Humanized nature, natural personification, since gardening can not be separated from nature, but the attitudes of China and the West towards nature are quite different. Although natural beauty is also mentioned in western aesthetic works, it is only a material or source of beauty. Natural beauty itself is flawed, and it can't be perfect without artificial transformation, that is to say, natural beauty itself has no independent aesthetic significance. Hegel has specifically discussed the defects of natural beauty in his works, because everything in nature is comfortable, and there is no conscious spiritual perfusion of life and the unity of theme in some parts where differences coexist, so the characteristics of ideal beauty cannot be seen. "Beauty is the perceptual manifestation of ideas", so natural beauty must be flawed and cannot be sublimated into artistic beauty. Gardens are artificially created, and they must be transformed according to people's will in order to achieve a perfect situation.
China people discover and explore natural beauty in another way. China people are mainly looking for something in nature that can be in harmony with people's aesthetic mood and can cause * * *. The establishment of China people's natural aesthetics can be traced back to the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Specific historical conditions forced the literati class to be indifferent to politics and invited them to visit the mountains and rivers, so they took "love" as the intermediary to reflect the extremely rich natural beauty contained in the lakes and mountains. Although China gardens belong to natural landscape gardens in form and style, they are not simply copying or imitating nature, but refining, abstracting, generalizing and typifying on the basis of a deep understanding of natural beauty. This kind of creation does not violate the nature of compassion, on the contrary, it conforms to nature and expresses it more deeply. According to China people, aesthetics does not change nature according to people's ideas, but emphasizes the emotional correspondence between subject and object, that is, "relaxing the mind". It can play the role of communication between aesthetic subject and aesthetic object. From a higher level, we can also personalize the object through the role of "empathy". Zhuangzi's "taking advantage of things" means that things and I can blend with each other, so as to achieve the state of forgetting myself. Therefore, the aesthetic thought of western gardening personifies nature, while China personifies nature.
Formal beauty and artistic conception beauty are reflected in the pursuit of gardening art because of their different attitudes towards natural beauty. Although there is no lack of poetry in western gardening, they deliberately pursue formal beauty; Although China also attached importance to the form of gardening, he devoted himself to the beauty of artistic conception. Westerners believe that natural beauty is flawed. In order to overcome this defect and achieve a perfect situation, we must rely on some ideas to enhance the natural beauty, so as to reach the height of artistic beauty. That is, a kind of formal beauty. As early as in ancient Greece, the philosopher Pythagoras explored harmony from the perspective of numbers and put forward the golden ratio. Vitruvius in Roman period also mentioned the problem of proportion and balance in his exposition, and put forward that "proportion is a beautiful appearance and a moderate relationship when combining details". Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and others in the Renaissance also demonstrated the law of formal beauty through the human body. Hegel, on the other hand, took "the external beauty of abstract form" as the proposition, and abstractly summarized the laws of formal beauty such as unity, balance and symmetry, law and harmony. So the law of formal beauty is quite common. It not only dominates the visual arts such as architecture, painting and sculpture, but also has a great influence on the auditory arts such as music and poetry. Therefore, gardens closely related to architecture are regarded as the golden rule. The symmetrical and balanced layout, exquisite geometric pattern composition and strong sense of rhythm in western gardens clearly reflect the deliberate pursuit of formal beauty.
China pays attention to "scenery" and "emotion" in gardening, and scenery naturally belongs to the category of material form. However, its standard of measurement depends on whether it can arouse people's feelings, thus having a poetic environmental atmosphere, that is, "artistic conception." This is obviously different from the formal beauty pursued by western gardening, mainly due to the cultural background of China's gardening. There were no special gardeners in ancient China. Since Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, China's gardening has been deeply influenced by painting, poetry and literature due to the intervention of literati painters. Both poetry and painting attach great importance to the pursuit of artistic conception, which makes China's gardening with strong emotional color from the beginning. Wang Guowei of A Qing Dynasty said: "Scenery is not unique, and emotion is also one of the realms in people's minds. Therefore, those who can describe the scenery and feel the truth are called the realm, otherwise they are called the realm. " Artistic conception can only be obtained through "enlightenment", which is a psychological activity. "the scenery is ruthless and the emotions are lifeless." Therefore, the essence of garden management is to pursue artistic conception. A good garden, whether in China or in the West, is bound to be pleasing to the eye. However, due to different emphases, western gardens give us the feeling that they are pleasing to the eye, while China gardens are intended to be pleasing to the eye. China's gardening is far from the natural mountains and rivers, and he pursues a poetic and picturesque realm. If it also attaches great importance to landscaping, then its materials, prototypes, sources and inspirations can only be explored in nature. The more natural things are, the richer they contain. Therefore, China's gardening has great randomness and contingency. Not only is the layout ever-changing, but there is no strict subordinate relationship between the whole and the part, and the structure is loose and irregular. As the saying goes, "Gardening is omnipotent." Even many landscapes are consciously hidden, such as "My road is winding, passing through a sheltered depression, and the meditation room is full of flowers and trees", "There is no way out of the water, and there is another village", "The peak turns, there are pavilions and wings", which are all very poetic realms.
