What is the meaning of poetry and painting?

People like to describe the beauty of China gardens with poetic images. Indeed, in the development of traditional gardens in China, garden art has established a close relationship with its neighbors-landscape painting and pastoral poetry. Landscape painting theory is often used in landscape layout, layout of buildings and sketches, and planting of flowers and trees. However, the conception of artistic conception and the couplets of landscape themes are often inspired by landscape pastoral poems. This special relationship makes the landscape beauty of China garden art often exude strong poetry. However, it also led to the neglect of the theoretical research of ancient garden art. In gardening, the ancients often borrowed some theories of poetry and painting at will and did not establish their own theoretical system for a long time. Even some original theories are scattered in some literati's notes and essays. It was not until the end of the Ming Dynasty that the theoretical research of garden creation was gradually paid attention to. Looking at the research summary of some gardeners and theorists in Qing Dynasty and modern times, the author sums up the basic techniques of China's garden gardening into four sentences: adapting to local conditions, conforming to nature, giving priority to mountains and rivers, having a dual structure, being legal but intangible, focusing on comparison, borrowing scenery for scenery and extending space.

First, adjust measures to local conditions and conform to nature.

According to local conditions, that is, according to different base conditions, there are mountains and mountains, and water depends on water, and fully grasping the beauty of natural scenery for our use is actually conforming to nature in garden planning and layout. Another meaning of conforming to nature is to shape the landscape in the garden according to the formation law of natural landscape, so that the landscape in the garden is full of natural and naive charm. The main purpose of garden art is to create (or transform) the beauty of landscape, making it more concentrated, more exquisite and more convenient to watch. The mountains and rivers of the motherland are graceful, especially those traditional scenic spots that have been evaluated by predecessors. They are beautiful without mountains and water. Beautiful natural scenery provides inexhaustible materials for garden creation, but gardening is not simply to imitate nature and reproduce the original, but a practical process of shaping more beautiful scenery than natural scenery through artistic labor with landscape elements such as mountains, rivers, flowers and trees and buildings. This requires artists to seriously summarize the different forms of natural beauty and its formation laws as the basis for their artistic creation.

"Lively splash" is the water pavilion across the stream in the west of Suzhou Lingering Garden, and it is also the end of the stream scene. A clear stream slowly flows out of the maple forest, and you disappear there, as if through the pavilion. Although the water has stopped, it is still moving. Flowing water, small pavilions and verdant hilltops are full of liveliness and vitality of natural scenery, which is really a wonderful idea of artificial creation in garden landscaping, and it is indeed appropriate to use the title "Lively Spilling the Ground". Si Kongtu, a poetic theorist in the Tang Dynasty, wrote in his poem: "Angry and lively. Lively and full of energy, the spirit is exposed, away from paper. " In order to achieve the artistic effect of "although it is artificial, it is necessary to make the garden full of vitality and organize the landscape naturally". This is the scene of "lively splashing on the ground". The small building is placed in a rockery and hill surrounded by Yellowstone, with streams flowing out in twists and turns and maple trees standing on both sides of the river. If you take a nap here on a crisp autumn day, you will definitely feel full of life and refreshed.

Specifically, the law of landscape art in dealing with mountains and rivers (that is, overlapping mountains and managing water) is "the mountains are expensive with veins, the water is expensive with energy, the veins are general, and the whole garden is vivid". In fact, mountains have pulse potential and water flows actively, which is the most common law of natural landscape. If the mountains in the garden are mixed into a pile without context, and the water in the garden is passive stagnant water, then even if the pavilions are exquisitely designed and there are many kinds of flowers and trees, the whole garden will not be vivid. Therefore, the first step in gardening is to determine the direction of the mountain, dredge the water source in the garden and let the mountains and rivers blend naturally. If the garden is built in a natural mountain forest, it should be built according to the pulse of natural mountains and rivers, which is what Ji Cheng said in the Ming Dynasty: "There are heights and depressions, curves and depths, overhangs and levels, openness and frankness, and it has its own natural interest". If the garden is built on the flat ground, it should also be "ploughed up and dug down" so that the whole garden can be coordinated and unified according to the needs of the scenery.

