Study Of The Emptiness And Substance In Chinese Garden Aesthetics

“Emptiness and Substance” is an important pair of aesthetic category in Chinese aesthetics.In the aesthetics of Chinese gardens,the issue of emptiness and substance directly affects the representation of the gardens and the way in which artistic conception is created,which contributes to the unique characteristics of Chinese gardens.From the perspective of the works of traditional Chinese philosophy and classic gardens,this thesis tries to elucidate the effect and significance of “emptiness and substance” in the contemporary context.Based on the theory of Qi(breath,vital energy,vital force)in Chinese philosophy,this thesis analyzed the inter-promoting and complementary parallel relationship between emptiness and substance in the level of formation,which directly affects the composition of the world of things in gardens.From theories of Dao(way),this thesis analyzes the metaphysical and physical precedence relationship between emptiness and substance on the ontological level,which directly affects the manifestation of Dao in gardens.From theories of “heart-mind”,this thesis analyzes the objective and subjective progressive relationship between emptiness and substance on the psychological level,which directly affects the unity of the existence of human beings and the world of garden.In the composition of the world of things in gardens,that is,in the landscape of gardens,substance refers not only to the various entities that make up the garden,but also to the visible physical whole that is composed of both the natural and the artificial environment.And this substance determines the layout and spatial sequence of the garden.Emptiness refer to the fluid “Qi” which exists in the virtual space and can be perceived in multiple dimensions.The three relations between emptiness and substance in the special scope,namely,inter-phrase,mutual-lap,and complement,can transfer to each other by different layouts or angles.However,the complementary relation is more manifested in the space experience of the visitors,while in terms of the garden’s own manifestation,the inter-phrase relationship is more significant and basic.The garden works realize the “empty” space by borrowing the “subsistent”space,and realize the “emptiness” of the overall space of the garden while realizing the substance of the individual space through the garden elements such as mountains,water,architecture and flowers.Chinese gardens have expanded the garden space by expecting things in emptiness,breaking the boundaries,and view borrowing.At the same time,the pursuit of "emptiness" has been projected into the overall "simplification" style of garden works,realizing "nothingness" with "reality",creating a charm of seeing a bigger picture from small matters through the relationship between emptiness and substance,and infinite vastness of the universe in a limited space.In the manifestation of the world of Dao in gardens,that is,in the artistic conception of the gardens,"substance" refers to the limited "image" exhibited by garden works;"emptiness" refers to the infinite “meaning beyond the image” that includes the finite “image”,which is Dao.The artistic conception of gardens is to realize the existence empty Dao in the transcendence of the present subsistent images.After the "idea" came out from the "image",through the rise of the "beyond image",“idea” is contained in the "image",and through the generation of "ideorealm",time is transformed to space,deepening the artistic conception."Ideorealm" does not stop at the surface of aesthetic imagery,but rather triggers a highly philosophical sense of life,history,and cosmology.At the same time,it also implies a whole that contains time in space,showing the transcendence of the spatial finiteness of "image" and becoming the existence of a certain infinite space.It means that the space in the artistic conception of the garden not only appears through the existence of the objective space,but also through the existence of the historical space contained in the human life activities.The time in the artistic conception of the garden is a natural time,which is one of the manifestations of the inner state of the subject.Artistic concept transforms social time into natural time through human time perception and imagination.The original intention of the natural scenes and its corresponding historical construction of life activities are completed,so that the inner inclusive life significance which used to be obscure has been revealed.There are “emptiness” and “substance” in the artistic conception of the garden,and there are also reality and transcendence.It shows the invisible through the visible and the infinite through the finite,and finally it manifests the Dao which unifies the intrinsic existence of the object and the infinite existence of the nature.In the unity of the existence of individuals and the existence of the garden world,that is,in the aesthetic experience of gardens,“substance” refers to the realm of the artistic form of gardens;“emptiness” refers to the tranquil state of mind achievedthrough the activity of “freeing your mind by going along things as they are”.In the process of aesthetics,the person with free body,leisure heart and peaceful mind transforms the physical landscape of the garden into a realm of enlightenment through it body and mind “wandering in imagery”,and leads the transcendence to the extreme through tranquility,as well as connects the perceptive emptiness with the imagery emptiness.As far as the existence of human beings is concerned,the aesthetic attitude with peace of mind is hidden and invisible.It is something that is concealed.It requires the uncover of the heart and viewing in peace to make a “individual-involved”garden world appear.By virtue of perception,in the process of mutual communication between things and individual,things and individual merge with each other,reaching emptiness from substance.By imagining,it breaks through the existing boundaries and moves through the manifestation and concealment.Through the extension of the past,present and future parts of the true time,the metaphysical "emptiness" can be opened and forms a synchronical whole with the current presence,entering an uncovered clear state.The imaginary "nothing" enters the world of the unity of individual and things through the perceptive “reality” and constitutes the overall manifestation of the ultimate existence.The aesthetic experience of the garden,with the purity and tranquility of the "heart",realizes the unity between individual and the garden and transforms the purely objective "subsistent" image into the reconstructed subjective "empty" image,and from the aesthetic realm to the realm of life,thus reaching the "emptiness" of the "Dao" on the ontological level.In short,the “emptiness and substance” in Chinese garden aesthetics actually reflect the two worlds of gardens: the world of things and the world of Dao.In garden aesthetics,the unity of emptiness and substance in Chinese philosophy is basically reflected as the unity of the world of things and the world of Dao because the world of Dao defines the world of things.Due to the visibility of the subsistent world of things and the invisibility of the world of Dao,we often split the original unified garden world,keeping the world of things away from the Dao,and the world of Dao far from the world of things.Therefore,when we interpret the issue of emptiness and substance in the aesthetics of Chinese gardens,we should see that the garden world,which is the manifestation of Dao,is a negation and transcendence of the reality of the garden which emphasizes the real existence of individuals and Dao,but the world of things and the world of Dao are not two disparate existences: they are just different representations of the world of gardens.The essence of the garden artistic conceptionwith Chinese aesthetic characteristics is “emptiness”,because “emptiness” is the highest “existence”.