Study On Landscape Formation Of "Caverns Of Heaven And Place Of Blessing" In Jiangnan

Taoist culture is the foundation of Chinese culture.“Caverns of Heaven and Place of Blessing”,as a part of the Taoist fairyland,has experienced over 2,000 years of heritage and development,and contains rich national culture,ecological thinking and cultural and geographical characteristics.Caverns of Heaven and Place of Blessing in the regions south of the Yangtze River is a unique landscape which is formed on the basis of the immortal faith of Taoism and the unique natural and cultural conditions in here,and is fused with the ideal landscape mode in the minds of the ancients.This paper,on the basis of analyzing and summarizing the ancient and modern literature and field investigation,carried out systematic analysis and research on the Caverns of Heaven and Place of Blessing in the regions south of the Yangtze River from the aspects of historical development,landscape construction and its influence on the traditional garden construction.The main results are as follows:(1)Through the review of the historical development and cultural background of the Caverns of Heaven and Place of Blessing in Jiangnan,it can be concluded that the Caverns of Heaven and Place of Blessing is a series of Taoist mountains of a specific historical period which is created on the basis of early cave worship,worship of the mountain,immortal thoughts and Taoist sorcerers,inherited and developed by Tianshi Taoist in the south,and finally completed with the examination and compilation by the Maoshan Sect of Shangqing School.It dated back to the Eastern Han Dynasty,reached its peak in the Sui and Tang Dynasties,and gained popularity in the Song and Yuan Dynasties,which now has a history of more than two thousand years.(2)Based on the research and analysis of the landscape construction of the Caverns of Heaven and Place of Blessing in Jiangnan from the four aspects of conception,siting,layout and scenery,together with the discussion combined with cases,conclusions can be gained as follows: the conception of the Caverns of Heaven and Place of Blessing in Jiangnan is the Taoist fairyland;its siting is based on the rich natural space connotation of the mountains and the looming local natural space;its layout conforms to the ideal landscape and habitat model in the minds of the ancients;at the same time,with the combination of other scenic resources,climate resources and cultural relics,it jointly formed the landscape of the Caverns of Heaven and Place of Blessing with distinctive features of Jiangnan.(3)Through analyzing the influence of the Caverns of Heaven and Place of Blessing on traditional garden construction from the three aspects of gardening ideas,layout and landscape art,it can beconcluded that the spirit of seclusion stressed in the thought of “Caverns of Heaven and Place of Blessing” influenced the traditional garden construction ideas;the combination of “Hu Tian Model” and other fairyland models led to the formation of the basic model of traditional garden layout;the artistic conception formation featuring “hidden but beautiful spot” has become the most characteristic landscape design method of traditional garden.(4)Considering the landscape environment,cultural tradition and religious development in the regions south of the Yangtze River,the geographical features of the Caverns of Heaven and Place of Blessing in Jiangnan can be summarized as follows: based on humanity and famous for celestial being;retreat and engagement,and right close in wonderland;nature-oriented and release of spirit.It also has a certain reference significance to the construction of modern human settlement environment.