Compared with China and the West, western gardens show their inevitability with carefully designed patterns, while many deep and tortuous landscapes in China gardens are often unexpected and full of contingency. The master-slave relationship of western gardens is clear, the key points are prominent, the relationship between each part is clear, the boundaries and spatial scope are clear, and the spatial sequence paragraphs are clear, giving people an orderly and clear impression. The main reason is that the pursuit of formal beauty in western gardens shows a regularity and inevitability by following the law of formal beauty, but anything with regularity will give people a clear sense of order. In addition, westerners are good at logical thinking and are used to analyzing things to reveal their essence. This social ideology has greatly influenced people's aesthetic habits and concepts.
China's gardening pays attention to implication, dreaminess, implication, and endless dreaminess, which is naturally caused by China people's aesthetic habits and concepts. Different from westerners, China people know things through direct identification, and think that intuition is not a direct response of the senses, but a psychological activity, which is the sublimation of internal experience and cannot be obtained through reasoning. Drawing lessons from poems and paintings, the gardening of China Gardens strives to be subtle, profound and illusory, so as to achieve the goal of seeing the big and the small, seeing the big in the small, seeing the real in the virtual, seeing the real in the virtual, or hiding or showing, or shallow or deep, thus interweaving many completely opposite factors and integrating them into one. On the contrary, it makes people feel hazy everywhere. In many western garden works, it is often mentioned that God built the Garden of Eden for Adam and Eve. The Garden of Eden depicted in the Bible is similar to the Fairy Mountain Qiongge imagined by China people. However, with the development of history, western gardens gradually got rid of fantasy and approached reality step by step. The classical gardens in France are the most obvious. The gardens of princes and nobles often entertain guests, hold dances and perform plays, making the garden an open-air mansion where people come and go, bustling and lively, unable to see the transcendental illusion of heaven and heaven, and stepping into the secular world step by step.
Enjoying immortals has a far-reaching influence on ancient gardens in China. Because of other people's superstitions, the emperors in Qin and Han Dynasties always built islands by opening ponds and named them Penglai, Abbot and Yingzhou to symbolize Fairy Mountain in the East China Sea. Since then, the model of "one pool and three mountains" has been formed. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, due to cruel political struggles, social unrest and fragmentation. In order to save their lives, escape from reality and indulge in pleasure, the scholars in troubled times invited them to visit famous mountains and rivers, express their feelings and even live in seclusion. At this time, a negative idea of being born is bred. Tao Yuanming's Peach Blossom Garden depicts a life in a paradise. This has deeply influenced the future gardens. Scholars often feel frustrated or retire from the officialdom, so they build houses to live in peace. Therefore, compared with western gardens, China gardens are only suitable for a few people to appreciate the taste, unlike western gardens, which can accommodate many people for public activities.
What causes such a big difference between Chinese and western gardens? This can only be analyzed from the cultural background, especially philosophy and aesthetics. Garden art, like other arts, is influenced by aesthetic thoughts, and aesthetics grows under a certain philosophical system. Historically, both materialism and idealism attach great importance to the cognitive role of reason in practice. The Pythagorean school in the 6th century BC tried to find the factors of beauty from quantitative relations, and the famous "golden section" was first put forward by them. This aesthetic thought stubbornly ruled Europe for thousands of years. She strongly adjusts order, balance and symmetry, and respects circles, squares and straight lines. The garden style in the form of European geometric patterns is the result of this "rationalism" aesthetic thought.
