What is the difference between Chinese gardens and Western gardens?

Gardens are artificial nature, which embody a kind of culture and the relationship between man and nature. From this perspective, there are essential differences between Chinese classical garden art and Western garden art. Modern Western culture takes anthropocentrism as its core and emphasizes conquering, transforming and controlling nature. Correspondingly, Western garden art emphasizes artificial beauty or geometric beauty, believing that artificial beauty is higher than natural beauty. It is based on science and technology. It is arranged symmetrically from front to back and left and right under the guidance of clear axes. Even flowers, plants and trees are trimmed into various regular geometric shapes. Neat and uniform in form, balanced and symmetrical. Large areas of flat lawn, regularly trimmed trees and flowers form the main body of Western gardens. Western garden art embodies precision and symmetry, the overall simplicity and clarity, and everything is presented as an artificial creation. In sharp contrast to Western culture, traditional Chinese culture emphasizes the "unity of man and nature" and the harmony between man and nature. Chinese classical gardening art is the crystallization of long-term accumulation of Chinese culture and art. It is characterized by natural changes and twists. It is based on nature but is higher than nature. It organically combines artificial beauty with natural beauty, thus achieving the goal of "although it is made by humans, it is like nature." "Open" realm has formed a unique style of natural landscape gardens, which emphasizes natural beauty over artificial beauty, embodies broad culture and complex spirit, and is known as the mother of gardening in the world. The past century has been a century of cultural exchange, collision, penetration and integration between China and the West. Western culture has become the dominant culture in cultural exchanges between China and the West with the help of its strong economic, technological and cultural appeal. With the massive penetration of Western culture, Western garden art that embodies Western culture has gradually become the fashion pursued by the Chinese garden industry. At present, Western garden design concepts are widely used in urban greening and garden planning. Landscapes that can embody the concept of Chinese garden art have gradually become a rare "rare thing" in the land of China. It is precisely the "Westernization" of large-scale urban greening and garden planning that is pushing China's urban ecological environment into a dead end. A large area of ​​lawn plus a few sparsely distributed shrubs or dwarf trees constitutes the main body of urban greening. Turf has a shallow root system and can only utilize water and nutrients in the soil at a limited depth. The reality is that most Chinese cities are short of water resources, and they have to invest a lot of water resources and keep watering them to ensure the normal life of turf. The lawn needs to be constantly pruned and the prunings removed (the nutrients in it are also continuously exported). The soil fertility declines rapidly, and fertilizers have to be applied to ensure the growth of the lawn; savanna-style urban green spaces have low biodiversity. , poor ecosystem stability (in this regard, urban green spaces are more like farmland that needs careful care), and constant outbreaks of insect pests and diseases require frequent application of pesticides, which simultaneously delivers pesticides to urban residents and pollutes the air, soil and water sources. In most cases, savanna-style urban green spaces do not adapt to the natural environment of the city. Therefore, without human intervention, these green spaces will eventually either develop into forests or degrade into grasslands, and of course some will remain unchanged. In other words, this artificial ecosystem will continue to evolve until it reaches its peak state. But if we must keep it in the savanna stage, we must continue to invest manpower, material resources, and financial resources in repressive maintenance of it, which increases the cost of green space maintenance. Generally speaking, savanna-style urban green spaces lead to further strain on water resources, rapid decline in soil fertility, pollution and damage to the environment, accelerate the degradation of urban ecosystems, and increase the economic burden of urban operations. This greening model is very unsuitable for China's urban conditions. Whether it is the construction of "forest cities" or "urban forests" proposed in China, they are the result of reflection on the "savanna-style urban greening model". There is no "turf" item in Chinese classical gardens (introduced from abroad). Although forests, trees, and flowers were all artificially combined at first, in future management, more attention will be paid to responding to nature and not pursuing deliberate carving. Let nature take its course. Therefore, this kind of garden will gradually develop over time into an ecosystem that is compatible with the local natural environment and can develop well. Trees, shrubs, and grasses tend to be naturally combined and distributed hierarchically (the distribution of branches, leaves, and underground roots on the ground all show a stratified phenomenon, making full use of the light, heat, and moisture on the ground, as well as the water and nutrients underground, etc.), and are biologically diverse. Rich features and strong system stability. Therefore, Chinese classical gardens not only have low operating costs, but also have stronger ecological functions. Two greening models can be used as representatives of Chinese classical gardens and Western gardens.

