The Artistic Implication Of Stone Boats In Suzhou Private Gardens

For reserving the largest and most complete group of private gardens,Suzhou private gardens group has become the representative of jiangnan private gardens.There are stone boats built as viewing points in most Suzhou private gardens' waterscape.Suzhou private gardens often express the spirit of literati,so,as the most interesting architecture in gardens,the stone boat is not simply an interesting architecture of imitating the lake boat,but also has deep cultural implications.Based on the macroscopic description of the historical development and the characteristics of The Times of stone boats,this paper takes the actual living relationship between stone boats and their architectural prototypes as the starting point to explain the practical significance of the construction of stone boats.Then,the artistic commonness of stone boat in Suzhou private gardens is illustrated from three aspects: construction principle,artistic effect and aesthetic aim.In terms of the construction principle,it follows the idea of making utensils to imitate cosmos in three levels,that is,the visual reference to the gaily-painted pleasure-boat;rules and regulations of fishing hermit from the connotation;the intrinsical embodiment of the order of time and space.In terms of artistic effect,the combination of literary image and the theme of fishing hermit builds the artistic conception of mutualism of blankness and fullness,and blending of emotions and scene.The aesthetic goal points out that stone boats provide aesthetic pleasure for the aesthetes from external comfort to joviality of forgetting all.Finally,through the comparison with stone boats in other areas,such as lingnan private gardens,north private gardens and royal gardens,and the appreciation of modern stone boats,this paper highlights the unique cultural implications of each stone boat in Suzhou private gardens,and provides suggestions and directions for the future construction of stone boats.