China and the West

Chambers, William. A dissertation on Oriental gardening [ID D9243]. (1)
Quellen : Chambers' Aufenthalt in Guangzhou.
Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste. Description [ID D1819].
Attiret, Jean-Denis. A description of the Emperor's garden and pleasure houses near Peking [ID D11696].
William Chambers schickt 1772 ein Exemplar seiner Dissertation on Oriental gardening und 1773 die zweite erweiterte Auflage in franzöischer Übersetzung an König Gustav III. von Schweden.
PREFACE
Amongst the decorative arts, there is none of which the influence is so extensive as that of Gardening. The productions of other arts have their separate classes of admirers, who alone relish or set any great value upon them ; to the rest of the world they are indifferent, sometimes disgusting. A building affords no pleasure to the generality of men, but what results from the grandeur of the object, or the value of its materials : nor doth a picture affect them, but by its resemblance to life. A thousand other beauties, of a higher kind, are lost upon them ; for in Architecture, in Painting, and indeed in most other arts, men must learn before they can admire : their pleasure keeps pace with their judgment ; and is is only by knowing much, that they can be highly delighted.
But Gardening is of a different nature : its dominion is general ; its effects upon the human mind certain and invariable ; without any previous information, without being taught, all men are delighted with the gay luxuriant scenery of summer, and depressed at the dismal aspect of autumnal prospects ; the charms of cultivation are equally sensible to the ignorant and the learned, and they are equally disgusted at the rudeness of neglected nature ; lawns, woods, shrubberies, rives and mountains, affect them both in the same manner ; and every combination of these will excite similar sensations in the minds of both.
Nor are the productions of this Art less permanent than general in their effects. Pictures, statues, buildings, soon glut the fight, and grow indifferent to the spectator : but in gardens there is a continual state of fluctuation, that leaves no room for satiety ; the progress of vegetation, the vicissitudes of seasons, the changes of the weather, the different directions of the sun, the passage of clouds, the agitation and sounds produced by winds, together with the accidental intervention of living or moving objects, vary the appearances so often, and so considerably, that it is almost impossible to be cloyed, even with the same prospects.
Is it not singular then, that an Art with which a considerable part of our enjoyments is so universally connected, should have no regular professors in our quarter of the world ? Upon the continent it is a collateral branch of the architect's employment, who, immersed in the study and avocations of his own profession, finds no leisure for other disquisitions ; and, in this island, it is abandoned to kitchen gardeners, well skilled in the culture of sallads, but little acquainted with the principles of Ornamental Gardening. It cannot be expected that men uneducated, and doomed by their condition to waste the vigor of life in hard labour, should ever go far in so refined, so difficult a pursuit.
To this unaccountable want of regular masters may, in a great measure, be ascribed the scarcity of perfect gardens. There are indeed very few in our part of the globe wherein nature has been improved to the best advantage, or art employed with the soundest judgment. The gardens of Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and of all the other countries where the antient style still prevails, are in general mere cities of verdure ; the walks are like streets conducted in strait lines, regularly diverging from different large open spaces, resembling public squares ; and the hedges with which they are bordered, are raised, in imitation of walls, adorned with pilasters, niches, windows and doors, or cut into colonades, arcades and porticus ; all the detached trees are shaped into obelisks, pyramids and vases ; and all the recesses in the thickets bear the names and forms of theatres, amphitheatres, temples, banqueting halls, ball rooms, cabinets and saloons. The streets and squares are well manned with statues of marble or lead, ranged in regular lines, like soldiers at a procession ; which, to make them more natural, are sometimes painted in proper colours, and finely gilt. The lakes and rivers are confined by quais of hewn stone, and taught to flow in geometrick order ; and the cascades glide from the heights by many of succession of marble steps : not a twig is suffered to grow as nature directs ; nor is a form admitted but what is scientific, and determinable by the line or compass.
In England, where this antient style is held in detestation, and where, in opposition to the rest of Europe, a new manner is universally adopted, in which no appearance of art is tolerated, our gardens differ very little from common fields, so closely is common nature copied in most of them ; there is generally so little variety in the objects, such a poverty of imagination in the contrivance, and of art in the arrangement, that these compositions rather appear the offspring of change than design ; and a stranger is often at a loss to know whether he be walking in a meadow, or in a pleasure ground, made and kept at a very considerable expence : he sees nothing to amuse him, nothing to excite his curiosity, nor any thing to keep up his attention. At his first entrance, he is treated with the fight of a large green field, scattered over with a few straggling trees, and verged with a confused border of little shrubs and flowers ; upon farther inspection, he finds a little serpentine path, twining in regular esses amongst the shrubs of the border, upon which he is to go round, to look on one side at what he has already seen, the large green field ; and on the other side at the boundary, which is never more than a few yards from him, and always obtruding upon his fight : from time to time he perceives a little seat or temple stuck up against the wall ; he rejoices at the discovery, sits down, rests his wearied limbs, and then reels on again, cursing the line of beauty, till spent with fatigue, half roasted by the sun, for there is never any shade, and tired for want of entertainment, he resolves to see no more : vain resolution ! there is but one path ; he must either drag on to the end, or return back by the tedious way he came.
