Lingnan garden
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Lingnan garden (
The Lingnan region lies to the south of the
Classification
By types
Lingnan garden consists of several substyles, such as royal gardens, private gardens, and public gardens. A good example of royal Lingnan garden is Guangzhou's
By regions
Guangdong's gardens have been the mainstream of Lingnan gardens. They have been noted for their inclusion of stone heaps as mock mountains, slowly rising roofs and alleys, various sculptures and carvings, contrasting colors of blue and green, and plants that bloom in all four seasons. Guangxi's gardens tend to be based more on natural landscapes, manifested in stone cliffs and engraved walls.[citation needed]
Characteristics
Overall, the most commonly discussed characteristics of Lingnan garden include:[5]
Layout
Lingnan garden primarily utilizes courtyard layout. The use of courtyard is a prominent trait of Lingnan garden, whose smallness and fineness are said to be comparable with those of classical Japanese garden. The vast majority of private Lingnan gardens use courtyard layout.
Elements
Artificial mountains
When it comes to artificial mountains (Jyutping: Gaa2 saan1; Traditional Chinese: 假山), Lingnan garden utilizes (1) cliffs; (2) islands; (3) artificial reefs; and (4) heaps. This style rarely uses mud to build artificial mountains.
Water
Lingnan garden is said to be heavily based around control of water, involving waterways of various patterns: (1) "cliff-waterfall-depth" pattern; (2) lake pattern; (3) depth without waterfall; (4) curving waterways; and (5) wellspring.
Stones
Lingnan garden uses a different set of stones from those used by Jiangnan and Northern Chinese gardens. It utilizes local minerals such as Minnan granite, Hainan coral stone, and Taiwan Guru stone. Gardens of this style prefer not to stack up its stones, but instead have them spread outward horizontally, with various methods and patterns of outward spreading.
Architecture
Lingnan garden uses towers, bridges, and corridors. This style either uses "high walls and cold lanes" to divide a garden into a combination of multiple courtyards, or simply connect the buildings and the courtyards as one single whole. The architecture involves high pillars, wide corridors, and thick walls. "Three carvings and three sculpting" (Jyutping: Saam1 diu1 saam1 sou3; Traditional Chinese: 三雕三塑) – carvings made of wood, brick and stone, and sculptures made of clay, mud, and granite – are prevalent. Classical Lingnan gardens utilize full gardens of three carvings and three sculpting, as shown in
Calligraphy and paintings
Classical Lingnan garden uses calligraphy and paintings only sparingly, and modern Lingnan garden is even less inclined to do so. There are, however, several notable instances of such in Lingnan garden design. Yuyum Sanfong, for instance, has the calligraphy "餘地三弓紅雨足,蔭天一角綠雲深" (Classical Chinese, literally "This land is just as large as three bows, but rich in red rain; Though it is just a corner under the sky, it is abundant with green clouds") written on its main door.
Plants
Vegetation in Lingnan garden is summarized with the sentence "all-season flowers, scenery of
trees.Philosophy
Lingnan garden is said to embody the philosophy behind
Brief history
According to historical records, people in Lingnan were already building gardens during the reign of the
Prominent Lingnan gardens
- Yuyum Sanfong
- Leung's Garden
- Ching Fai Garden
- Ho Garden
- Bou Mak Garden
See also
- Cantonese culture
- Cantonese penjing
- Sichuanese garden
- Japanese garden
- Korean garden
- Chinese garden
References
- ^ "岭南园林的营造手法与艺术特色". Archived from the original on 30 July 2017. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
- ^ 劉庭風. (2003). 嶺南園林: 福建, 臺灣園林. 同濟大學出版社.
- ^ Yuanyuan, C. (2008). Inspiration of Lingnan Garden to Inhabitation Landscape Design [J]. Huazhong Architecture, 11, 042.
- 南方都市报》
- ^ 周璐. (2012). 岭南园林特色探析. 绿色科技, (2), 53–54.
- ^ He, J. (2005). The Classic Chinese Lingnan Garden in Housing in Sustainable Development – A comparative study in Canton, China. The 2005 World Sustainable Building Conference.
- ^ 浅析清代岭南私家园林造园艺术
- ^ Luo, S. Y., & Zhang, W. Y. (2008). The Impact of Ocean Culture to Lingnan Garden [J]. Guangdong Landscape Architecture, 6, 8–10.