Aesthetic Study Of The Literati Gardens In Song Dynasty

Literati gardens are gardens with morale or literary spirit.Literary or poetic and pictorial favour is the artistic characteristics of literati gardens,but also an important difference between literati gardens and other types of gardens.Literati gardens in Song Dynasty are not only the representative of gardens in Song Dynasty,but also the model of classical gardens in China.They are the perfect combination of nature and art,natural and artificial.The so-called aesthetic study of literati gardens in Song Dynasty is mainly from the perspective of aesthetics,namely,aesthetic origin,aesthetic noumenon,aesthetic characteristics and aesthetic realm of literati gardens in Song Dynasty.The aesthetic appreciation of literati gardens in Song Dynasty originated from the thought of Zhongyin.Since the Western Han Dynasty,private gardens began to be separated from imperial gardens and developed greatly in the Wei,Jin,Sui and Tang Dynasties.The development and aesthetic generation of private gardens mainly originated from the reclusive behavior and ideas of literatis.In the mid-Tang Dynasty,Bai Juyi first put forward and practiced the concepts of Zhongyin.The so-called way of Zhongyin is both to be official and recluse.The literatis of Song Dynasty did not have the mood of prosperity in the Tang Dynasty.Officials and hermits constituted the dual personality of scholar-bureaucrats in Song Dynasty.They generally accepted Bai Juyi’s thought of Zhongyin and built up the peace and stability in gardens along the way of Zhongyin.Zhongyin was the core spirit and concept of literati gardens in Song Dynasty,and influenced the art and aesthetic development direction of literati gardens.The aesthetic noumenon of literati gardens in Song Dynasty is landscape.The so-called “landscape” is not the landscape in contemporary landscape architecture or geography,but the integration of mind and object,scenery and emotion.It is similar to the artistic conception but not completely identical,and the artistic concept ion strengthens the empty mind.The landscape of gardens is a real one,while the landscape of other works of art is a virtual one.Gardens are composed of mountains,stones,water bodies,buildings,flowers and trees.The use and treatment of these elements in Song Dynasty’s literati gardens are different from those in the previous dynasty.Artificial rockery,single stone peaking,Quan Dou waterfall,pavilions and pavilions of various shapes,tea and sand planting appreciation and configuration are the technical and artistic innovation and characteristics of literati gardens in the Song Dynasty.Beyond the scenery,literati gardens in Song Dynasty also paid great attention to the expression of “view”.In gardens,feelings and aspirations were often expressed by theme parks,plaques and couplets.The aesthetic landscape of literati gardens in Song Dynasty is based on the philosophy of harmony between man and nature,the thought of Bi-de and the theory of Gan-ying.It has three characteristics: unity,generationand transcendence.The“manandnature”concepct of neo-confucianism in Song dynasty means the unity of subject and object,the integration of individual life and cosmic life,and the integration of man and heaven and earth;Bi-de is the spiritual link between aesthetic subject and object,the relationship between scenery and view,and the integration;induction is embodied as the combination of subject and object,and the interaction between scenery and emotion.The aesthetic characteristics of literati gardens in Song Dynasty are concise and far-reaching.The so-called simplicity is that the sight is simple and far-reaching,with less than more,with small to see big.Tang Dynasty pursues the beauty of complexity,while Song Dynasty pursues the beauty of simplicity.Song Dynasty poetry stresses “rhyme” and painting pursues “leisure”.Simplicity is the general feature of Song Dynasty culture and art.The simplicity of literati gardens in the Song Dynasty is mainly reflected in the “sparseness” and “emptiness” of the landscape space;the long-distance of literati gardens in the Song Dynasty is mainly reflected in the small size of the gardens,the small landscape design and the broad and lofty intentions.From Bai Juyi to the Song Dynasty,the garden area of literati gardens became smaller and smaller.The garden art took small scale and elegance as its style.The formation of the simple and distant character of literati gardens in Song Dynasty is closely related to the entry of poetry and painting into gardens.The fundamental reason for the simplicity of literati gardens in the Song Dynasty was that the gardens carried Taoism and took Taoism’s “nothing”as their philosophical basis."Happiness" is the aesthetic realm of literati gardens in the Song Dynasty.The “happiness”is mainly expressed in two ways: public happiness and solo happiness.Public happiness is mainly expressed in literati’s elegant collection,while solo music is mainly reflected in the self-satisfaction and comfort of garden life.Garden is a kind of poetry,which can help scholar-bureaucrats return to a real world,which is the fundamental reason for the happy situation.The occurrence of happiness also depends on "thinking",that is,the understanding of the universe and life.The “happiness” of literati gardens in Song Dynasty is based on the philosophy of Confucius and Yan’s happiness,which is the core proposition and main content of the study of neo-confucianism.Zhou Dunyi,Shao Yong,Zhang Zai,the Brother Cheng and Zhu Xi all have discussions on happiness.Qin,chess,poetry,painting,books,wine,flowers and so on are all the matters of literati living in gardens in the Song Dynasty.However,viewing things for pleasure,learning for pleasure and music for pleasure correspond to the three ways of self-cultivation of the Song Dynasty,namely,Ge wu,Zhi zhi and Zhengxin.