论文总字数：26545字

摘 要

随着人类文明的发展，园林承载了人们对于美和艺术的追求。由于东西方不同的文明发展过程，中西方园林形成不同的风格。本篇作者试图从园林的基本元素出发，列举中西方古典园林中植物，水，石，山等要素的选用和安排来探讨东西方园林文化差异。作者再从中西方不同的地理，历史，审美价值和神话传说等方面来分析这些现象存在的原因。作者写这篇论文是本着研究中西方园林文化差异，促进园林建设和为当代人开创一个更加美好的生活环境的目的。

关键词：文化差异；古典园林；植物；水；石；山

Contents

1. Introduction １

2. Literature Review １

3. Choices of elements ２

3.1 Plant ２

3.2 Management of water ３

3.3 Management of stone ３

3.4 Management of mountain ４

3.5. Arrangement among the elements ５

4. Influential factors of the differences ６

4.1 Geography ６

4.2 History ７

4.3 Religion and mythology ８

4.4 Living values ９

5. Conclusion １１

Works Cited １２

1. Introduction

A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, setting aside for the display, cultivation and the enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden)There are three categories of classical gardens in China, royal gardens, private gardens and temple gardens. In western world, the Italian and France regular and English scenery gardens are the most representative models. Influenced by different cultures, tastes, vales of aesthetic and the situation of economy, Chinese and western classical gardens have many divergences. In China, the royal gardens in Beijing have represented the highest level since they contain too much mandarin culture and Chinese spirits. They not only show the imperial grandeur for their huge area, but also contain the essence of the private gardens in the regions south of the Yangtze River (Jiangnan). Therefore, this paper chooses some famous royal ones as the representative Chinese gardens such as the Summer Palace, Yuan Ming Yuan Imperial Garden, Cheng De Mountain Resort and so on. Western classical gardens have originated from ancient Greek and Rome whose ocean civilizations have great impacts on western gardens’ styles. Owing to the breakdown of ancient Rome, there had been many kingdoms in Europe where different gardens have developed their characteristics according to their own national features. In this thesis,the author cites the famous representative gardens like the Versailles, the Kew Garden, the Deste Villa to elaborate western gardens’ cultures.

2. Literature Review

For a long time, professors and scholars who have studied gardens have formed relatively systematic knowledges. Because the gardens before Ming dynasty were hardly kept, the main items Chinese scholars have studied are the ones built in Ming and Qing dynasties. Professor Ding shan from Nanjing Agriculture University did research on Chinese imperial gardens, he said that he has linked royal gardens with monarchical power closely.(Ding shan, 2006: 13)Professor Zhou Weiquan did research on classical gardens throughout the whole Chinese history, he said that he has concluded features and cultural meanings among different elements in gardens.（Zhou Weiqun, 2011: 21）Professor Zhou Wuzhou in Yangzhou University made great efforts in gardens’ researches. In his book, In Search of Paradise —A Comparative Study on Chinese and Western Classical Garden Arts, he said that he has expounded the history of Chinese and western gardens" development and elaborated Chinese and western cultures from different elements in gardens.(Zhou Wuzhou, 2012: 18)As the Chinese scholars, western scholars did researches on gardens mainly by these methods. However, owing to different kingdoms in Europe,they have their features separately. The main differences lie in the studies on elements. And western researchers also studied gardens based on the history of single country. Professor Christoper Thacker has expounded in his book, The History of Gardens,the whole development of western gardens from the classical ones to the ones with modern styles (Thacker, 1988: 20). Professor Pierre Anglade said in his book, The Oxford Companion to Gardens, that he had introduced the trim skills in gardens and gardening mainly (Anglade, 1991: 15). Based on the former abundant researches, this author explores the cultural differences between Chinese and western countries through the plant, water, stone and mountain in gardens.

