Study On The Garden Design Aesthetics Of Jiangnan Literati In Late Ming Dynasty

The abnormal changes of politic, the unprecedented prosperity of economy, themajor breakthrough of philosophy and the deepening even peak of garden art in lateMing dynasty prompted many Jiangnan literati to abandon the tradition of valuing Daobut despising Qi and unprecedentedly active in the field of garden design andconstruction. These Jiangnan literati in late Ming dynasty engaged in the theoreticalwriting based on their own design experiences. Therefore, many theoretical writingswhich specially and systematically touched on the design and construction of gardenappeared, such as Yuan Ye, Zhang Wu Zhi, Xian Qing Ou Ji and so on.Jiangnan literati in later Ming dynasty not only expounded the principles ofgarden design, the techniques of garden construction, but also brightly expressed theiraesthetic ideals and spiritual pursuit of garden art in their theoretical writings aboutgarden design. There were rich and profound aesthetic thoughts in Jiangnan literati’stheoretical writings about garden design in later Ming dynasty. Due to inheriting thephilosophy and aesthetics of Confucian’s middlebrow and neutralization and thecreations design idea of “suitable” in early ancient times, Jiangnan literati in later Mingdynasty upheld the design concept of “suitable” in garden design and construction inorder to make the gardens which were designed and constructed can be suitable forhuman habitation and meet people’s basic living needs in function, wonderfully meetpeople’s spiritual and cultural demands in aesthetic, save and reduce costs as much aspossible, not to place financial burdens on garden master in economy. By adhering tothe traditional culture that advocating “elegant” and demeaning “vulgar” of Confucianand Taoists and the classical humanism that advocating and valuing “elegant” of literati, facing the severe shock that is thriving culture of ordinary people to the cultureof literati, Jiangnan literati in later Ming dynasty enshrined the taste of “elegant” ingarden design and construction. The “elegant” which was enshrined by Jiangnanliterati in later Ming dynasty contained rich aesthetic connotations, but it could beroughly divided into three kinds of aesthetic paradigm that “Qing Ya”,“WenYa” and“Dan Ya”. Under the influence of the traditional “Natural” concept with harmonycharacteristic of heaven and man and the traditional art spirits that putting “natural” asaesthetic ideal, Jiangnan literati in later Ming dynasty took “natural” as the most idealaesthetic realm of garden design and construction. About the realization of naturalaesthetic realm in garden, Jiangnan literati in later Ming dynasty put forward twoimportant principles or approaches which were following-adapting to the nature andlearning from nature-creating nature wonderfully. Under the influence of the artistictradition that ancient literati advocating innovation, and inspired by the prevailingphilosophy trend that pursuing liberation of individuality and freedom of spirit,Jiangnan literati in later Ming dynasty tried to advocate surpassing predecessors’ oldthreadbare, pursuing novelty, originality and change in garden art. They not onlypursed novelty in garden format, strived to innovate in gardening techniques, but alsocreatively followed the artistic conception of painting.Can be seen from the style in garden design works of Ji Cheng, Li Yu and WenZhenheng who were the typical representatives of Jiangnan literati gardener in laterMing dynasty, their garden design aesthetics such as “suitable”,“elegant”,“natural”and “innovative” were truthfully and perfectly used, implemented and penetrated intheir garden design practices.It is unprecedented in Chinese classical garden cultural history that the gardendesign aesthetics of Jiangnan literati in later Ming dynasty was not only the theoreticalanalysis which directed toward garden design and construction, but also was full oforganization, with a certain system, even condensed Chinese traditional philosophyand traditional design ideas as well as the essence and meaning of traditional poetryand painting. Their garden design aesthetics were full of literary, formed a unique literati garden design culture which was different from the court and the folk. Thisunique garden design culture leaded people’s aesthetic trend in garden art in this era, aswell as had a certain effect on improving people’s aesthetic level in this era. The finaldestination of Jiangnan literati’s garden design aesthetics in later Ming dynasty was“human”, the real individual, flashing a brilliant of modern humanism. At the sametime, it outlined and created an artistic lifestyle, had some similarities with the theoryof daily life aestheticism which is prevailing in contemporary, also had a certainimpact on people’s garden design ideas in Qing Dynasty.Although the time of people building classical gardens for comfortable dwellinghave gone forever, when today’s urban environmental design increasingly highlightsmany problems such as wantonly destructing the natural ecology, neglecting theharmonious beauty of urban environment, blindly copying foreign design style,excessively pursuing the visual appearance, Jiangnan literati’s garden design aestheticsin later Ming dynasty doubtless has important implications.