In The Classical Gardens of Shanghai, Shelly Bryant looks at five of Shanghai’s remaining classical gardens through their origins, changing fortunes, restorations, and links to a wider Chinese aesthetic. Shanghai’s classical gardens are as much text as space; they exist in art, poetry, and literature as much as in stone, rock, and earth. But these gardens have not remained static entities. Rather, they have been remodelled constantly since their inception. This book reflects this process within the constancy of traditional Chinese horticulture and reveals Shanghai’s remaining classical gardens as places representing wealth and social status, social and dynastic shifts, through falling family fortunes and political revolutions to search for a recovery of China’s ancient culture in the modern day. “Like a classical Chinese garden, this admirable and beautifully balanced book conjures up wider landscapes from within a small compass. It can be savoured on many levels: poetic and aesthetic no less than scholarly and intellectual. It is the next best thing to being guided through such gardens by Shelly Bryant herself.” —Lynn Pan, author of When True Love Came to China and Shanghai Style

Discover the deep, ancient culture of Chinese gardening with this colorfully illustrated and informative book. How did designers from the ancient dynasties combine flowers, plants, buildings, and ponds to create a work of art that expressed the thoughts and views of their time? How much did Confucianism, Zen Buddhism and Taoism influence their aesthetics? Answers to these questions are in the illustrated pages of Discovering China: Classical Gardens in China, where over 15 gardens unfold to reveal the culture and history of a civilization. An overall introduction to China's gardens, Discovering China: Classical Garden in China will not only enlightened you on the aesthetics of the Chinese garden but inform you on its history over the course of several dynasties. Classical Gardens in China contains in-depth analysis of: Yuan Ming Yuan (Old Summer Palace) Chengde Mountain Resort Humble Administrator's Garden Lingering Garden Yu Yuan (Pleasure Garden) And many more…

You will gain deep insight not only into the art of gardening in China, but into its historical significance within the context of gardening and landscape design worldwide.".

Gardens are a type of landscape art created by the hands of human beings. Chinese gardens are not only one of China's traditional cultural treasures, but they are also a unique charm of human cultural heritage.Literati gardens occupy an essential position among Chinese gardens — one of the three major genres of gardens in the world. The reason why literati gardens occupy an important position in classical Chinese gardens, and even in the entire system of traditional Chinese culture and art, lies in their exquisite architecture, exotic flowers and whimsical stones available for the exploration and appreciation of the literati. More significantly, gardens have provided a venue of daily life, academic writings, artistic creation, social gatherings, and other cultural activities for ancient Chinese scholars. Consequently, a wealth of traditional Chinese cultural factors is embedded in the intricate art of landscape architecture. The constant integration and interaction of traditional Chinese culture and gardens have in turn nurtured a unique Chinese garden culture.Chinese gardens are a critical embodiment of Chinese culture, distinctly exemplifying the ancient Chinese patriarchal system, the cosmology, the personality ideal, and other cultural elements. The evolution of the cultural history of Chinese gardens is in harmony with the overall process of the Chinese cultural history.This book describes the major genres, the characteristics, and the formation of classical Chinese gardens — as well as the relationship between classical Chinese gardens and classical Chinese culture and arts — in a more succinct, plain language. The publisher believes that this book will certainly provide the reader with an authentic and comprehensive overview of the Chinese garden culture.Published by SCPG Publishing Corporation and distributed by World Scientific for all markets except China

Suzhou, near Shanghai, is among the great garden cities of the world. The city's masterpieces of classical Chinese garden design, built from the eleventh through the nineteenth centuries, attract thousands of visitors each year and continue to influence international design. In The Gardens of Suzhou, landscape architect and scholar Ron Henderson guides visitors through seventeen of these gardens. The book explores UNESCO world cultural heritage sites such as the Master of the Nets Garden, Humble Administrator's Garden, Lingering Garden, and Garden of the Peaceful Mind, as well as other lesser-known but equally significant gardens in the Suzhou region. Unlike the acclaimed religious and imperial gardens found elsewhere in Asia, Suzhou's gardens were designed by scholars and intellectuals to be domestic spaces that drew upon China's rich visual and literary tradition, embedding cultural references within the landscapes. The elements of the gardens confront the visitor: rocks, trees, and walls are pushed into the foreground to compress and compact space, as if great hands had gathered a mountainous territory of rocky cliffs, forests, and streams, then squeezed it tightly until the entire region would fit into a small city garden. Henderson's commentary opens Suzhou's gardens, with their literary and musical references, to non-Chinese visitors. Drawing on years of intimate experience and study, he combines the history and spatial organization of each garden with personal insights into their rockeries, architecture, plants, and waters. Fully illustrated with newly drawn plans, maps, and original photographs, The Gardens of Suzhou invites visitors, researchers, and designers to pause and observe astonishing works from one of the world's greatest garden design traditions.

The Splendid Chinese Garden is an illustrated guide to the classic gardens of China. It explains the history of the garden, the traditions and beliefs they represent, their aesthetic and the techniques used to create them. Also included are chapters that survey the great gardens of China, the gardens tourists love to visit and gardeners dream of seeing and exploring. Chinese Gardens in the South of the Yangtze River: Ge Garden (Yangzhou) He Yuan, also known as Jixiao Shan Zhuang (Yangzhou) Zhan Garden (Nanjing) Jichang Garden (Wuxi) Humble Administrator's Garden (Suzhou) Lingering Garden (Suzhou) Master of the Nets Garden (Suzhou) Lion Grove Garden (Suzhou) Chinese Gardens in the North of the Yangtze River: Yihe Garden or the Summer Palace (Beijing) Beihai Park (Beijing) Jingyi Garden in Xiangshan Mountain (Beijing) Imperial Garden, Palace Museum (Beijing) The Back Garden of the Prince Gong Mansion (Beijing)