3. Choices of elements

3.1 Plant

Firstly, plants in Chinese and western classical gardens have different cultural symbols. The most typical examples in Chinese gardens are peony, which represents wealth; lotus and bamboo, which represent righteous people; plum blossom and orchid, which represent noble spirit; osmanthus shares the pronunciation with “gui” which means wealth. In western classical gardens, lily, conker tree, bay tree, grape, apple tree, daffodils, yew, wisteria, pomegranate, fig, walnut are representative plants. All of them have their own stories in the Bible. Take the apple as an example, such fruit is the wisdom fruit which was eaten by Eve in the garden of Eden. And the leaves of fig were used to cover her body.

Secondly, Chinese people prefer plants with slight scent while western ones prefer the ones with dense smell and eye-catching color. No matter the prune flower, lotus, orchid or the osmanthus fragrances, they are felt just when you walk close to them or by the effect of the wind. Westerners like flowers with enchanting colors and aroma, such as lily, rose, tulip, iris. They try to create various colors of one flower. For example, Battier garden in Paris, there are fifty kinds of roses with different colors.

3.2 Management of water

Chinese and westerners have techniques in managing water respectively.

Firstly, the water always exist in the forms of cascade and falls in Chinese classical gardens while the fountain is the typical sight in western classical gardens. Such way of water management has long history and can be stemmed from 3000 years ago.(Zhou Wuzhong, 2012: 237)The main differences lie in that cascade and fall are adjustable to the original terrain but the fountain is made by man power to hit the sky. Around 18^th century, the usual fountain could not satisfy westerners any more as the appearance of magic fountain which begins spring up as you walk close to it without any preparation. In Jiangnan private gardens, the small bridge and natural waters are the most representative poetic scenes.

Secondly,in Chinese classical gardens, pond and lake with natural shapes are ubiquitous while the geometrical shaped aqueduct is essential no matter in royal gardens or common villa. There is an good example in the Lingering garden in Suzhou where the whole garden is centered around an irregular pond. Another fact to verify such conclusion is the recording written by a missionary, Chambers. He wrote in his book: “scarcely is there straight river, most of them appear to be irregular. Chinese people observe the tactics of nature and use them in gardens’ building”. But in western classical gardens such as the Versailles,there are more than twenty aqueducts to support more than one thousand and four hundreds spray heads.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versailles)

3.3 Management of stone

Stones in Chinese classical gardens are in natural state while stones in western gardens are in forms of statues. Single stones can be endowed with high artistic value in Chinese classical gardens but in western classical gardens, only the stones are reshaped into other images could they be meaningful. The good example is the Guanyun feng in Lingering Garden in Suzhou. It is a Taihu stone and manifests the character “slenderness, seepage, permeation and rugosity”.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingering Garden)In Versailles, famous statues are numerous standing in the water or along the road. The fact is that both Chinese and westerners made efforts to reshape the stones. But Chinese people tried their best to mimic natural scenes. Just as the proverb says that although it is artificial but it feels natural greatly. In western classical gardens, stones are used to build palaces or carved into various statues among which the nude heroes.Westerners cut them into specific shape to the wall, route, terrace, fountain and decoration of other things in gardens. In Europe, the stone sculpture is the mainstream.(Zhou Wuzhong , 2012: 335)

3.4 Management of mountain

The differences on the existence of mountain are the most prominent feature in Chinese and western gardens.

Mountains are prevailing in Chinese classical gardens. There are real mountain and false mountains in royal gardens. Xiang Mountain, Yuquan Mountain and Longevity Mountain are well-known as “San Shan” in Summer Palace which can be visited as the individual sighting spots. They are the best examples of real mountains in Chinese classical gardens. Besides, there are also various false mountains in royal mountains. When entering the south gate in Qianlong garden, you will see a mountain screen which reminds you of such phrase“ kai meng jian shan ”.

In contrast, mountains have not been used as sightseeing spots in western gardens. There is few mountain in natural state appearing in western gardens. After 18century B.C, most Europeans treated mountains as the symbol of the moor with isolation and horror. Before 18 century B.C, stones and mountains in natural state which had been used in gardens had nothing to do with spirit or culture.(Zhou Wuzhong, 2012: 210)The attitude they showed to mountain had originated from European cultural tradition. They respect the mountain with horror. For example, it is believed that the frost sprite, giant and dwarfs live in the mountain in Scandinavia peninsula. In other European fables, the witch, wolf man and ghost are said to live in mountain. In a word, mountain has nothing to do with beauty any more.