Different from the West, the classical gardens in China were bred in the fertile soil of China culture and were deeply influenced by painting, poetry and literature. Due to the direct participation and management of poets and painters, China gardens have a strong emotional color of poetry and painting from the beginning. Chinese painting, especially landscape painting, has the most direct and far-reaching influence on China gardens. It can be said that the gardens in China developed under the background of painting. In ancient China, there was no monograph on gardening theory, but there were numerous works on painting theory. These painting theories have played a lot of guiding roles in gardening. The principle followed by painting theory is nothing more than "nature comes from the outside and the heart comes from the inside". The nature of foreign teachers refers to taking the natural landscape as the model of creation, while the internal source emphasizes that it is not the reproduction of the natural landscape by the class, but the artist's subjective feeling to extract its essence.
Apart from painting, poetry has a far-reaching influence on China's gardening art. Since ancient times, there has been a saying that poetry and painting are of the same origin. Poetry is an invisible painting, and painting is a tangible poem. The influence of poetry on gardening is also reflected in the "fate" side. Most ancient gardens in China were built by literati painters, which inevitably reflected their temperament and sentiment. As a scholar-bureaucrat class, these people undoubtedly reflected the philosophy and ethics of society at that time. China's ancient philosophy of "Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism" attached great importance to feelings, and the thoughts of respecting nature, escaping from reality and pursuing innocence and inaction merged together, forming a unique quiet and elegant taste, romantic and elegant demeanor, unpretentious temperament and sentiment of literati, which also determined China's aesthetic thought of "attaching importance to feelings" in gardening.
Generally speaking, it is only a small part of the artistic characteristics of Chinese and western gardens, and there are more and more essential things waiting for us to explore. The cultural connotation created by human beings for thousands of years is profound and profound. The future world belongs to us, and the beauty of the future world depends on us to create. The burden on our shoulders is not light. We should meet this glorious mission with a positive attitude, and we have a long way to go.
Comparative Analysis of Chinese and Western Gardens
From the development history of Chinese and western gardens, we can see the differences between China gardens and western gardens, mainly from the differences in culture, layout, architecture, aesthetics, etc., to highlight the respective characteristics of Chinese and western gardens.
Keywords: differences in garden culture
China has a long history of circling gardens and has established a unique style in the world gardens. At the same time, in the world gardens, western gardens have attracted much attention because of their different styles, and there are also differences between them.
* * * Similarities between Chinese and Western Garden Cultures
Both China and the West regard this wonderful garden as a paradise on earth. China has a famous saying: "There is heaven in the world and Suzhou and Hangzhou in the world." If Hangzhou is half natural scenery, Suzhou is mostly artificial gardens. Private gardens have embodied the meaning of "Xanadu", not to mention the royal gardens. This is similar to the western concept. Because in English, the word "heaven" comes from the ancient Greek word Paradeisos, which comes from the ancient Persian Pairidaeza, meaning "luxurious garden". The concept that "luxury garden" equals "paradise" is almost the same for all mankind. At the same time, both China and the West regard gardens as symbols of power and sustenance of political feelings.
Second, the differences between Chinese and Western garden culture
1, the difference of world outlook
China people attach importance to overall harmony, while westerners attach importance to difference analysis. China's philosophy pays attention to the unity of opposites and emphasizes the harmonious relationship between man and nature and between people. Western philosophy advocates the independence of the objective world, the separation of subjectivity and objectivity, and opposition without complementarity. Dialectical thinking in ancient China was much more developed than in the West. This way of thinking pays attention to the overall concept and the view of unity of opposites. Both Confucianism and Taoism pay attention to observing things as a whole and paying attention to the relationship between things. When observing things, both Laozi and Confucius pay attention to opposites and their mutual transformation. In ancient China, people infiltrated the concept of this universe model into garden activities, thus forming a unique group space art. ..
Compared with the clear and objective eloquence of the West, most ancient philosophers in China have a Buddhist demeanor. They meditated and realized Tao, but they never got a clear answer. China gardens have this flavor, just as Chinese paintings are freehand brushwork rather than meticulous brushwork, and China people pay attention to harmony, which is "the harmony between heaven and earth". Therefore, they also pay attention to implication, profundity and illusion in gardening, especially the alternation of reality and falsehood, which has become a major feature of China gardens. Western gardens are rigorous, with straight axes and unobstructed. China gardens pay attention to "changing scenery", even small gardens can draw a great depth of field in concealment, and the secret lies in hiding but not revealing, and implicating.