Cui Yongshan Villa is a natural slope of Huqiu Mountain outside Suzhou, which rises step by step according to the mountain situation. The garden gate faces south, and more than ten simple bluestone steps lead tourists into the simple garden gate shaded by green trees. There are three porch houses in the door, built among the ancient trees on the hill. It was a view of a small building in a deep mountain. Not far from Xuanbei, there is a raised platform. The pavilion on the platform is called "hot spring", which forms a corner with Xuanwu and a steep hillside. It is a small building that guides tourists to climb mountains, which not only increases the spatial level before and after the small garden, but also leads people's attention to high places. On the west and north sides of the pavilion, there are rockeries piled with lake stones under the cliff of Zhenshan, which are connected with each other, and flowers and trees such as oleander, crape myrtle, Pinus bungeana and pomegranate are planted in the middle. The garden wall is hidden among rocks and flowers and is not conspicuous. The scenery in the park is integrated with the natural forest scenery outside the park, which is full of vitality and interest. When natural rocks and artificial trails overlap slightly and come to the platform of the main building, you will see a lush scenery at the foot of Tiger Hill. Looking up, it is the majestic tiger hill. According to the context of the natural landscape, the artificial small garden is in harmony with the big landscape. Cui Yongshan Villa adds color to the famous Tiger Hill scenery, and the Gu Shan Tower in Tiger Hill has also become an indispensable borrowing scene for the small garden.

"Ask the canal to be so clear, because there is running water at the source." The basic relationship between mountains and rivers in landscape architecture is that "mountains are born of water, and water turns with mountains". Only flowing water can bring vitality to the mountains; Only the water with vitality can vividly reflect the landscape of the garden. If the water in the garden is a stagnant pool, it will rot and deteriorate, and there is no natural beauty at all. For this reason, Ji Cheng pointed out in "Gardening and Metallurgy": In the early stage of gardening, it is necessary to "investigate its source, drain its source and examine its source water". As long as natural water is introduced, it is easier to obtain living water. Such as the cold spring in Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou and Er Quan in Jichang Garden in Wuxi. In a garden with land, the source of the spring itself is a very good scene, such as the difficult old spring in Jinci, Taiyuan, and the Baotu Spring in Daming Lake, Jinan. In some gardens, the larger water surface is used as the city's regulating water source and livestock reservoir, such as Kunming Lake in the Summer Palace in Beijing. Urban gardens should also clear water roads and enter natural rivers. Portal bridges and pavilions in ancient gardens were set up to control the outer river and the inner water (such as A Dream of Red Mansions). In some urban gardens, there is really no way to connect living surface water, so gardeners will drill several wells in the deepest part of the stream pool according to local conditions to connect the surface water in the garden with underground living water to ensure the vitality of water. This method is often used to save water in areas with high groundwater level in the south of the Yangtze River.

Su Dongpo, who loves scenery, once commented on the architecture and plant landscape in the garden. Plants and trees are like famous festivals, and over time. "It means that as long as you have money, the terrace building can be built immediately. However, the flowers and trees in the garden can not grow immediately, and it takes more than ten years or decades to grow. It can be seen that the poet attaches importance to garden plants. Green is the color of life. If there are no plants in the garden, it will become lifeless. Therefore, flowers and trees are necessary factors to make the landscape lively and lovely.

The planting of garden plants, like landscape, should conform to nature. The principle of planting flowers and trees in ancient Chinese gardens is to let them grow naturally without artificial constraints. Therefore, in ancient gardens, you can hardly see the straight roads, trees trimmed into geometric shapes and very symmetrical and regular flower beds in western gardens. Almost all the plants in the garden are stretched and full of business. They often cross together, just like in Shan Ye. In Gu Zhuo, the old trees that can draw postures, as well as various flowers and fruits that can be changed at any time, such as peaches, plums, begonia, persimmons and other fruit trees, reflect each other in the garden, adding a lot of natural flavor to the scenery in Shan Ye. In some urban gardens in Suzhou, people can also enjoy the wild interest of "old elm trees near the shore, weeping willows near the water, and secluded trees coming out" (two islands on the pool in the middle of the Humble Administrator's Garden) and the urban forest landscape of "maple leaves full of trees, peach Liu Yin" (hills in the west of the garden).

