On "Natural" Rank Of Chinese Classical Garden

With the building technique of naturally gardening, directed by the thought "created by man, as if natural", Chinese classical garden was made the kind of garden landscape which was derived from nature, higher than the natural. The rockery, water, vegetation and building in classical gardens bring people endless aesthetic artistic conception while they reflect the ancient profound philosophy. "Natural" rank is the highest ideal of Chinese classical garden creation and the highest standard of aesthetic tasting. What is its aesthetic connotation? How to achieve this aesthetic height in the landscape design? This is what the thesis explores. Using examples of argumentation method, citation method, legend method and research method of literature, the thesis illustrates the history, connotation, application and forming process of natural rank in three parts.It firstly discusses the meaning of "natural" rank:"natural" means existing in or produced by nature; "rating" refers to assessing and ranking in order. It then briefly expounds the era background and the exact time when the standard of aesthetics tasting, "natural" rank, was put forward.The body is made up of three parts. The first part, which focuses on the historical origin of "natural" rank, respectively discusses and analyzes its philosophical origin and aesthetic origin. When probing its philosophy origin, it mainly talks over the meaning of "natural" in Zhuang Zi’s philosophy. When searching Aesthetic origin, it explores the developing process of the appraisal standard, the "natural" rank. By discoursing the method of space arrangement, stacking rockery and water body, planting, building construction, the view of the garden vanity in Chinese classical garden, the second part tries to reveal the "natural" rank of the existing classical gardens.The third part mainly relates and analyzes the creating process of "natural" rank:from the knowledge accumulation, conceiving to reaching the aesthetic realm of miraculous awakening to the nature, which are the stages to attain such an aesthetic height.In conclusive part, it summarizes aesthetic connotation and practical importance of natural rank:natural rank means possessing six evaluation criteria;the lively spirit is the soul of natural rank:natural rank is the highest ideal of the creation of Chinese classical garden, the highest aim of building Chinese classical gardening and the the highest state of landscape appreciation. At last, the thesis makes a prospect of landscape architecture. Due to today’s shortage of resources and deterioration of ecological environment, the concept of landscape building, "natural" rank, has certain reference significance to sustainable development of contemporary landscape architecture.