The purpose of feng shui is to carefully and carefully investigate and understand the natural environment, and then transform nature, create a good living environment, win the best time and place, and achieve the realm of "the unity of heaven and man", which coincides with the gardening ideas of classical Chinese gardens.
In recent years, a large number of modern Western concepts and theories have provided a new perspective on understanding things, but when they enter the study of Chinese history, they find that they are not applicable, and the famous contemporary historian Yu Yingshi believes that "it is best to try to understand from the old Chinese traditions as much as possible."
Therefore, in today's society with the goal of building an ecological city of "harmony between man and nature", the interpretation of classical Chinese gardens combined with the feng shui of traditional Chinese culture has become a new direction for domestic and foreign research.
In classical Chinese gardens, only through the reasonable, appropriate and ingenious planting of plants, the mountains, water and buildings in the garden have a spiritual charm.
As the only living gardening element, plants themselves and the plant landscape they create are inextricably linked to feng shui.
Yin and Yang Theory
"Yin and yang" germinated from the empirical knowledge of ancient ancestors observing astronomical geography, and only appeared as the meaning of the sun's sunlight turning backwards, the sunward being yang, and the sun being negative. A dictionary of yin and yang publishes the "Jing Naigang, XiangQi Yin and Yang" in the "Book of Poetry and Gong Liu", depicting the dialectical orientation of the Zhou people and planning the camp.
With the continuous improvement of people's understanding, the theory of yin and yang gradually evolved into a philosophical concept, which was first seen in the "I Ching And The Dictionary": "One yin and one yang is the Tao!" ”。 Then "when yin and yang are combined, they are born, and when yin and yang are separated, they are extinguished." If the yin and yang are wrong, they will change, and the yin and yang will be constant. ”
These two sentences explain that nature and human society are two dynamic equilibrium forces that are opposed to each other, contradictory and unified, including everything in the universe. Such as the sun and moon, day and night, light and shade, movement and stillness, inside and outside, male and female, rigid and soft, slow and so on.
The plant landscape in the classical garden is not arranged haphazardly, but reflects the harmonious beauty of a balanced yin and yang everywhere.
Plant orientation
Kiyoshi Takami Nam's "Xiangzhai Jingjing": "Peach willow is planted in the east, gardenia is planted in the west, plum jujube is planted in the south, and Nai apricot is planted in the north".
There are also "green pine lush bamboo ripples, color and light appearance good living base", "white orchid house front seed, beautiful flower aroma send", "xiangyang pomegranate red like fire, back yin plum sour heart" and other statements, although these requirements seem to only meet the feng shui theory, in fact, it has a scientific reason, completely in line with the ecological habits of the plants planted.
Garden plants Yangsheng tree is "Yang", Yinsheng tree is "Yin", then the Yin tree is placed in the north, the Yang tree is placed in the south or the Yin tree is placed under the Yang tree, so that the collocation with each other is the embodiment of the law of "yin and yang combined with life".
Chen Congzhou's "Garden of Continued Sayings": "The peony fragrant flowers are fragrant to the sun and must be planted in the south of the main hall." "In a cheerful and open land, where the rising sun rises in the morning and the evening it is illuminated by the evening sun, it is advisable to plant flowers and trees that love the sun."
"Flower Mirror": "Pine cypress bone flies, suitable cliffs and strange peaks", which is completely in line with the drought-tolerant habits of pine cypresses and do not like moisture.
Therefore, in the classical garden, the peony is used as a platform to the sun, lined with aragonite trunk; the wall shade is planted with hardy plants such as privet and bamboo; the osmanthus flowers and camellias are planted in the shade and slightly exposed to the sun; in the stone gaps under the steps, evergreen negative grasses such as grasses along the steps are planted; the low-lying areas of the pond swamp are dotted with weeping willows, and so on.
In front of the Lingering Garden Yuancui Pavilion, there is a relic of the Ming Dynasty, the bluestone peony flower platform, which is 0. 65 meters, length 3. 9 meters, width 3. 3 meters, the flower platform is made of three layers of stone stacking, the four corners of each carved scroll, the east, west and north sides are engraved with double lion play balls, Wu Niu Wheezing Moon, Tian ma Xingkong and double deer, double horses, double sheep, double rabbits, etc., which are simple and elegant. Peonies are still planted in the flower terrace, which is a good place to enjoy the flowers.
Balanced landscape
Chinese classical gardens have always been implicit beauty, especially the jiangnan classical gardens that usually occupy a small area, the space formed by the plant landscape is a "yin and yang balance" world created by using the plant itself and the combination of other gardening elements, which contains a series of opposing and unified factors, using the mode of wanting to promote the first to suppress, the integration of Tibet and dew, the victory of less, the small in the big, the virtual and the real, the combination of dynamic and static, etc., using borrowing, scenery, point scene, complementing the scene, obstacle and other techniques, increasing the sense of spatial layering, from small space to create a large space , so that indoor and outdoor communication, transparency, complement, the entire space layout in the same change to create a "yin and yang harmony" beauty.