Such is the favourite plan of all our smaller gardens : and our larger works are only a repetition of the small ones ; more green fields, more shrubberies, more serpentine walks, and more seats ; like the honest batchelor's feast, which consisted in nothing but a multiplication of his own dinner ; three legs of mutton and turneps, three roasted geese, and three buttered apple-pies.
It is I think obvious that neither the artful nor the simple style of Gardening here mentioned, is right : the one being too extravagant a deviation from nature ; the other too scrupulous an adherence to her. One manner is absurd ; the other insipid and vulgar : a judicious mixture of both would certainly be more perfect than either.
But how this union can be effected, is difficult to say. The men of art, and the friends of nature, are equally violent in defence of their favourite system ; and, like all other partizans, loth go give up any thing, however unreasonable.
Such a coalition is therefore now not to be expected : whoever should be bold enough to attempt it, would probably incur the censure of both sides, without reforming either ; and consequently prejudice himself, without doing service to the Art.
But though it might be impertinent as well as useless to start a new system of one's own, it cannot be improper, nor totally unserviceable, to publish that of others ; especially of a people whose skill in Gardening has often been the subject of praise ; and whose manner has been set up amongst us as the standard of imitation, without ever having been properly defined. It is a common saying, That from the worst things some good may be extracted ; and even if what I have to relate should be inferior to what is already known, yet surely some useful hints may be collected from it.
I may therefore, without danger to myself, and it is hoped without offence to others, offer the following account of the Chinese manner of Gardening ; which is collected from my own observations in China, from conversations with their Artists, and remarks transmitted to me at different times by travellers. A sketch of what I have now attempted to finish, was published some years ago ; and the favourable reception granted to that little performance, induced me to collect materials for this.
Whether the Chinese manner of Gardening be better or worse than those now in use amongst the Europeans, I will not determine : comparison is the surest as well as the easiest test of truth ; it is in every man's power to compare and to judge for himself. Should the present publication contain any thing useful, my purpose will be fully answered ; if not, it may perhaps afford some little entertainment, or serve at worst to kill and idle hour.
I must not enter upon my subject, without apologizing for the liberties here taken with our English Gardens : there are, indeed, several that do not come within the compass of my description ; some of which were laid out by their owners, who are as eminently skilled in Gardening, as in many other braches of polite knowledge ; the rest owe most of their excellence to nature, and are, upon the whole, very little improved by the interposition of art ; which, though it may have heightened some of their beauties, has totally robbed them of many others.
It would be tedious to enumerate all the errors of a false taste : but the havock it has made in our old plantations, must ever be remembered with indignation : the ax has often, in one day, laid waste the growth of several ages ; and thousands of venerable plants, whole woods of them, have been swept away, to make room for a little grass, and a few American weeds. Our virtuosi have scarcely left an acre of shade, nor three trees growing in a line, from the Land's-end to the Tweed ; and if their humour for devastation continues to rage much longer, there will not be a forest-tree left standing in the whole kingdom.

DISSERTATION
Amongst the Chinese, Gardening is held in much higher esteem, than it is in Europe ; they rank a perfect work in the Art, with the great productions of the human understanding ; and say, that its efficacy in moving the passions, yields to that of few other arts whatever.
Their Gardeners are not only Botanists, but also Painters and Philosophers, having a thorough knowledge of the human mind, and of the arts by which its strongest feelings are excited. It is not in China, as in Italy and France, where every petty Architect is a Gardener ; neither is it as in another famous country, where peasants emerge from the melon grounds to commence professors ; so Sganarelle, the faggot-maker, laid down his hatchet to turn physician. In China, Gardening is a distinct profession, requiring an extensive study, to the perfection of which few arrive. The Gardeners there, far from being either ignorant or illiterate, are men of high abilities, who join to good natural parts, most ornaments that study, travelling , and long experience can supply them with : it is in consideration of these accomplishments only that they are permitted to exercise their profession ; for with the Chinese the taste of Ornamental Gardening is an object of legislative attention, it being supposed to have an influence upon the general culture, and consequently upon the beauty of the whole country. They observe, that mistakes committed in this Art, are too important to be tolerated, being much exposed to view, and in a great measure irreparable ; as it often requires the space of a century, to redress the blunders of an hour.