In the picture of Hanshan Temple in the heavy snow, you can see that the branches of the trees have different postures. They complement each other to make full use of space and sunlight. This is a manifestation of plant phototropism. Figure 4 is a partial greening diagram of a residential area, which includes flat lawns, regularly trimmed low shrubs in three colors, and a few sparse trees. Chinese classical gardens are the treasures of gardens in the world. And it is precisely this national treasure that is being forgotten and abandoned by ourselves. The Chinese garden art model is the highest achievement of world garden art, but it is precisely this highest achievement that is being completely destroyed by the Chinese people. The Chinese gardening community, which has been dazzled by Western culture, has a foreign slave mentality that is really unacceptable. We should vigorously promote the glory of Chinese classical gardening art, which will illuminate China and benefit the world. Not all "foreign" art is advanced. We have lost much of the essence of traditional Chinese culture because of our simple minds. Chinese classical garden art is by far the highest state of garden art. We do not need to introduce foreign "advanced" technologies and concepts in this regard. In the era of housework, Chinese and Western gardening arts, pre-scientific geographical ideas and land occupation techniques (known as Feng Shui in China), agricultural and gardening arts, water conservancy and transportation projects on different scales, landscape aesthetic art, Residential and urban construction technologies are our precious cultural and artistic heritage, and are the predecessor and source of our modern landscape design. However, compared with traditional gardening art, the meaning of modern landscape has more extension and connotation. Big expansion. The first places in the world where commercial green spaces appeared were often in areas where natural conditions could meet people's living needs, but there was a lack of close contact with natural mountains and rivers. People needed to adjust their psychology through contact with nature in order to gain emotional peace and aesthetics. of satisfaction. This is the climate in most parts of Western Asia, such as Persia (Iran) and Arabia, thus creating the world's earliest operating green spaces (the predecessor of gardens). In addition to the gardening system in West Asia, there are two major systems in the world, namely the European system and the Chinese system. Gardening in West Asia began in Persia, and evolved from hunting gardens to amusement parks. In the 5th century BC, the "paradise garden" divided by walls appeared, and there were also records about the paradise garden in Greece at the same time. By the 8th century AD, Persian gardens began to be laid out in a "field" shape, divided into four areas by vertical and horizontal axes, with a central pool in the center of the cross-boulevard, symbolizing heaven. In the arid land of West Asia, water has always been the life of the garden. Later, Arabia inherited the Islamic water law, and spread it to North Africa and Spain, as well as India and Kashmir with the Islamic military expeditions. In all Muslim areas, water is cherished, respected and even deified, so that water can play its best role in the garden. After the Islamic water method was introduced to Italy, it evolved to a magical level. It is fully demonstrated in every garden and has become an indispensable embellishment in European gardens. Muslim gardens and water practices bore fruit in Spain. On the edge of the city of Granada, there is the "Alhambra" (Alhambra) built around the 14th century AD. It has been under construction for hundreds of years and consists of six large and small courtyards and seven halls. Among them, the Alhambra built in 1377 The "Lion Court" is world-famous. Orange trees are planted in the Lion Court, and a cross-shaped water channel symbolizes heaven. The doors between the courts are connected to each other and separated by leaky windows to expand the sense of space in the garden. The buildings in Islamic gardens are rich in color, and the contrast between carvings and flowers and trees is strong. At the same time, Islamic gardens use rich color patterns to pave the ground instead of lawn flower beds. The "Garden within a Garden" not far from the "Red Fort" is also a typical representative of the Islamic Garden. The layout of Western gardens is mostly regular gardens, and the landscaping is mostly extreme, sparse or dense. It is more of a shock to the whole, emphasizing the integration of nature and man (like towering large woods, neat and orderly layout to divide the manor). Chinese classical gardens emphasize symmetry in architecture and winding paths in landscaping. The artistic conception of a village with dark willows and bright flowers reflects the poet's feelings and the unification of nature. The small artistic conception of Chinese gardens is incomprehensible to Western gardens. Any formal small artistic conception truly embodies the beauty of nature. The unique scenery of Chinese gardens is unique in the world of garden art.