A Study On Zheng Family Gardens And Literature In Yangzhou In The 17th And 18th Centurie

The Zheng surname family in Yangzhou was a salt merchant in the Ming and Qing Dynasties with landscape gardening lasting for more than 100 years.The Ying Garden and Xiu Garden by Zheng surname family were quite representative in the gardens of the same period in Yangzhou.Zheng surname family’s gardens are also an important literary writing object and place for cultural activities.On the one hand,Zheng surname family’s gardens owners were devoted to the literary writing of the garden.On the other hand,cultural activities in Zheng surname family’s gardens were frequent.Many literati and refined scholars gathered here,created many literary and artistic works about Zheng surname family’s gardens.In this paper,related literary and artistic works and cultural activities about Zheng surname family’s gardens as the research object,relevant analysis was made from the two dimensions of time and space.Time dimension: combined with the era background of Zheng surname family’s gardens,through in-depth study of literary works and cultural activities on Zheng surname family’s gardens,we can have a restricted view on the style of literati garden writing and garden cultural activities during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.Space dimension: space theory was applied,the characteristics and implication of Zheng surname family’s gardens as geographical space,social activity space and literary space were analyzed.The above two dimensions were combined to restore the literary view of Zheng surname family’s gardens in three dimensions,and unveil its value and significance in garden literature and culture.This paper is divided into five chapters for discussion.In the first chapter,the historical scene and geographical space of Zheng surname family’s gardens were restored.The Zheng surname family’s gardens were constructed under the background of the social ideological trend of "from merchants to scholars" and the popularity of gardening in Yangzhou since the Ming Dynasty.Gardening is an inevitable way for the Zheng surname family to realize the transformation.The Ying Garden only experienced Zheng Yuanxun generation,and the Xiu Garden experienced five generations of inheritance;Secondly,the construction and renovation process of the Ying Garden and the Xiu Garden were textually researched,and the questions related to the construction time,landscape naming,designer and so on about Ying Garden were clarified;Third,through the existing garden literature,it was found that the style of the Ying Garden conforms to the "Southern Sect " painting mood advocated by Dong Qichang in the late Ming Dynasty.The Xiu Garden has the characteristics of flowing space and simple and natural aesthetic style;Finally,solicitude was shown for the fallen fate and the owner change of Ying Garden and Xiu Garden due to the misfortune of the Zheng surname family.In the second chapter,literary society and cultural activities in Zheng surname family’s gardens were studied,and the identity characteristics of visitors in the Ying Garden and Xiu Garden were analyzed;the contents of cultural activities and the organization form of scholars gathering activities in Zheng surname family’s gardens were researched;the development thread of cultural activities in Zheng surname family’s gardens was clarified from a diachronic perspective,and the evolution of Zheng surname family’s gardens as cultural role from the late Ming Dynasty to the middle term Qing Dynasty was discussed,that is,from the garden with the dual nature of privateness and publicity to the private garden with emphasis on the inward-inclined development of individuals and families;Making acquaintances with the Ying Garden as the intermediary has played a certain role in paving the way for the success of the Zheng surname family in the imperial examination;The Huangmudan poetry society in Ying Garden has multiple meanings: it is not only the public appearance of Zheng’s cultural-based family,but also the basis for the Fushe to exert its own influence.At the same time,the works of Huangmudan poetry society also reflect the feelings of scholars concerned about the country and the people in the late Ming Dynasty.In the third chapter,through the close reading of the text,literary writing on Zheng surname family’s gardens was deeply analyzed.The main types of literary writing on Zheng surname family’s gardens are: garden view reproduction,garden history record,garden view narration and intoning,garden residence life and literary society description.Through literary writing,Zheng surname family’s gardens has been sublimated from geographical space to personal soul space,a carrier of family cultural symbol and collective memory.In the relationship structure of " literati —garden—literature",a mutual explanation relationship was formed between the owner and the garden through literary writing,so as an interpretation relationship between the visitor,garden and the owner pairwise.Due to the different relationship between "owner— garden" and "visitor-garden",the literary writing of garden is different: in terms of landscape presentation,the writing of garden owner is a little more natural,and the writing of garden visitor is more general.In terms of the expression of garden aesthetic concept,the garden owner is more "truthfulness and beauty",and the garden guest is more "goodness and beauty".Through a careful study of Zheng Xiaru and Zheng Xiji’s garden life and literary writing in Xiu Garden,it can be found that they show the characteristics of "Xiu" and "not Xiu" and "Wandering between advance and retreat" respectively,which can reflect the malposition between garden and literature.Literature divulges the mental world of the creator covered under the external garden pattern and garden residence style.In the fourth chapter,the artistic presentation of Zheng surname family’s gardens is analyzed."Poems depicting landscape" in "Yangzhou Xiu Garden Annals" are a combination of literary writing and image presentation,which have both literary value and image value."Poems depicting landscape" play a role in enriching the implication of gardens,deepening the connotation of garden culture,placing the garden owner’s residence concept and interest in life,establishing the dialogue scene between the owner and the visitors,and guiding the visitors from the content conception to the artistic conception.Through the depicted records of written words of Zheng surname family’s gardens,the information such as the content of depiction,the relationship between depiction and garden,the garden owner’s preference in aesthetic tendency of classic elegance can be obtained,and the ideal of "Preservation of the garden" can be realized.Wang Yun’s painting of Xiu Garden showed the peculiarities of Zheng’s cultural-based family from different viewpoints through the depicted presentation of garden landscape,character images,indoor implements and garden birds,by which the aesthetic characteristics of appropriate movement and static,open and abstruse was reflected.The "intertextuality" relationship was formed between text and picture,which jointly built the words and picture system of Zheng surname family’s gardens.In the fifth chapter,Zheng surname family’s gardens were viewed from the perspective of history.By comparing Zheng surname family’s gardens with Yangzhou garden community in the 18 th century,the historical thread of the transition of Yangzhou garden style from the late Ming Dynasty to the middle term Qing Dynasty-"traditional literati garden ——literati garden from North and South-Garden community with imperial temperament" can be constructed.Based on the relationship between literati and garden,the former is "integration of literati and garden" and the latter is "separation of literati and garden".The difference between the two types of relationship also caused the difference of literary writing.The "Yangzhou nostalgia" model created by Bao Zhao in the Southern Dynasty was continued in literary writing of Zheng surname family’s,by which imagery and connotation were sublimated.Zheng surname family’s gardens culture not only present the characteristics of "romance in late Ming Dynasty " and " prosperity in Yangzhou",but also a unique "Zheng surname family" characteristics.