Study On Design Theories Of Jiangnan Gardens In The Ming And Qing Dynasty

In the Ming and Qing Dynasty, as a media for the literati to pursuit the highest realm in life and as an ideal location to expand life, the housing and gardening in the South of the Yangtze River has long been regarded as the typical representative as well as the core substance of traditional Chinese private gardens. It compensates an idealism pursuit which is not available in real life. Meanwhile, it bears leisure life precincts from the delight of hills and woods. Therefore, it possesses both characteristics of Metaphysics and Dialecticism.Tradition itself can by no means be the motivation of culture creation. There is inevitably a tendency of formalization when we learn from our tradition. To lead creation out of tradition, mere imitation of the past is far from being satisfactory. We should, moreover, inherit our tradition in its entirety, from perception to reasonableness, based on the inwardness of logic. We should not, however, just fully reappear the characteristics of tradition in a simple way.As stated above, this thesis puts the argumentation in two parts. At the beginning of the first part, it attempts to analyze the interrelationship among the three catalogues of "words", "images" as well as "conceptions", with the background of Chinese classical logic. Based on this, it elucidates the creation of artistic conception for the traditional housing and gardening in the South of Yangtze River, that is, as two key elements of gardening noumenon, "words" and "images" surround the creation of "conceptions". They are reciprocal and mutually guided, demonstrating separation as well as combination. Through the interaction of "words" and "images", the creation of "conceptions" in the process of garden production and appreciation is more pellucidly unfolded. On the foundation of previous argumentation, this thesis intends to delve into the study of "building landscape from ambience" as well as "enlightening spirit from ambience", two of the design thoughts embodied in Yuan Ye. With the resources from gardening-related works, this thesis proposes to expound the design thoughts of the traditional housing and gardening in the South of the Yangtze River. Eventually, illustrated with instances, it analyses the process of thoughts in dealing with traditional gardening in modern times.For the second part:in the first place, by means of combing out the documentary works, the thesis analyzes and summarizes the gardening activities of the literati, and further more delves their primary influence in the forming process of gardening space. Next, the thesis explains the formation of gardening space, with references from present scholars'researches on dealing with traditional gardening space. In the end, it introduces western vision psychology theories, and illustrates the balanced relationship of dynamics as well as the mentality of tranquility and racket in gardening space. In what way the tradition can be transferred and planted in modern times has become a pressing problem inviting researches. The concluding part of the thesis demonstrates the author's understanding and views on how to protect and inherit the traditional gardens in the South of the Yangtze River, with special emphasis on the lack of "conceptions" and copying of form in inheriting traditional gardens.Researches on the past are indispensable in present studies. Only through combination and reconstruction of the tradition genes and modern elements can the creation of gardens come into full bloom.