Another manifestation of plant configuration adapting to local conditions and conforming to nature is not seeking the preciousness and completeness of varieties. Some common tree species in rural Shan Ye, such as elm, locust, poplar, willow and ginkgo, are all guests in the garden. It's some lower plants, such as moss on the stone, compound stone winding like a net on the fake mountain peak, books and grass growing in the gap under the stone, small shrubs and Indocalamus growing on the ground, which can also be seen everywhere in the garden. They not only increase the natural interest of mountain scenery, but also play the role of "Tibetans", covering up some traces left by axes and chisels, and are good helpers to create natural and vivid garden landscapes.

Second, landscape orientation, dual structure

Garden art is the final product and three-dimensional landscape image, and there is no doubt that natural scenery such as mountains and rivers and nymphs are its main parts. Although small courtyards in some cities seem to be completely surrounded by buildings, in these small scenes, buildings seem to occupy a large proportion. Actually, it is not. At this time, the corridors, pavilions and pavilions in the building are mostly a kind of background, which only plays the role of foil. The main objects people watch are the stone peaks, flowers and trees in front of the corridor wall. With them, this building space can be called courtyard. Therefore, the first step of garden creation is to shape the landscape.

Beijing Yuanmingyuan is a masterpiece of China classical gardens and also a masterpiece in the history of world gardens. Its scenery is characterized by "borrowing the western hills from the water", which shows that the real mountains are only borrowed from the garden as a long-term vision, and the main scenery still comes from the artificially created landscape topography. During the construction of Yuanmingyuan, Yong Zhengdi summed up the experience of shaping the landscape with 16 buildings: "Because of the height and depth, the mountains and waters are close, and the pavilions are suitable for each other". The generalization of the words 16 has won the gist of "adapting to local conditions and being natural", which shows that the construction of large-scale royal gardens is also based on the depth of mountains and rivers, so that mountains and rivers are adjacent. This artificially shaped landscape is the skeleton of garden landscape. Without the landscape skeleton, the plain at the foot of Xishan Mountain has no ornamental value. The reason why the scenery of Yuanmingyuan will amaze Chinese and foreign tourists is that gardeners have applied traditional gardening techniques to dig lakes, seas and streams on the flat ground and piled up endless rockeries. On this basis, they arranged pavilions and other buildings in appropriate locations to create ever-changing scenery. There was a French priest named Zhicheng, who used to be a painter in the Qing court and enjoyed the landscape of Yuanmingyuan very much. He believes that the level and change of landform depends on this terrain. "The artificially piled hills of seven or eight meters to tens of meters high have formed countless small valleys. There are rivers and ponds in the valley, and various buildings form a lovely whole with flower beds and flowing springs ... After passing the pavilion, drilling into the cave, it is another valley, and the terrain and architecture are completely different from the previous one. "

The big garden is like this, and so is the small garden. Suzhou Huanxiu Mountain Villa is a small garden with only one acre of land, which benefits from the superb skills of Ge, a famous gardener in Qing Dynasty. In this limited area, the undulating terrain dominated by rockeries and supplemented by streams has been shaped, making the small garden look simple and natural. The main peak is in Dong Chi, with two peaks. The mountain in front stands out from the water. Although it is not high, it is a magnificent boulder. It is an extremely overlapping cliff top with holes in the mountain. The back peak is a little short, and there is a ravine cliff between the two peaks, in which there are several ancient trees, and the scenery is gloomy. In addition to these two peaks, there are several small peaks around sanitation. The whole rockery is made of lake stones with distinct layers. The peaks and stone walls tilt slightly to the southwest, and the texture of the lake stone gives people the feeling of a real mountain. The back mountain is in the northwest of the stream, and the water is the stone cliff. The distance between the stone wall and the front mountain is only 1 m, forming a canyon about 5 meters deep, which strengthens the preciseness of the mountain shape. The mountains have veins, the water moves, the water flows through the mountains, the mountains live by water, and the water turns around the mountains, which makes the small garden landscape close at hand show abundant vitality and become the treasure of China classical garden art.

It can be seen that in the overall layout of the garden, the design of landscape topography is extremely important. Whether the scenery is natural and naive, whether it has wild interest, whether it has twists and turns, and whether it has infinite meaning is directly related to this.

