Research Of Configuration Of Lingnan’s Classical Gardens Plant Landscape

The existing Lingnan classical gardens were majorly built in late Qing dynasty. Mingand Qing dynasties were the mature stage in the development of Chinese classical garden.Lingnan classical gardens inherited the essence of Chinese traditional garden but created itsown style basing on the regional and cultural characteristics and absorbing the foreign culture,developed to be one of the three garden styles as well as royal north garden and Jiangnanclassical garden. Therefore, its plant configuration combined the Chinese literati aestheticfeelings and regional style. As Lingnan located in the transitional zone of the tropic andsubtropics, rich of plants provides a diverse garden landscape source. The industrious andpragmatic character of Lingnan’s people also contributed to the classical garden. Not onlygrace varieties such as the plum of blossom, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum that Chineseliterati highly praised are used in Lingnan classical garden, but also economic varieties suchas fruit tree and flower trees are used. Lingnan classical gardens as well as poem, handwritingand painting are known to as the "four arts". Architectural style in Lingnan is also differentfrom other regions for the hot and humid climate, developing a unique style of “Even thereal poor”and small garden building presenting a small and exquisite plant landscape withmultiple layers and various colors.In this study, a comprehensive review on configuration of plant landscape in Lingnangardens was conducted by reading literatures about configuration of Lingnan classicalgardens and Lingnan courtyards, and field investigating four famous gardens in centralGuangdong province and temple gardens in Lingnan region. The investigation onconfiguration of the plant landscape of Lingnan classical gardens is an important part ofinheritance of Chinese regional cultural. Currently, the researches of configuration of plantlandscape of existing Lingnan classical garden were still not comprehensive enough. Hence,this study aimed to conduct a comprehensive investigation on the existing Lingnan classicalgardens, to provide some resource for further researches as well as its development, and toexplore a feasibility research framework.In chapter one, the reasons and significance of choosing this topic were demonstrated.The current literature research was grouped into two categories. One was to sort out andanalyze the current status of Lingnan garden and partial classical garden plant, but did not doin-deep analysis on the configuration of classical plants. The other did an in-depth analysis onconfiguration of classical garden plant, but did not do the detailed analysis on the system ofLingnan garden, failed to provide data to guide the new garden design. Chapter two consisted of three sections. The first section was to describe thecharacteristics of plants in each stage of gardens. The plants configuration and selection offlower trees in Lingnan garden were affected by subjective and objective factors. The secondsection was to analyze the development of plant landscape of Lingnan classical garden via thefollowing four aspects: geographical environment and climates, characteristics of vegetationand community structure, social environment, and woods, horticulture and garden plants. Thethird section demonstrated the plant characteristics of Lingnan classical garden and thecharacteristics of plant configuration in both artistry and scientificity aspects. Lingnanclassical gardens use literary flowers and trees as well as functional flowers and trees.Chapter three addressed the plant characteristics of Lingnan’s classical gardens and thecharacteristics of plant landscape configuration and configuration technique on scientificlevel. Each configuration skill is compared. The importance of scientific skills in theconfiguration of Lingnan’s classical gardens is clear. After multiple times of field inspectionof lingnan’s classical gardens, author preliminarily formed a conceptual model of the plantconfiguration skill. The principles of pant landscape configuration of Lingnan classicalgardens, configuration mode, ecological value, scientific layout, bonsai configuration skill,and the configuration idea, et al, were further investigated. Use this method to simulate aLingnan garden which is suitable for the local climate. Develop various models with naturalselection as reference for old garden renovation or new garden design, achieving the aim oflow-carbon environmental protection and saving construction funds.Chapter four summed up the results of field investigating four Ming and Qing dynastyfamous gardens in central Guangdong province, Nanhai God temple, and Guangzhou shixiang yuan, and summarized the data of scientific configuration skills, such as the suitablenumbers of plants in Lingnan classical gardens. For instance, the suitable number of mainlandscape trees in a200-300㎡courtyard is2to4, and3is the most suitable number.After comprehensive reviewed the plant configuration of Lingnan classical gardens, theplant configuration methods of Lingnan classical garden list as follow were summarized: theclassified application of traditional Lingnan plants, the configuration of Lingnan local plantsand configuration of plane and elevation layout of the plants, the number of plants, landscapebased on plants subarea and orientation arrangement, plant configuration arrangement and“Park building respect site plant”,et al.