The Aesthetic Composition And Cultural Connotation Of Literati Garden In Tang Dynasty

The literati garden which is the iconic transition of gardening art and its aesthetic stylesince Han Dynasty thrived in Tang Dynasty. The development of literati garden has gonethrough a long history, from the simple architectures imitating royal parks and gardens tothe complete harmonious natural landscape gardens which were thriving in TangDynasty-the gardening art also made great achievements at this time. From theperspectives of both aesthetics and art expression, the literati gardening art achieved theperfection in Tang Dynasty and become the highly mature and ideal art model. Throughpractical activities, the literati have formed the comprehensive and profound view ofgardens and they can skillfully and widely utilize the artistic creation methods to buildmore complete and harmonious art landscapes. On the gardening art, the craftsmanship ofpiling of rockeries, stone arrangement and layout of waters was proficient and skillful inTang Dynasty. Thanks to the social form and the culture system, literati gardening artreaches the brilliant achievement in Tang Dynasty. The following factors should be takeninto consideration: first, the economic strength of the landscape gardener lays theeconomic foundation for the development of gardening art; second, the practice of theimperial examination system, to some extent, promotes the literati gardening art of TangDynasty; finally, the prevalence of the landscape literature and reclusion culture enhancesthe development of the literati landscape gardening art.As the art of beauty, the literati gardens of Tang Dynasty create the beauty ofappearance, art and humanity. The beauty of appearance is mainly presented as the properand culturally-loaded landscape layout, including land layouts giving priority to mountains,waters or some buildings. The beauty of art is displayed in the far-reaching spaceexploration during the early Tang Dynasty, the artful space composition of “heaven andearth in the pot” and the artistic conception creation after the mid-Tang Dynasty. Thebeauty of humanity is characterized by the landscape of harmonious unity, vivid artistryand rich spirituality.As the comprehensive art, literati garden is a kind of environment for literati spirit andcultural ambience. It shows the mastery of literati gardening art as well as the high gardenart appreciation level of the landscape gardeners, carrying the spiritual culture andrevealing the cultural atmosphere of literati. The humanistic spirit of gardens mainlyreflects in two aspects: harmony between man and nature and reclusion spirit. On one hand, gardens reproduce the relationship of continuous development between man and nature.Human’s understanding of nature develops from ignorance to maturity, awe to appreciation.The ceaseless improvement of relationship between man and nature provides anopportunity for the development of landscape architecture. In gardening art, the natureconception of harmony between man and nature is represented in three aspects: thecombination of man and natural landscape, the artistic criterion of “learning from nature”and creation of artistic conception for purification of the mind. On the other hand, theliterati garden is the carrier of the reclusion spirit and culture. The gardens bears differentreclusion spirit of literati during various periods of Tang Dynasty: the reclusion conceptionlinking between the preceding and the following at the beginning of Tang Dynasty, thereclusion culture of “reclusion for the official career” in flourishing Tang Dynasty, the“modest reclusion” in mid-Tang Dynasty and the forced reclusion during the late TangDynasty.