The Chinese Gardeners take nature for their pattern ; and their aim is to imitate all her beautiful irregularities. Their first consideration is the nature of the ground they are to work upon : whether it be flat or sloping ; hilly or mountainous ; small or of considerable extent ; abounding with springs and rivers, or laboring under a scarcity of water ; whether woody or bare, rough or even, barren or rich ; and whether the transitions be sudden, and the character grand, wild or tremendous ; or whether they be gradual, and the general bent placid, gloomy or cheerful. To all which circumstances they carefully attend ; choosing such dispositions as humour the ground, hide its defects, improve or set off its advantages, and can be executed with expedition, at a moderate expence.
They are also attentive to the wealth or indigence of the patron by whom they are employed ; to his age, his infirmities, temper, amusements, connections, business and manner of living ; as likewise to the season of the year in which the Garden is likely to be most frequented by him : suiting themselves in their composition to his circumstances, and providing for his wants and recreations. Their skill consists in struggling with the imperfections and defects of nature, and with every other impediment ; and in producing, in spite of every obstacle, works that are uncommon, and perfect in their kind.
Though the Chinese artists have nature for their general model, yet are they not so attached to her as to exclude all appearance of art ; on the contrary, they think it, on many occasions, necessary to make an ostentatious shew of their labour. Nature, say they, affords us but few materials to work with. Plants, ground and water, are her only productions : and though both the forms and arrangements of these may be varied to an incredible degree, yet have they but few striking varieties, the rest being of the nature of changes rung upon bells, which, though in reality different, still produce the same uniform kind of jingling ; the variation being too minute to be easily perceived.
Art must therefore supply the scantiness of nature ; and not only be employed to produce variety, but also novelty and effect : for the simple arrangements of nature are met with in every common field, to a certain degree of perfections ; and are therefore too familiar to excite any strong sensations in the mind of the beholder, or to produce any uncommon degree of pleasure.
It is indeed true that novelty and variety may both be attained by transplanting the peculiarities of one country to another ; by introducing rocks, cataracts, impending woods, and other part of romantic situations, in flat places ; by employing much water where it is rare ; and cultivated plains, amidst the rude irregularities of mountains : but even this resource is easily exhausted, and can seldom be put in practice, without a very great expence.
The Chinese are therefore no enemies to strait lines ; because they are, generally speaking, productive of grandeur, which often cannot be attained without them : nor have they any aversion to regular geometrical figures, which they say are beautiful in themselves, and well suited to small compositions, where the luxuriant irregularities of nature would fill up and embarrass the parts they should adorn. They likewise think them properest for flower gardens, and all other compositions, where much art is apparent in the culture ; and where it should therefore not be omitted in the form.
Their regular buildings they generally surround with artificial terrasses, slopes, and many flights of steps ; the angles of which are adorned with groups of sculpture and vases, intermixed with all s
orts of artificial waterworks, which, connecting with the architecture, serve to give it consequence, and add to the gaiety, splendor, and bustle of the scenery.
Round the main habitation, and near all their decorated structures, the grounds are laid out with great regularity, and kept with great care : no plants are admitted that intercept the view of the buildings ; nor no lines but such as accompany the architecture properly, and contribute to the general good effect of the whole composition : for they hold it absurd to surround an elegant fabric with disorderly rude vegetation ; saying, that it looks like a diamond set in lead ; and always conveys the idea of an unfinished work. When the buildings are rustic, the scenery which surrounds them is wild ; when they are grand, it is gloomy ; when gay, it is luxuriant : in short, the Chinese are scrupulously nice in preserving the same character though every part of the composition ; which is one great cause of that surprising variety with which their works abound.
They are fond of introducing statues, busts, bas-reliefs, and every production of the chisel, as well in other parts of their Gardens, as round their buildings ; observing, that they are not only ornamental, but that by commemorating past events, and celebrated personages, they awaken the mind to pleasing contemplation, hurrying our reflections up into the remotest ages of antiquity : and they never fail to scatter antient inscriptions, verses, and moral sentences, about their grounds ; which are placed on large ruinated stones, and columns of marble, or engraved on trees and rocks ; such situations being always chosen for them, as correspond with the sense of the inscriptions ; which thereby acquire additional force in themselves, and likewise give a stronger expression to the scene.