2, the difference of natural view:
The mainstream of China's philosophical tradition is the unity of man and nature, and Yi Zhuan puts forward the unity of man and nature. Its image says: "cut into the way of heaven and earth to help them adapt", and in the copula says: "If the scope of heaven and earth does not exceed, everything will remain." The moderation of nature must conform to its own laws, and the assistance of nature should be moderate, imitating the natural function of nature without excessive, and being used to achieve everything without lack. These are human's progress and maintenance of nature, moderation and harmony, difference and interaction. The idea of advocating nature is first manifested in China people's special aesthetic interest in China architecture. Although the aesthetic principle of peace and nature is based on the scale of human nature, it is also inseparable from the idea of advocating nature. For example, the essence of gardening is "borrowing scenery". "The scenery outside the park lies in' borrowing' and the scenery outside the park lies in' time'. Flowers, trees, clouds, wind, birds, flowers, intangible scenery and tangible scenery are intertwined into a song. " It can be seen that the traditional gardens in China are ingenious and wonderful. Obviously, it is man-made mountains, waters and gardens, but it is necessary to use flowers, birds, insects and fish, strange mountains and fine waters to create a situation of "being as natural as the sky". Especially in Jiangnan gardens, the smaller the garden, the more attention is paid to the beauty of nature. Bai Juyi built a thatched cottage in Lushan Mountain, and wrote a poem saying, "Why do I wash my ears, and the roof falls off the spring?" Why clean my eyes and build them under the white lotus? Holding a pot in the left hand and five strings in the right hand ... A tired bird will get a lush forest, and a dried fish will return to a clear spring. If you don't want to do this, how hard it is. "This ideal of China literati turned into fireworks and private gardens. Even the royal gardens are more leisurely than the western royal gardens.
Third, the differences between Chinese and Western garden layout
The biggest difference between Chinese and western classical gardens in the overall layout lies in highlighting natural scenery or buildings. The outstanding feature of the classical gardening art represented by the French Palace Painting Academy is that the plane composition emphasizes the central axis of the garden, and the avenues, flower beds, pools, fountains and statues in the garden. Small buildings, Little Square, radioactive paths, etc. Are arranged around this central axis, emphasizing this central axis. At the height starting point of this central axis, there are tall, rigorous and symmetrical buildings, which control the axis and the axis controls the garden, so the building also controls the garden, and the garden is subordinate to the building. Obviously, the basic guiding ideology of this garden comes from rationalism, that is, "forcing nature to accept the law of symmetry"
The gardens in China are different. Landscape architecture should not only meet the needs of tourists to appreciate the natural scenery, but also become a part of the appreciated natural scenery. In other words, they have both ornamental and ornamental functions. Therefore, landscape architecture should be well coordinated with mountains, water and plants. Therefore, in the overall layout,
Fourthly, the differences between Chinese and western landscape architecture.
People first lived in trees and caves. Since human beings built houses, they have stayed away from the attacks of wind, rain, snakes and beasts, greatly improving the conditions for reproduction, which is an important step for human beings to enter the history of civilization. & lt For a long time, Chinese and western garden buildings have developed independently in a relatively closed system, and there are few opportunities for communication, forming different forms and great differences in personality. Only in modern times, with the exchange and integration of Chinese and western ideas, culture and technology, Chinese and western garden buildings are not only very different from their traditional buildings, but also tend to be more consistent. China's garden architecture is deeply permeated with China's artistic aesthetic taste. Suzhou gardens are exquisite and exquisite, with multiple landscape changes in a short distance, such as the winding path of rockery in the lion forest, which is extremely tortuous. In many places in the garden, the principles of virtual reality, separating virtual reality and concealing virtual reality are reflected, and these principles are reflected in China's landscape paintings.
Garden architecture embodies the ideological pursuit and artistic taste of China scholar-officials. Traditional scholar-officials regarded Qi Zhiping's cultivation as Gao Gui. Both Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism and Lu Wang's Neo-Confucianism attach importance to the study of honesty, self-cultivation and family planning. What they practice is the "inner universe", painting and calligraphy in pen and ink, and gardening in plants, rocks and rocks. They contain the vast universe in their hearts, or they regard the inner cultivation of life as the most extensive and important knowledge in the universe, that is, they regard it as the universe. In ancient China, apart from Li Bai and Xu Xiake, there were not many explorers, which was related to the fact that the scholar-officials attached importance to the cultivation of the "inner universe" but not to the exploration of the "outer universe". All these are reflected in architecture, which is manifested in the gorgeous and exquisite content and form. They projected the "inner universe" on the landscape architecture. & gt
The garden buildings in China are mainly wood structures, while the foundations of palaces and the walls of ordinary houses are rammed earth. The skills of bricks used in western garden buildings are unparalleled in the world; Garden buildings in Europe are mainly made of stone. Modern scholars generally believe that this is related to the natural geographical conditions of various places, but I think this is not a very convincing explanation. There is no shortage of stones in mountainous China. Wan Li Great Wall uses more stones than rammed earth. There is no shortage of wood in Europe with dense forests, and the primitive garden buildings in Europe have also experienced the period of umbrella branches and sheds.
