Study On The Restoration Of Plant Landscape In The Forty Scenes Of Yuanmingyuan

"The Forty Landscape of Yuanmingyuan",named in the 9th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign,was the essence of all the landscapes in Yuanmingyuan.In 1860,Yuanmingyuan was burned down by Anglo-French Allied Forces and since then it has experienced various ravages.Finally,buildings and landscapes were totally destroyed,and the related historical records and paintings were also plundered,which makes it difficult to do researches on royal gardens of Qing dynasty.The Forty Landscapes in Yuanmingyuan nowadays greatly differ from those in the prime period.Although the hills,lakes and roads have been reconditioned according to the lay-out in the prime period,the landscapes are now bleak and desolate.Plant plays an important role in the gardening of the Forty Scenes of Yuanmingyuan,and there are several scenes taking plants as their subjects.The present thesis makes a deep research on the Forty Scenes of Yuanmingyuan and takes the following research methods:(1)making a list of the current plants in Yuanmingyuan according to the field research;(2)making a conclusion of the plants list in the prime period of Yuanmingyuan by reading ancient books,imperial poems as well as Drawings of Forty Scenes of Yuanmingyuan;(3)making investigations of the plant landscapes of Fragrant Hills Park,the Summer Palace and Chengde Mountain Resort,and analyzing the planting design in the parks and gardens of Hangzhou West Lake;(4)proposing the strategies of plants landscape restoration in the Forty Scenes of Yuanmingyuan with the methods of deduction,comparison and analogy.From the records and statistics of the present trees in the Forty Scenes of Yuanmingyuan,it is found that at present there are 61 species of trees mainly including Chinese pine,pinus bungeana,juniper,oriental arborvitae,ash trees,Salix matsudana,sash willow,ginkgo,Sophora japonica,black locust,paper mulberry,Koelreuteria and other native trees,and 25 species of shrubs including Sandy Parker,forsythia,winter jasmine,honeysuckle,boxwood,crape myrtle,pearl plum and so on.Since there are so many fast-growing species of trees and the maintenance technology and management is not so advanced,many trees are old and have a poor growth;in addition,the plant design method is simple and relatively arbitrary,and thus the landscape is unsatisfactory.From Drawings of Forty Scenes of Yuanmingyuan and the imperial poems in Qing dynasty,it can be found that Yuanmingyuan,in its prime,had a great variety of plants landscapes with clear seasonal rotation,and the planting design was flexible and also with regulations.With field study and comparison research,it can be found that at present in the Forty Scenes of Yuanmingyuan many big trees have been planted at random without archaeological investigation.Some trees at variance with historical landscapes have grown their roots into the base of the ruins,which need effective cleaning up with no harm to the ruins.In some scenes,there is some hardened bare land being arbitrarily trampled by tourists,which also needs to be dealt with effectively.With deep research and investigation,the present thesis puts forward the following restoration principles:(1)respect the history,and restore the plants landscape accurately;(2)make a concern for the ecology,and draw up a long-term plan;(3)protect the ruins,and replace the current trees effectively;(4)maintain a portion of wild herbs,and present the styles and features of ruins.The last part of the thesis takes Changchun Xianguan(Ever-spring Fairy House),Wuling Chunse(The Spring Scenery of Wu-Ling),Xifeng Xiuse(The Magnificent View of West-mountain)as examples to analyze the restoration of plants landscape in the Forty Scenes of Yuanmingyuan.