Study On Modern Gardens Of The Yang Family In Wuxi

Wuxi, with the prosperity of trade and canal civilization, is an ancient town of rivers and lakes. Especially in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, depended on its advantageous geographical position and convenient transportation, Wuxi had rapid growth in the national industry and commerce and became one of the key economic cities in the south of the Yangtze River. As a notable family in Wuxi, the Yang family had a tradition of being scholars and government officers from generation to generation. In modern China, the family had an emergence of national capitalists who abandoned officialdom and turned to operating national industry and commerce for the benefit of the people. The Yang family had prosperous gardening activities inside the town, at the foot of Huishan and on the lakeside of Taihu Lake, many gardens with a fusion of Chinese and Western style were built and there is no lack of masterpiece.This paper summarizes the general characteristics and significances of modern gardens in Wuxi from the social background, explores the social and cultural roots behind the appearance of gardening. The paper also refers to a large number of historical documents, collects and verifies the records from the Yang family’s descendants, in order to conduct a systematic review of the family gardens and summarize the development context of it. Based on surveying and mapping of the existing cases, the paper aims to restore the historical truth. The paper mainly takes gardens made by Yang Yifang and his son Yang Hanxi as an example, to make in-depth analysis on history, site selection, design conception, overall layout, artistic conception and life in garden, explores the profound influence of both social background and family spirit on gardening activities. At last, the paper summarizes the rich values of the modern gardens of the Yang family and puts forward some suggestions on localization design. This paper tries to provide the study on family gardens as a new starting point and thinking perspective for the research on the History of Chinese Gardens.