The cultural and personality differences between eastern and western nations are also reflected in the materials of garden buildings. Generally speaking, another feature of western garden architecture is its openness, magnificence and unobstructed view. This is in sharp contrast with China's closed, restrained and hidden wall culture. Western landscape architecture can get the main impression from the front direction, and you can get a panoramic view. Even if there are lawns and gardens, they are open-air China's palace buildings can only be seen from the air in multiple dimensions to get the overall outline. In addition, there is a wall at the gate, so there is a poem "How deep is the courtyard". The garden buildings in China are round, complicated and tortuous, and they are not as direct, simple and open as lawns and gardens in the west. China, whether it is a palace or a garden, is surrounded by walls. The wall of western architecture is between if there is something, even if there is something, it will not give people the feeling of being closed and depressed.
Fifth, the aesthetic differences between China and the West in the process of visiting the park.
Due to different historical backgrounds and cultural traditions, Chinese and Western gardens have different styles and characteristics. Although China gardens are divided into northern royal gardens and private gardens in the south of the Yangtze River, and there are many differences, western gardens have different styles such as ancient gardens, medieval gardens and Renaissance gardens due to different historical development stages. However, on the whole, due to different philosophical and aesthetic ideas, the differences between Chinese and western gardens in form and style are still very obvious. Western gardens embody artificial beauty, which is not only symmetrical, regular and rigorous in layout, but also square in flowers and plants, thus showing a geometric beauty. Phenomenologically, western gardening mainly uses artificial methods to change its natural state. The gardens in China are completely different, neither seeking axial symmetry nor following any laws. On the contrary, they are surrounded by mountains and waters, full of twists and turns. Not only do flowers and trees leave the original appearance of nature, but even artificial buildings try to conform to nature, uneven and strive to integrate with nature.
Because gardening is inseparable from nature, China and the West have very different attitudes towards nature. Although natural beauty is also mentioned in western aesthetic works, it is only a material or source of beauty. Natural beauty itself is flawed, and it can't be perfect without artificial transformation, that is to say, natural beauty itself has no independent aesthetic significance. Everything in nature is comfortable, and there is no conscious mind to inject the conceptual unity of life and theme in some parts with differences, so we can't see the characteristics of ideal beauty. Therefore, natural beauty must be flawed and cannot be sublimated into artistic beauty. The garden is man-made, and it needs to be transformed and recognized according to the will in order to achieve a perfect situation.
China people discover and explore natural beauty in another way. China people are mainly looking for something in nature that can be in harmony with people's aesthetic mood and can cause * * *. The establishment of China people's natural aesthetics can be traced back to the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Specific historical conditions forced the literati class to be indifferent to politics and invited them to visit the mountains and rivers, so through the intermediary of "love", the extremely rich natural beauty contained in the lakes and mountains was realized.
To sum up, Chinese and western gardens are two bright pearls in the world art treasure house. Due to the different cultural background and geographical environment, they embarked on two completely different development tracks. With the development of society and the exchange and integration of Chinese and Western cultures, the integration and development of Chinese and Western gardens is an inevitable trend. Only by truly grasping the differences between Chinese and western gardens and absorbing their artistic essence can we scientifically inherit the outstanding achievements of classical gardens and create a new situation of modern gardens.
Gardens, like architecture, are closely related to people's daily life. There are all kinds of gardens in the world.
The construction of gardens is to meet people's need to yearn for and enjoy the beauty of nature, so the aesthetic function of gardens is more prominent than architecture.
What is a garden? Garden is a natural scene after artificial processing, a realm of human life created by natural and human factors, and a comprehensive work of art composed of mountains, rivers, flowers and trees and buildings, which is poetic and picturesque for people to live and visit.