Seasonal phase changes
Feng Shui theory is the product of the combination of easy learning and environmental geography, and the idea of "endless life" change in the I Ching has directly affected the plant landscape in classical Chinese garden design.
In traditional garden design, magnolias, begonias and peach blossoms can be enjoyed in spring, lotus flowers and plantains can be enjoyed in summer, chrysanthemums, pomegranates and osmanthus flowers can be enjoyed in autumn, and pines and plum blossoms can be enjoyed in winter.
In terms of plant configuration, the spring and summer scenery is required to be sparse and bright, thus showing that there are different seasonal changes in winter and summer.
For example, the plum blossoms of the "Snow Fragrant Cloud Pavilion" in the Humble Administrator's Garden bloom in the spring, the begonias in the "Begonia Spring Dock" bloom like flowers, the loquat trees in the summer "Harvest Pavilion" form a lot of gold pills, the rice flowers outside the wall of the "Incense Pavilion" in autumn are fragrant, and the pine bamboo in the "Pine Feng Shui Pavilion" does not wither in winter.
Humble Administrator's Garden Snow Fragrant Cloud Pavilion
Spot on
The point scene is a change from the theory of feng shui, the gardener uses less pen and ink, a little small building, can make the garden inject aura, suddenly empathetic, as if to constitute a beautiful natural picture, and the inscription and poetry in it have become the finishing touch in the scene.
For example, the "Lotus Wind Four-Sided Pavilion" in the central scenic area of the Humble Administrator's Garden, the pavilion looks at the lotus leaves, weeping willows, the breeze is gentle, the lotus fragrance is refreshing, incomparably appropriate; the Lingering Garden "Smelling Wood Tree Xiangxuan", located on the rockery, planted with osmanthus flowers, in the Mid-Autumn Festival, the laurel fragrance flutters in all directions; the Master of Nets Garden "See Pine Reading Painting Xuan", Xuannan Yuanshan near the water, the tree altar planted cypress, Luo Han pine, the posture is peculiar; the Lion Forest "Dark Fragrance Shadow Building", planted around the plum blossoms, is a night garden to enjoy the moon and smell the fragrance.
Lion Grove Dark Fragrance Shadow Building
Expand your space
The combination of Tibetan dew and the natural posture of the plant are used to decorate the architectural background constructed of bricks and tiles to achieve the natural interest of "the wall looms in the middle". Such as the west wall of the Loquat Garden in the Humble Administrator's Garden, the climbing tiger along the wall in the Canglang Pavilion; the wood fragrance of the east wall of the Master of Nets Garden.
In addition, a little terrain in front of the wall makes the plants staggered in height and the wall surface looms, resulting in a visual space that extends near and far, not only multiplying the natural atmosphere, but also causing the illusion of depth of field and expanding the sense of landscape space. For example, in the north courtyard of the Lingering Garden", bamboo and stone are used as a wall corner to form a picture through the empty window; in the corner of the coupling garden, several pieces of lake stones sit at the bottom, shouxing bamboo as the background, stalagmites tower in front of it, and the side planted Luo Han pine, which is simple and clear; the north patio of the Master of Nets Garden", facing the leaky window, combines wax plums and lake stones into window paintings, sitting indoors, looking at the painting in the north, enjoying the scenery in the south, looking forward and backward, and meeting the source of the north and south.
The woody fragrance of the east wall of the Master of Nets Garden
Rich composition
The S-shaped curve is shaped like the dividing line between yin and yang of Tai Chi, and feng shui has the concept of yin and yang balance of "Qu Sheng Ji, Straight Sheng Yan".
However, there is no shortage of experience in the theory of gardening, such as "water must be curved, the garden must be separated", "may as well be biased, and the grace is turned" and other experience summaries, "qu" has long been one of the most important characteristics of classical Chinese gardens.
In order to harmonize with the "curves" of natural landscapes, gardeners often substitute elements for straight.
For the plants in the garden, it advocates "taking its nature, going with the flow", maintaining their original posture, in the selection criteria of posture, color beauty, taste and taste, the first is the beauty, that is, the shape of the canopy, the dense curve of the branches, the shape of the leaves, etc. all pursue the beautiful curves of nature.
For example, on the shore of Yiyuan Lake, the trunk is curved and obliquely facing the water, showing a whitebark pine of the waterfront; the tree trunk is curved and hung upside down on the edge of the cliff in the high part of the artificial mountain of the coupling garden, and the melon seed boxwood is in the form of a cliff; the flower platform of the "Kansong Reading Painting Xuan" in the Master of Nets Garden, the trunk lies horizontally on the ground, showing a black pine of the recumbent type; the lion forest "refers to the artificial mountain" in front of the baixuan, the trunk is bent, the branches are drooping, the branches are drooping, and the tree is vigorous and simple, and the ancient cypress is curved and dry.