3.5. Arrangement among the elements

In Chinese gardens, the relationships among plant, water, stone and mountain as well as the architectures are harmoniously and closely-knit which are viewed as an unit. The roads are twists and turns which lead to and connect some spots. At the same time, they are the sightseeings themselves. We always put mountain and water together and even give them proper name “shan shui”. Pavillion and architectures are named by plants because they are always accompanied by each other. There are 72 scenic spots in Cheng de Mountain Resort are just the good examples. The “Qushuihexiang” and “Guanliansuo” are famous for the lotus and “Lihuabangyue” for the pear blossom,“Cailingdu” for the water chestnut. Falls flow down along the false mountain and ponds are surrounded by peach blossoms and green willows. In Jiangnan private gardens, the technique of “borrowing scenes” are common. The aim is that natural beauty will not be blocked out by walls or something else. From these points, we can see that all elements are connected with each other deeply.

However, the western classical gardens are always divided into different parts. In Versailles, the whole palace consists of palace areas, spring areas, woods areas, small parks and so on. The elements in western royal gardens play their functions individually which have little connection with each other. The roads in western royal gardens are straight and wide enough to suit the grandeur. But their functions are simple to be the way to walk. Take the plant as an example, almost tall trees act as the street trees to give shadow, and the flaky woods act as the background of buildings. The flowers have always been planted in fixed areas to form planned pictures. The best example is the queen’s parterre in Versailles. People take them for their specific colors and flexibility singly. In addition, these parterres are far from the buildings. In villa Lante, Farnese and Deste, the limited plants are just as the decoration of whole wonderful architecture. The main character in western royal gardens is architecture. People spend a lot of time in creating the styles of buildings. This is quite different from the Chinese gardens.

Influential factors of the differences

4.1 Geography

Different climate and soil are suitable for different plants. As we know, the climate of European land is moist because of the sea while the continental climate dominates Chinese land. So people choose plants which have germinated in their lands correspondingly. That is the basic reason why some plants are exclusive. In Chinese gardens there were bamboos and met sequoia while in western ones, there were coconuts and coffee trees which were scarcely found in Chinese ones.

Embraced by the Atlantic ocean, the Mediterranean sea, the Arctic ocean, the European land has advanced sea civilization which results in the practical function of water. The First western philosopher Thanes put up with such proposition “water is the origin of the world.” Therefore, there are many water channels in western gardens. At the same time, the fountain in ancient Greek has religious meaning. In the artificial pond, there is shrine to express respect to gods. This is different from the ponds, falls and lakes in Chinese gardens which have greater aesthetic function.

It is well-known that China has vast territory and abundant resources. Continental climate with few rain dominates the northern land and rainy monsoon climate are typical in Jiangna areas. So, northern land is more open where the royal gardens are more grand while the private gardens are featured with mist and rain. So ,the water in Chinese gardens has aesthetic value.

4.2 History

The religious power has great impacts on western royal gardens. The main manifestation lies in the relationship between the church gardens and royal gardens. At early stage, church gardens paid much attention to practical functions. So,there are many herb and vegetable gardens in western royal gardens. The good example is queen Mary’s small village garden in Versailles. When researching the western gardens, a Japanese professor started from the Eden paradise in Bible. “The first gardens were the resources of food for all creatures, which provided the pattern for the Eden garden or Chinese mythology.”(Anglade, 1990: 6-7)

Another main factor affecting western gardens is the divisive history of European land. Ancient Roman garden sprang up with the flourishing of Roman Empire. After its breakdown, the European land has divided into many small kingdoms. So, different countries have their own styles in garden history. The Italian and France royal gardens are rigorous and regular. Owing to their shared origins, all of them choose plants related to heroes in Bible, ancient Greece and Roman mythology, and common regular layout. Until the appearance of English scenery gardens, this traditional regular style has been replaced.

