TYPES OF GARDEN

1. Chinese Gardens (1600 BC – 1279 AD)

The Chinese culture has one of the oldest continuous traditions of garden design. In China, two cultural philosophies produce a duality of design concepts. The Confucian approach to a regulated society led to the strict geometry of Chinese houses and cities; straight lines and rectangles typify artifacts that concern people’s relationship to one another. The Taoist principle of harmony with nature, in contrast, governed garden design. It was felt that through meditation on the unity of creation, real order and harmony would be revealed. Chinese gardens sought to display in symbolic from the essence of this harmony. The Chinese found both Confucian and Taoist philosophies valuable and applied them side by side in design.

Taoist beliefs and ideals influenced garden forms through an intimae association with nature, a striving for movement, a representation of permanence, and a unity of ethical and philosophical ideals. Unlike the Western use of precise geometries in formal plans, Chinese gardens embodied organic forms that revealed the mystery and wonder of nature with people as a subordinate element to the whole. China’s inherently dramatic landscape of mountain peaks and lakes provided the image and inspiration for their pleasure gardens. For example, according to garden historian Christopher Thacker, “The sacred groves leading to the tomb of the philosopher Confucius are today old, gnarled, and knotted and held together by iron rings. To the Chinese the writhed, contorted appearance of these old and almost lifeless trunks is worthy of lengthy contemplation revealing qualities of fortitude and grandeur.”

Movement or circulation occurred on irregular pathways diversified the journey through the garden, bringing the viewer in close contact with plant materials. Experiences of scent and sound mixed with the visual enjoyment of the natural world. For example, the pleasure of admiring the...