They say that all these decorations are necessary, to characterize and distinguish the different scenes of their compositions ; among which, without such assistance, there must unavoidably be a tiresome similarity.
And whenever it is objected to them, that many of these things are unnatural, and ought therefore not to be suffered, they say, that most improvements are unnatural, yet they are allowed to be improvements, and not only tolerated, but admired. Our vestments, say they, are neither of leather, nor like our skins, but formed of rich silks and embroidery ; our houses and palaces bear no resemblance to caverns in the rocks, which are the only natural habitations ; nor is our music either like thunder, or the whistling of the northern wind, the harmony of nature. Nature produces nothing either boiled, roasted or stewed, and yet we do not eat raw meat ; nor doth the supply us with any other tools for all our purposes, but teeth and hands ; yet we have saws, hammers, axes, and a thousand other implements : in short, there is scarcely any thing in which art is not apparent ; and why should its appearance be excluded from Gardening only ? Poets and painters soar above the pitch of nature, when they would give energy to their compositions. The same privilege, therefore, should be allowed to Gardeners : inanimate, simple nature, is too insipid for our purposes ; much is expected from us ; and therefore, we have occasion for every aid that either art or nature can furnish. The scenery of a garden should differ as much from common nature as an heroic poem doth from a prose relation ; and Gardeners, like poets, should give a loose to their imagination, and even fly beyond the bounds of truth, whenever it is necessary to elevate, to embellish, to enliven, or to add novelty to their subject.
The useful method of distributing Gardens in China, is to contrive a great variety of scenes, to be seen from certain points of view ; at which are placed seats or buildings, adapted to the different purposes of mental or sensual enjoyments. The perfection of their Gardens consists in the number and diversity of these scenes ; and in the artful combination of their parts ; which they endeavor to dispose in such a manner, as not only separately to appear to the best advantage, but also to unite in forming an elegant and striking whole.
Where the ground is extensive, and many scenes can be introduced, they generally adapt each to one single point of view ; but where it is confined, and affords no room for variety, they dispose their objects so, that being viewed from different points, they produce different representations ; and often such as bear no resemblance to each other. They likewise endeavor to place the separate scenes of their compositions in such directions as to unite, and be seen all together, from one or more particular points of view, whence the eye may be delighted with an extensive, rich and variegated prospect. They take all possible advantage of exterior objects ; hiding carefully the boundaries of their own grounds ; and endeavouring to make an apparent union between them and the distant woods, fields and rivers : and where towns, castles, towers, or any other considerable objects are in fight, they artfully contrive to have them seen from as many points, and in as many directions as possible. The same they do with their regard to navigable rivers, high roads, foot-paths, mills, and all other moving objects, which animate and add variety to the landscape.
Besides the usual European methods of concealing boundaries by ha-has, and sunk fences, they have others, still more effectual. On flats, where they have naturally no prospects of exterior objects, they enclose their plantations with artificial terrasses, in the form of walks, to which you ascend by insensible slopes : these they border on the inside with thickets of lofty trees and underwood ; and on the outside, with low shrubberies ; over which the passenger sees the whole scenery of the adjacent country, in appearance forming a continuation of the Garden, as its fence is carefully concealed amongst the shrubs that cover the outside declivity of the terrass.
And where the Garden happens to stand on higher ground than the adjacent country, they carry artificial rivers round the outskirts, under the opposite banks of which the boundaries are concealed, amongst trees and shrubs. Sometimes too they make use of strong wire fences, painted green, fastened to the trees and shrubs that border the plantations, and carried round in many irregular directions, which are scarcely seen till you come very near them : and wherever ha-has, or sunk fences are used, they always fill the trenches with briars, and other thorny plants, to strengthen the fence, and to conceal the walls, which otherwise would have an ugly appearance from without.
