Waterscape Comparison Between Chinese Traditional Gardens And Western Traditional Gardens

Water is the source of life. People love water, it is human nature to live in the water. Water breeds life, nurtures life and brings vitality to the earth, provides protection for the survival and development of humanity. Because of its characteristics, water not only has practical effect to human life, but also brings people beauty enjoy.In the human garden landscape, water means a lot to all the gardeners, although garden's size, style, location are different. Waterscape keeps very important position in both Chinese traditional gardens and Western traditional gardens. Waterscape in two of them developed from utilitarian to aesthetic, from simple to complex similarly. But there are still lots of differences between them. At aspect of shape, waterscape simulates the natural water in Chinese traditional gardens but expresses beauty of artificial work in Western traditional gardens. At aspect of significance, waterscape attaches importance to connotation and pursues joy of feeling in Chinese traditional gardens but pays attention to demonstratives and pursues fun of play in Western traditional gardens. At aspect of position, waterscape is usually the heart of the whole park in Chinese traditional gardens but is commonly the setoff of building in Western traditional gardens. At aspect of drawing lesson from each other,"British Chinese garden"appeared in England through learning Chinese traditional waterscape and YuanMingYuan in China becomes typification of gardens learning from West. The main reason which leads to differences of waterscape between Chinese traditional gardens and Western traditional gardens is their different natural view and aesthetics view.