscape as complicated as possible
Master of Nets Garden - Shi Zhengzhi, 1140
restored and redesigned by Song Zongyuan 1785
-reverence for irregularity
open with reflection - still water important to aesthetic
walled off - inscriptions, poetry
Pattern - wood screens that act as filter
long covered walkways that have framed openings
confuscian principles - landscape foil to architecture
idealogical ideas find
scholars in garden
Master of Nets, first 1140, restored 1770, Qing Dynasty
Reflections important
Imperial Summer Palace (Yi He Yuan)
Emperor Qianlong, 1750-1764
mtns created from creation of lakes
Destroyed between 1856-1860
Rebuilt and destroyed in 1900
unlike in scholar’s gardens, buildings very brightly colored, formal courtyards, built space, housed entire government apparatus, Longevity Hill, Kunming Lake and Yufeng Pagoda
Imperial Summer Palace - axial
Yi He Yuan, Imperial Summer Palace, Beijing, 720 acres
Jade Peak Pagoda