Because the relatively unified Chinese history, the styles of traditional gardens are similar. As the scenery landscape gardens, no matter the royal gardens or private and temple gardens, they have developed the poetic styles. When entering a garden, you just feel that you are walking into a painting or reading poetry. The best example is the garden built by Wang Wei, a poet in Tang dynasty.As the famous poets who is the remarkable representative of natural school, Wang Wei had built a large garden called Wangchuan Villa at the foot of Zhongnan mountain. The whole scenery in his garden let you feel the dense poetic romance.（Zhou Wuzhong, 2012: 33）

The relatively unified Chinese history resulted in the general authoritative thought—Confucianism. Since the Hanwu emperor banned all other schools, the Confucianism has been supreme for two thousand years. It advocates the coherence between nature and human， giving birth to the Chinese scenery landscape gardens which mimic natural scenery greatly. Private gardens in Jiangnan areas have developed as the bamboo after the rain because of the booming of business. The millionaires invited the most advanced builders and the prestigious Confucianism intellectuals as the consultants. After the booming of private gardens, in Ming and Qing dynasties, royal builders learned from the private gardens actively. Take emperor Qianlong as an example, he had traveled the Jiangnan areas many times and introduced many prestigious scenery spots into royal gardens. Therefor, all traditional gardens are affected by Confucianism greatly.

4.3 Religion and mythology

The western gardens were affected by religion and mythological stories more deeply than Chinese ones. In ancient times, religions had great impacts on all areas in the world because of the undeveloped productivity. But the theocracy had dominated the western world while the monarchical power was supreme in China. Most plants in western gardens are related to mythological stories. It is well-known that in the garden of Eden, after Eve ate the apple, she became wise. So the apple is also the fruit of wisdom while apple tree is widely planted in western gardens. According to the Bible, after the floods, the first Nora planted was the grape. So the grape is the symbol of hope and can be seen in many western gardens. The daffodil is the embodiment of Narcissus. The laurel is the embodiment of Daphne and the lily of Juno. These characters come from ancient Rome-Greek myths. In addition, in the early gardens, there were our axes which were said to symbolize the first four rivers of the world according to the Bible.

After the contention of a hundred schools of thought in Warring states period, the Confucianism have dominated the following feudal society. However, because the Confucianism had dominated the Chinese culture for a long time where Confucius said nothing weird. The main affluences from Buddhism and Taoism lie in the worship for lotus and mountain. In Buddhism, lotus is the symbol of Buddha. In addition, there are five great mountains in China. It is believed that different gods live in different great mountains in Taoism. So the mountains are inevitable in gardens no matter they are real or not. For instance,Putuo Mountain is the ashram of Guan yin; Wutai Mountain is the ashram of Wen shu buddha; E’mei Mountain is the ashram of Wen xian buddha and Jiuhua Mountain is the ashram of Di Zang wang buddha.The worship for mountain and stone have been prevailing for thousands years. Chinese people always use “Jiang shan” as the analogy of the country. From this, we can find a little trace about the worship for mountain in Chinese traditional culture. In Qing dynasty, Qing shi emperor led huge officials to Mountain Tai to hold worship ceremony because in culture, the mountains absorb the essence of heaven, earth, sun and moon and they are close to the gods mostly. As for the stone, ancient Chinese people regarded it as the bone of the heaven and earth. We know the book “A Dream in Red Mansion”, one of the Four Chinese Classical Novels, which was named “The Story of A Stone”. Because the was the experience of the stone which was made by Nv Wa to repair the heaven but not used. The land of China is wide where all kinds of stones existing in this wonderland.

4.4 Living values

In westerners’ philosophy, man are not inferior to nature. In Versailles, sculptors created a series of sculptures to tell mythological heroes. The main image used in garden is nude sculpture. The sculptures express many cultural meanings. Firstly, westerners like placing human statue as long as there natural landscape. It reflects the philosophy that they are equal to nature. They design every corner to show that they are initially but nature is passively. Secondly, we know that the stone is extremely hard to reshape. However, westerners succeed in it. They carve the stone into anything as long as they like according to their accurate calculation and perfect mathematics knowledge. What does that mean? It just means that they conquer nature with their power. It reflects they can harness nature. Westerners also like lawn very much. It seems that they have great confidence and gallantry to change nature. In addition, the industry revolutions are the best examples to show their philosophy—to conquer nature.

