If you can travel back in time to China more than 2,000 years ago, it is not the high-rise buildings of today, but the majestic palaces and gardens, showing the wisdom and luxury of the ancients. From the spiritual confinement of the Zhou Dynasty to the Weiyang Palace of the Han Dynasty, each building is not only a stone and wood structure, but also a concrete representation of the power and dreams of the emperors and generals. Did you know that before Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, China's garden architecture had made great progress?
In ancient China, gardens were not only simple places of recreation, but also important places for emperors to show their power and strength. As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, King Wen of Zhou built the "Lingyu", which is the earliest written garden in China. The spiritual shrine is not just a simple green space, there are spiritual platforms and spiritual marshes, high platforms such as mountains, ponds and marshes like the sea, their existence seems to tell the world, look, this is the majesty of the Son of Heaven!
Entering the Qin Dynasty, with the ambition of Qin Shi Huang, the scale and luxury of the gardens reached unprecedented heights. Imagine that Qin Shi Huang did not hesitate to build hundreds of palaces around Xianyang in order to show his domineering dominance, which was unprecedented at the time. Each of these palaces is a symbol of luxury and power, and the Shanglin Garden and Afang Palace are particularly famous. According to the "Historical Records", Afang Palace covers more than 300 miles, the palace wall is murmuring, the buildings are continuous, its scale is large, the degree of luxury, enough to make any modern person shocked.
In the blink of an eye to the Han Dynasty, although Liu Bang initially had reservations about Xiao He's large-scale construction and was worried about repeating the mistakes of the Qin Dynasty, he was finally persuaded by the concept that "if it is not magnificent, it cannot be powerful". The establishment of Weiyang Palace and Changle Palace in Chang'an was a further step on the basis of the Qin Dynasty. Especially during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, he not only expanded the Shanglin Garden, but also made it a huge royal garden integrating luxurious palaces, magnificent gardens and wildlife, which was the highest achievement of the Han Dynasty due to its large scale and high degree of luxury.
Can you imagine how big a garden can be? The Shanglin Garden covers an area of hundreds of miles, and contains not only huge lakes such as Kunming Pond, but also a labyrinthine palace complex, which is not only a place to display power, but also a symbol of the emperor's control and conquest of the world. These measures of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty are undoubtedly using the majesty of the garden to declare his imperial power and rule over the vast territory to the whole world.
Going back in time, the development of gardens was not all smooth sailing. With the change of dynasties and the change of emperors, the style and function of the garden are constantly evolving. In the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, with the rise of literati and scholars, the garden gradually changed from the exclusive domain of the emperor to a place for literati to gather, drink and compose poems. These gardens no longer only emphasize the grandeur of the scale and the luxury of the form, but also reflect the artistic conception and cultural depth of the landscape, such as the famous garden Yan Yuan in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which is an important place for literati to communicate.
It was the Song Dynasty that really brought garden culture to its peak. In Bianjing in the Northern Song Dynasty, garden construction has become a part of the city's culture. The royal garden is not only a place to display imperial power, but also a place for citizens to relax and entertain. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou was centered on the West Lake, forming a garden culture that perfectly integrated landscape and urban life, which influenced the understanding of gardens in later generations.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, garden art continued to develop and reached new heights. The Humble Administrator's Garden and the Lingering Garden in Suzhou, and the Summer Palace in Beijing are all representatives of this period. These gardens are not only royal playgrounds, but also become the epitome of the ideal living environment in the hearts of ordinary people. Here, every brick and tile, every water and wood embodies people's yearning and pursuit of a better life.
From the spiritual confinement of the Zhou Dynasty to the imperial gardens of the Ming and Qing dynasties, from the symbols of the emperors to the aspirations of the common people, gardens have played an important role in Chinese history. Each change is not only a technological and artistic development, but also a reflection of the socio-cultural and political context. Every prosperity and decline of the garden is closely related to the rise and fall of the country.
Garden, behind these three words is not only thousands of years of historical precipitation, but also the Chinese nation's unremitting pursuit of beauty and infinite yearning for an ideal life. From the symbol of imperial power to the elegant gathering place of literati, from the magnificent palace to the popular resort, the garden has witnessed the changes of Chinese society and the evolution of culture. While exploring these ancient gardens, we are not only looking back at history, but also thinking about how to inherit and carry forward this unique cultural heritage in modern society. All this is worth pondering and exploring.