A Research On The Social Functions Of The Han Royal Gardens

The time of Western and Eastern Han Dynasties is the foundation period of China's feudal society, and it is also an important period for the growth and development of the Royal Garden, which has always been a hot study spot of the history of China's classical gardens. However, the former studies were mainly conducted from the perspectives of the gardening techniques, ideas, design concepts, as well as from the aesthetic point of view. Although occasionally some scholars have carried out researches from a historical perspective, they mainly focused on the garden entity itself, while rarely discussed the relationship between the Royal Garden and the current society; or there's also the chance that the system has not been explored in depth. Therefore, based on previous research, this thesis taking a historical point of view, discusses the relationship between the Han Dynasty royal garden and the society and explores the social functions served by the garden such as political, military, economic, ecological, social control functions.The thesis consists of eight chapters.Chapter one serves as an introduction part. It presents the reasons for conducting the study, the practical significance, research methods, as well as the definition of related concepts. This thesis will take full advantage of the rich history, novels and other literature materials and archaeological information, with Marxist historical materialism as the guiding ideology, inductively interprets the social functions of the Han royal garden. At the same time, the thesis also defines the Royal Garden, Court, and other related concepts.Chapter two delineates the basic profile of the Han royal garden basically from the three aspects of the space patterns, gardening techniques and philosophy. Han Dynasty is an important period in which royal gardens developed. In order to adapt to the great unification of the needs of a centralized feudal empire, as well as to pursue the imperial fantasy of immortality, the royal garden was arranged in the form of material Heaven as the layout, the Court in the Court, conveying the idea of the unity of heaven and man ; as for gardening skills, the royal garden of the Han Dynasty created a unique skill of "a pool of three mountains" , which was the most important contribution to the Chinese Classical Gardens ans which became the theme of the royal gardening from then on; besides, the layout of stones, the arrangement of water and plant cultivation were also developed rapidly at that time.Chapter three discusses the political function of the Han royal garden. The main political function of the Han royal garden is that with large-scale landscape and architecture of the royal garden, the ruler can deter people and maintain his ruling; At the same time, the mural decoration of the architectures in the royal gardens can be used for political education and winning public support; additionally, the Han rulers also dealt with governing issues, welcome foreign guests in the royal garden, which is the concrete manifestation of political functions of Han royal garden.Chapter four focuses on the military function of the royal garden. In royal gardens, Rulers of the Han Dynasty not only did general military drills but also provided professional training for soldiers; Royal gardens were also built in military frontiers to meet the recreational use on the one hand, and more importantly, to control the military fortress on the other hand. The royal gardens also reserved a large quantity of military supplies such as property, weapons, horses, horse feed, which demonstrated its functions of guaranteeing military logistics.Chapter five presents the economic production function of the Han royal garden. In order to satisfy the daily life of worship and the resources required for eating, in the royal garden, various types of fruits and vegetables were planted, and a variety of animals were reared; At this time, the Royal Garden was also a large manual workshop, in which mat, silk clothing, daily necessities, such as bronze and apparatus were produced, providing a guarantee of the means of subsistence for the royal family; in the royal garden, white deerskin coin and casting metal currency were also produced, which played a very important role in maintaining the economic and monetary stability.Chapter six discussed the ecological functions of the Han royal garden. With the guiding ideology in the harmony between man and nature, as well as the corresponding national institutions implementing effective management, the Han royal garden showed strong ecological functions. The first was to protect a large number of natural, precious animals and plant resources, to maintain the ecological balance; secondly, because of its rich plant resources and beautiful environment, the royal garden became a green barriers; Finally, in creating water scene, the Han royal garden organically combined the functions of pond, drains, water transport, urban water supply and garden landscape, making the royal garden become an important hub of regulation.Chapter seven focuses on the social control function of the royal garden. With the sufficient plants, animals, water resources, the royal garden became a most important reserve base to maintain the national security and development. Thus in the event of various types of natural disasters, the Han rulers could take advantage of these rich resources to relieve people; they could also lease or give the land to people to stabilize the society and maintain the ruling.Chapter eight evaluates the social functions of the Han royal garden. The Han royal gardens were influenced not only by socio-political, economic, natural environment, but also by personal factors of the emperors. in the early years of Western Han Dynasty, because of the political instability and economic recessions, the royal gardens were built less, and their social functions were not obvious; during the periods of Hanwu, Zhao, and Xuan, the development of national strength reached its peak, and consequently royal gardens were largely built, which not only met the needs of the imperial pleasures but also catered to the needs of political ruling. So at that time, the political, military, economic, and ecological functions of the royal gardens were specially obvious; during Yuan and Chen period, the Western Han dynasty declined, natural disasters and economic recession were serious, the social control function of the royal gardens were more prominent at that time, while the other functions were watered down; in the Eastern Han Dynasty, due to political, economic, and imperial power restrictions, the construction of the royal gardens were far from prosperous as compared with the Western Han Dynasty. Except the ecological functions, other social functions were gradually fading.