According to the explanation in the Encyclopedia of China (Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning), garden is a beautiful natural environment and recreation place created in a certain area by using engineering technology and artistic means, by transforming the terrain (or further building mountains, stacking rocks and managing water), planting trees, planting flowers, building houses and arranging garden roads.
Gardens include gardens, courtyards, small gardens, gardens, parks, botanical gardens and zoos. With the development of landscape architecture, forest parks, scenic spots, nature reserves or national parks and resorts are all included in the scope of landscape architecture.
Influenced by traditional culture, eastern and western classical gardens have different aesthetic ideals. Different attitudes towards natural beauty have great differences in gardening concepts and artistic techniques.
China classical gardens are famous for their unique gardening ideas and techniques. Generally speaking, Wuyue (Taishan, Hengshan, Songshan, Huashan and Hengshan), Huangshan and four famous Buddhist mountains (Putuo Mountain, Emei Mountain, Wutai Mountain and Jiuhua Mountain) can be regarded as large-scale natural gardens after several generations of construction and management.
Most of the gardens people talk about are classical royal gardens and private gardens. For example, four classical gardens in China: Summer Palace, Humble Administrator's Garden, chengde mountain resort and Suzhou Lingering Garden.
Yuanmingyuan is known as "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens" and "Oriental Museum". Today, the glory of Yuanmingyuan is gone forever, but from the Summer Palace and the Summer Resort, we can still feel the grand scale of the classical royal gardens in China, which has its own grand royal style.
The gardening art of China classical gardens is to imitate natural scenery with artificial power. As the saying goes, "Although it is made by people, it is a fable." Compared with royal gardens, private gardens in Suzhou can better reflect this point.
Private gardens are the essence of ancient gardening art in China. Suzhou is a famous historical and cultural city in China. Because of its beautiful scenery and charming classical gardens, Suzhou enjoys the reputation of "Jiangnan Garden is the best in the world and Suzhou Garden is the first in the south of the Yangtze River".
There are many gardens in the ancient city of Suzhou. Canglang Pavilion, Lion Forest, Humble Administrator's Garden and Lingering Garden represent the artistic styles of Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing respectively, and are known as the "Four Famous Gardens" in Suzhou. In addition, Wang Shi Garden and Yiyuan Garden are also famous.
Artistic conception is the highest realm of China's gardening art. China's garden works often use poetic or historical allusions, and the plaques, poems, paintings and calligraphy in garden landscape and architectural decoration create an aesthetic artistic conception with cultural taste.
The pavilions, terraces, buildings, pavilions, pavilions and other ancient buildings with China characteristics, such as rockeries, promenades, flower walls and transparent windows, all show their unique styles. Water, architecture, plants and other scenery, moving tourists, even sunrise, sunset, clouds, rain, snow, wind, sunrise and bright moon are all integrated into the garden by borrowing scenery from near, far, adjacent, mutual borrowing, leaning and timely borrowing. The reflection in the water, the singing of fishing boats at night, the bells of ancient temples, the cicadas of birds and the lingering rain at night, which is not a freehand scenery?
The architectural form of Japanese classical gardens draws lessons from China, but more embodies the Zen thought-dry mountains and rivers. Dry landscape is an extension of Japanese gardens born in China. Many ideas come from Zen morality and are closely related to the introduction of ancient mainland culture.
The western traditional aesthetic view holds that natural beauty is not the most ideal beauty, and it must be artificially transformed to achieve perfection. As Le Nott, a famous French gardener, said, "Nature should be forced to accept the law of unity." This has also become the basic creed of western gardening art.
Garden art in Italy, France and Britain is a typical representative of western garden art, and the gardening art of western gardens completely rejects nature, strives to embody strict rationality and develops meticulously according to pure geometric structure and mathematical relationship.
The building materials used in Chinese and western classical gardens are mainly civil in China, while stone is the main building material in western classical architecture. In terms of layout, most traditional buildings in China are flat group layout, while western classical buildings emphasize upward and upright, highlighting the individuality of buildings.
"It is the proportion that determines beauty and elegance, which must be formulated into eternal and stable rules by mathematical methods", which is the highest aesthetic standard of western gardening art, and the aesthetic standard of China classical gardens is "the unity of heaven and man".
To sum up, it is not difficult to see that if China's classical gardening technique is "artificial imitation of nature", while the western classical gardening technique is "artificial transformation of nature".