In China, when it comes to nature, people show great respect to it. Things in nature are endowed with the essence of heaven. Therefore, in Chinese culture, plants can be compared to humans. The plants people have in their gardens can express the worldly value, personality and pursuit of life. Correspondingly, those plants have their special cultural meanings. Such tradition is manifested in Jiangnan intellectual’s gardens clearly. Most of intellectuals have high fame in literature history like Su shunqing who once became the owner of the Canglang Pavilion; Wang Xianzhong to the Zhuozheng Garden, Liu shu to the Lingering Garden. Although the royal gardens are different from the private gardens, the emperors like Qianlong and Kangxi had extremely high cultural literacy. And the intellectuals were the main counselors of these gardens. Zhou dunyi, a Chinese essayist, liked lotus very much and in his famous essay “Reasons of Loving Lotus” where he compared the poney to the rich and lotus to the gentleman who have noble characteristics. Another example is the “Three Friends in Winter” which contain the prune flower, bamboo and pine tree. In Chinese traditional culture, these three plants represent brave and noble people especially in difficulties because they still keep green or blossom in cold weather while other plants wither.

In Chinese opinion, nature is the ideal home for people. Out of the proverb “the true hermit lives in the city”. So most classical gardens were built in the center of the city. But how to meet the intellectuals’ desire for mountain? They just build mountains in small size. Later, as the technology of piling up stones develops, builders combine stones into mountains. But the use of stone is just confined to such degree. Chinese gardens are built by man, but they remain natural to the maximize extent.

Chinese people praise the balance between nature and human. Therefore, elements in gardens are arranged according to their nature. For example, stone belongs to “yang” category; water belongs to “yin”; mountain belongs to “yang” and plant belongs to “yin”. So, real mountain are accompanied by water and plant. The good example is Longevity Mountain and Kun ming Lake. False mountain always is accompanied by fall.

5. Conclusion

Gardens are the great artistic production which contain plants, water, architectures in human history. As the basic element in gardens, plant represents different cultures. In term of choices of plant and their arrangement methods, the author compares the different scenery in Chinese and western royal gardens. Then, from the perspective of historical inheritance, cultural customs and the influences of religion and mythology, the author explores the reason why Chinese and western royal gardens have existed differences.

Different gardens reflect different cultures in the world. We can’t say which is better because both of them have their own highlights. They are created by people and in return, they provide enjoyment and inspiration for the people who build them. By the comparison, we see the different cultures in China and European countries, but we don’t say that the differences are the first. What we want most is that we can learn from each other and create better things for a better home.

Today, with the development of economy, many cities have built several parks. However, it is not difficult to find that most of the parks are failures. The designers combine elements from western parks without deep thoughts. They don’t care about whether these elements are appropriate for local environments and cultures or not. As the world has advanced greatly, people have better standard of living environment, studying gardens have broader significance in daily life.

Works Cited

Thacker, Christropher. The Histroy of Gardens. New Yoker: Mcgraw-Hill Press, 1988

Jellicoe, Geoffrey , Jellicoe, Susan, Goode, Patrick.: The Oxford Companion to Gardens. Oxford, New Yorker: Oxford University Press. 1991.155

Anglade, Pierre . Larousse Gardening and Gardens. London :The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited. 1990.8

陈奇相. 《西方园林艺术》. 北京：百花文艺出版社. 2010.

丁山. 《皇家园林》.北京： 中国建筑工业出版社， 2006

王玉晶，刘延江，王洪力.《中外园林景观赏析》.河北： 中国农业出版社, 2003.

针之谷钟吉. 《西方造园变迁史-从伊甸园到天然公园》. 河北：中国建筑工业出版社， 2011.

周维权. 《中国古典园林史》.北京： 清华大学出版社, 2011.

周武忠. 《理想家园-中西古典园林比较》. 南京：东南大学出版社， 2012.

周武忠, 陈筱燕. 《赏花说园》. 中国农业出版社. 1992.

剩余内容已隐藏，请支付后下载全文，论文总字数：26545字