The Research Of The Hong Merchant’s Gardens

The Thirteen-hong Merchants in Canton(hereinafter referred to as the Hong Merchants)were a group of merchants engaged in foreign trade during the Qing Dynasty,and they gained huge wealth with their monopoly on trade with European countries.In response to the demands of international trade,family development and socializing,the Hong Merchants constructed more than thirty gardens outside the Canton city,which later were known as ‘the Hong Merchant’s Gardens’(Hang Shang Yuan Lin or Hang Shang Hua Yuang).During the Canton System Period(Yikoutongshang Period)developed by Emperor Qianlong in the twenty-second year of Qianlong’s reign(1757)to the late Qing Dynasty,the Hong Merchant Gardens became a window of contact between the East and the West,which was famous overseas.Unfortunately,with the end of the Canton system and the disappearance of the merchant community,the Hong Merchant Gardens were abandoned gradually and eventually fell into oblivion.Based on the excavation of Chinese and European texts and images,this dissertation makes use of historical maps and field research to outlines the rise and fall of the Hong Merchant Gardens by analyzing the rise and fall of the Hong Merchant system and the changes in the merchant community.Focusing on three relationships: the water system in Canton and the site of the Hong Merchant Gardens,the family of the Hong Merchants and the typology of the Hong Merchant Gardens,and the tide and the motif of the Hong Merchant’s Gardens,this dissertation studies the features of the site selection,the layout and the landscape management,and finally answers the academic question of the Hong Merchant’s Gardens.Firstly,focusing on the relationship between the Canton system and the merchant community,this dissertation explores the history process of the Hong Merchant Gardens,including their emerge,transformation and decline.The formation of the merchant community and the small merchant gardens emerged since Emperor Kangxi opened the sea.The ensuing policy of the Canton System encouraged the prosperity of the Great Hong Merchant Families,which led to the expansion and replacement of Hong Merchant Gardens and the emerge of the Large Merchant Gardens.After the First Opium War,the Hong Merchant system ended and the Hong Merchant Gardens declined and fell into oblivion.the Hong Merchant Gardens played a significant role in the trade,diplomacy and cultural exchange between the east and the west,during the development of international trade in the Qing dynasty.Secondly,from the urban dimension,this dissertation analyzes how the geographical condition of Canton and the spaces related to international trade impact on the site selection of the Hong Merchant Gardens.By investigating their distribution clues,the preference of site selection for the Hong Merchant Gardens is illustrated as closing to the Thirteen Factories along the waterfront.The difference in site conditions played a crucial role in the typology of the Hong Merchant Gardens,showing as the relationships between the sites and the typologies of gardens,including the the Daguanhe city area and the Zhai Yuan(Residence Garden),the Suzhuchong village area and the Ci Zhaiyuan(Ancestral Hall and Residence Garden),the Fati River Garden and the Bie Ye Yuan(the Villa Garden),the Bin Jiangtan Tudi(Seashore Shoaly land)and the Riverside Pavilion,and the Litchi Bay-Shangxiguanchong Canal and the Bie Ye Yuan(the Villa Garden).Thirdly,connecting the site typologies of the Hong Merchant’s Gardens and the families of the Hong Merchants,this dissertaion discusses the layouts and the formation factors of the Zhai yuan(Residence Garden),the Ci Zhaiyuan(Ancestral Hall and Residence Garden)and the Bie Ye Yuan(the Villa Garden)respectively.The examples,the Dissertation on Oriental Gardening by William Chambers and the 18 th Ward Wu Family Garden,are used to explain two typologies of the Zhai yuan(Residence Garden),such as the small Hong Merchant’s Gardens with the front shop and back house and the large Merchant Gardens with alongside house.The analysis on the Pan Family Garden and Wu Family Garden at the Honam Village Land illustrates how the different strategies,to plan and build the garden used by the two Hong Merchants families to run the Ci Zhaiyuan(Ancestral Hall and Residence Garden)with the original intention of living together,lead to two patterns of layout,as the Ancestral Housecentred garden and the House-Front-Ancestral and Temple-Behind garden.The cases of the Fu Yin Garden and the Water Garden of Puntinqua’s garden display two layout patterns of the Bie Ye Yuan(the Villa Garden)serving two purposes,as literati gathering and communicating between East and West.Lastly,connecting with the tide in Linnan,this dissertation explores the landscape management of the gardens in three aspects: water management,architecture and planting.The tide had influences on the gardens construction techniques and the ways to travel gardens,which can be found on the interactions of the garden elements with the tide,such as the entrance and the wharf,the multiple ponds,water inlet,the dikes between ponds,the vertical pond walls and river barriers,the construction of elevated galleries,stilt houses over water,the lotus in the ponds and the trees along dikes,and the potted plants on the river barriers.This dissertation interprets the complex transformation of the Hong Merchant Gardens,by collecting and analyzing their legacies and exploring their relationship with Canton system and the merchant community.The rise and fall of the gardens impacted by these factors shew as seven periods and three main stages.the Hong Merchant Gardens played a role as a flexible diplomatic venue in the trade,diplomacy and cultural communication between the east and the west.Because of the factors,the international trade,the family development of the merchant and the tide,the Hong Merchant Gardens developed the features such as the expansion along water,the success between the old and the new,the family management and the cross-wave foundation in the term of site selection.Although the Hong Merchant Gardens have fallen into oblivion,their legacies are used to reshape the urban landscape in Canton,and are used in the modern garden architectures.