The Interpretation Of The Image Of Gardens In Classical Iterature

The image of gardens is a typical image of Chinese classical literature. In genres such asdrama, fiction, and poetry, the garden often acts as a scene which blends feelings and settings,both mentally and physically. It not only shows charm and scene of a natural object, but alsocontains the emotional sustenance, the aesthetic experience as well as the cultural connotationof the people. In our real lives, the cultural landscape of the garden which is full of flowersand trees, pavilions, and folding mountain water provides people with a great place to pay avisit to and to delight themselves. In the literary world, the garden that is full of flowers, rocks,spring water, pavilions, land walls and arched doors also creates many groups of images.Thus, the image of gardens has been formed, which naturally blends the great cultural ideasand the diversity of the artistic spirits together in literary texts. The image of gardens is notonly the love space for genius and beauties, but also is the objective expression of the hermitworld for poets and literary men, which is entrusted with people’s yearning for better idealsand pursuits. This thesis discusses and analyses the image of gardens systemically. It statesthe image of gardens mainly from the aspects including the aesthetic generation, the culturalimplication, the literature acceptance and the aesthetic expression. The thesis consists of fourparts as follows:The first part illustrates the aesthetic production of the image of gardens. The image ofgardens and a number of natural images, such as the image of the moon and frost, rain, aswell as plants. The image of animals is slightly different because it is a humanized naturalimage, and it is very inclusive. The generation and development of the image of animals isinseparable from social, political, economic, religious and other cultural factors, and is rootedin the landscape art and cultural spirit which are full of Chinese characteristics. The image ofanimals is the combination of Confucianism and Taoism as well as landscape art.The second part illustrates the aesthetic acceptance of the image of gardens. Gardens, asa usual scene in literary works, can be described as all-inclusive and meaningful. It is pouredinto the aesthetic expectations of the writers, which shows the emotional richness of leadingcharacters and the wide aesthetic horizon readers.The third part utilizes the specific literary works of Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty topromote the understanding of classical poetry by analyzing the cultural spirit, emotionalpreference artistic characteristics of the image of gardens. The fourth part discusses the aesthetic implication of the image of gardens on the basisof dramas. No matter it is the pursuit with courage and romance, or with the wistfultenderness, no matter it is the reality or the dreams, no matter it is rational or impulsive, withthe help of the image of gardens, that the pattern which the genius and beauties makepromises of their eternal love before flowers and under the moon has become very common inChinese classical literature. In Chinese classical poetry and dramas, the garden is a wonderfulplace with colorful flowers and splendid sceneries. While the love stories of the leadingcharacters are being performed with their hearts and souls, there are also vicissitudes of theirlives as well as sorrows. The reunited and illusory endings of the stories make people provokeand introspect.All in all, although the image of gardens is only a case of thousands of classical literature,it can be a reflection of the literary and historical heritage and emotion to show the spirit ofthe times. As a unique aesthetic existence in literary works, it is bound to continue to beaccumulated, passed on and developed in Chinese literature.