landscape planting design and regional characteristics of classic gardens on Yangtze Delta in Sui and Tang Dynasty

• Published in: Acta horticulturae no. 999; pp. 97 - 105
• Main Authors: Peiyao Hao, Li Dong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: International Society for Horticultural Science 01-01-2013
• Subjects: animals; economics; gardening; gardens; landscapes; landscaping; ornamental plants; planting; politics; species diversity; statistics; transportation
• ISSN: 0567-7572; 2406-6168
• DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2013.999.13

After the Wei and Jin Dynasties – the first turning point in the history of Chinese landscape architecture, Sui and Tang Dynasties (581-960 A.D.) were the transition period of development of classical gardens on the Yangtze Delta. The establishment of Canal has played a very important role in transportation, which lead to the so-called temporary prosperity in royal gardens in Sui Dynasty. In spite of the unstable political situation, the gardening had kept being development. In this paper, based on literatures on plenty of documents including poetries, history records and local chronicles, accompanied by findings in landscape paintings, research has been done on the planting design theory of royal, private and monastery gardens in Sui and Tang dynasties. The study focus on species composition of plant landscape, patterns of planting arrangement and structures of planting design as well as the great influences of the regional politics, economic and culture. Four characteristics are concluded based on the literature search and statistics, including progress of planting pattern, change of plant esthetic sentiment and appreciations, development of specialized gardens as well as planting themes, particularly the concern of the relationship between plants and animals in planting design. The study attempts to trace back to the origin and chronological development of the regional characteristics of the unique planting design style of classical gardens on the Yangtze Delta, which would be of great value to the fierce problems of lacking of regional characteristics in Chinese temporary landscape planting design.