However, terrain shaping and landscape layout are only the first structural level of gardening, and only landscapes can be built, but tours cannot be organized. Appreciating garden art is different from appreciating landscape painting. Landscape painting is a plane representation of mountains and rivers. People just need to face it and have a look, while visiting the garden must follow the tour route and enter the artwork to appreciate it. If there is only one-story structure, no roads and bridges, and no designed tour route, we can only "see" the forest like a big bonsai, not to mention daily activities such as reading, entertainment, play and life in the garden. In order to make the garden truly meet the function of sightseeing and life, it is necessary to add roads, bridges, corridors, halls, pavilions and platforms to the skeleton of the landscape structure. This layer structure, on the one hand, is the need to organize tour routes and guide people to appreciate, on the other hand, it can better "complete" the first layer landscape structure. The pavilions and pavilions in the Elephant Garden are of course indispensable places for people to enjoy the scenery and have a rest. Their light shapes and gorgeous colors are dotted between rocks and trees, which can really add some charm to the scenery. Therefore, only by adding a two-story structure, organizing tours, setting up viewing spots for various activities, and integrating them with the landscape structure, can the garden art be perfected.

Suzhou Huanxiu Mountain Villa is steep, but if there is no access to the mountain and there are no pavilions in the scenic area, this half-acre rockery will become a huge rock bonsai, and its artistic charm will be greatly reduced. In fact, the reason why the rockery around the show is valued by Chinese and foreign gardeners is inseparable from the proper arrangement of downstream roads and ingenious architectural layout. This point is described in detail in the article Suzhou Huanxiu Mountain Villa by landscape architect Chen Congzhou: "The main mountain is located in the east of the garden, and the back side is surrounded by water. There is a floating pavilion in the northwest corner of the pool, facing Xue Feiquan, named Hot Spring. From the southwest of the pavilion, cross the Sanqu Bridge into the cliff road and bend into the valley. There is a stream coming from the northwest and passing through the cliff valley. Through the skylight of the cave, stalactites hang down, tread stones and roads, cross Liang Shi, and the valley is guarded by people, while the shadow is covered by people. And a bridge spans, and it wants to fly and converge. The flying snow spring and the stone wall are looming like screens, which is the so-called "landscape" of the gardener. Follow the top of the mountain, reach the main peak, cross the cave and cross the flying bridge. As for the back hill, there is a pavilion on the pillow hill, a well with half a pond and autumn water, and a spring comes out. The mountain road is getting lower and lower, and the peaks and stones are wrong, making up the autumn boat. The east and west gates are called "Ningqing" and "Yaobi", which can sum up the scenery of the whole park. In the west is the stone wall of Xue Feiquan, and there are stepping stones in the stream, which are dangerous and wonderful. "

Rockery cliffs, caves, valleys, flying springs, dangerous roads, dangerous bridges, cliffs, stone chambers, etc. No individual travel is not enjoyed. This small rockery, which covers an area of half an acre and has a mountain path of more than 60 meters, is winding and winding, stringing together the essence of mountains and rivers, so that the exquisite and ever-changing beauty of the rockery can be seen at a glance. Coupled with pavilions, houses, pavilions, boats and other buildings, the two structural levels have reached a perfect unity in this small garden.

Qionghua Island and Baita Mountain in Beijing Beihai Park are popular landscape. Its beauty also lies in the mutual foil and mutual reflection of landscape and architecture. At the foot of Tashan Mountain, there are many stone tablets, one of which is "West of Tashan Mountain" carved by Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty. There is such a passage on it: "The house has its advantages, the mountain has its twists and turns, and the water has its waves. Therefore, the water will not be clear without twists and turns, the mountain will not be spiritual without twists and turns, and the house will not be emotional without disputes. However, the room can't consider itself superior. Therefore, because of the mountain, its interest is always good. " This summary of landscape architecture is very insightful. The general law of the combination of topography and architecture is described, which relies on each other, sets off each other and complements each other. The Baita of Miaoying Temple in the north of Fuchengmen Inner Street in Xicheng District is much higher than the Baita of Beihai (the largest existing Lama Temple in China), but it looks far less outstanding and beautiful. The key reason is that there are no undulating mountains to rely on and no beautiful garden environment to match. Imagine that if Qionghua Island does not have a mountain forest with rich terrain to provide a base for all kinds of garden buildings, then the towering towers on the mountain, the semi-circular promenade and waterside pavilion in the north, the pavilions perched on the peak, and the cloud walls undulating along the terrain, just like a mirage, lack the foundation of existence. Similarly, Qionghua Island would be so famous if it were just an ordinary island and a mountain in the water without the decoration of these buildings.