In their large Gardens they contrive different scenes for the different times of the day ; disposing at the points of view buildings, which from their use point out the proper hour for enjoying the view in its perfections. And in their small ones, where, as has been observed, one arrangement produces many representations, they make use of the same artifice. They have beside, scenes for every season of the year : some for winter, general ex posed to the southern sun, and composed of pines, firs, cedars, evergreen oask, phillyreas, hollies, yews, and many other evergreens ; being enriched with laurels of various sorts, laurestinus, arbutus, and other plants and vegetables that grow and flourish in cold weather : and to give variety and gaiety to these gloomy productions, they plant amongst them, in regular forms, divided by walks, all the rare shrubs, flowers and trees of the torrid zone ; which they cover, during the winter, with frames of glass, disposed in the forms of temples, and other elegant buildings. These they call conservatiories ; they are warmed by subterraneous fires, and afford a comfortable and agreeable retreat, when the weather is too cold to walk in the open air. All sorts of beautiful and melodious birds are let loose in them : and they keep there, in large porcelain cisterns, placed on artificial rocks, gold and silver fishes ; with various kinds of aquatic plants and flowers : they also raise in them strawberries, cherries, figs, grapes, apricots and peaches, which cover the wood-work of their glass frames, and serve for ornament as well as use.
Their scenes of spring likewise abound with evergreens, intermixed with lilacks of all sorts, laburnums, limes, larixes, double blossomed thorn, almond and peach-trees ; with sweet-bryar, early roses, and honey-suckles. The ground, and verges of the thickets and shrubberies, are adorned with wild hyacinths, wall-flowers, daffodils, violets, primroses, polianthes's, crocus's, daisies, snow-drops, and various species of the iris ; with such other flowers as appear in the months of March and April : and as these scenes are also scanty in their natural productions, they intersperse amongst their plantations, menageries for all sorts of tame and ferocious animals, and birds of prey ; aviaries and groves, with proper contrivances for breeding domestic fowls ; decorated dairies ; and buildings for the exercises of wrestling, boxing, quail-fighting, and other games known in China. They also contrive in the woods large open recesses for military sports ; as riding, vaulting, fencing, shooting with the bow, and running.
Their summer scenes compose the richest and most studied parts of their Gardens. They abound with lakes, rivers, and water-works of every contrivance ; and with vessels of every construction, calculated for the uses of sailing, rowing, fishing, fowling, and fighting. The woods consist of oak, beech, Indian chesnut, elm, ash, plane, sycamore, maple, abele and several other species of the popular ; with many other trees, peculiar to China. The thickets are composed of every fair deciduous plant that grows in that climate, and every flower or shrub that flourishes during the summer months ; all uniting to form the finest verdure, the most brilliant, harmonious colouring imaginable. The buildings are spacious, splendid and numerous ; every scene being marked by one or more : some of them contrived for banquets, balls, concerts, learned disputations, plays, rope-dancing, and feats of activity ; others again for bathing, swimming, reading, sleeping, or meditation.
In the center of these summer plantations, there I generally a large tract of ground set aside for more secret and voluptuous enjoyments ; which is laid out in a great number of close walks, colonades and passages, turned with many intricate windings, so as to confuse and lead the passenger astray ; being sometimes divided by thickets of underwood, intermixed with straggling large trees ; and at other times by higher plantations, or by clumbs of rose-trees, and other lofty flowering shrubs. The whole is a wilderness of sweets, adorned with all sorts of fragrant and gaudy productions : gold and silver pheasants, pea-fowls, partridges, bantam hens, quails, and game of every kind, swarm in the woods ; doves, nightingales, and a thousand melodious birds, perch upon the branches ; deer, antelopes, spotted buffaloes, sheep, and Tartarean horses, frisk upon the plains : every walk leads to some delightful object ; to groves of orange and myrtle ; to rivulets, whose banks are clad with roses, woodbine and Jessamine ; to murmuring fountains, with statues of sleeping nymphs, and water-gods ; to cabinets of verdure, with beds of aromatic herbs and flowers ; to grottos cut in rocks, adorned with incrustations of coral shells, ores, gems and christalisations, refreshed with rills of sweet scented water, and cooled by fragrant, artificial breezes.
Amongst the thickets which divide the walks, are many secret recesses ; in each of which there is an elegant pavilion, consisting of one state-apartment, with out-houses, and proper conveniences for eunuchs and women-servants. These are inhabited, during the summer, by their fairest and most accomplished concubines ; each of them, with her attendants, occupying a separate pavilion.
The principal apartment of these buildings, consists of one or more large saloons, two cabinet or dressing-rooms, a library, a couple of bed-chambers and waiting-rooms, a bath, and several private closets ; all which are magnificently furnished, and provided with entertaining books, amorous paintings, musical instruments, implement for gaming, writing, drawing, painting and embroidering ; with beds, couches, and chairs, of various constructions, for the uses of sitting and lying in different postures.
The saloons generally open to little enclosed courts, set round with beautiful flower-pots, of different forms, made of porcelain, marble or copper, filled with the rarest flowers of the season : at the end of the court there is generally an aviary ; an artificial rock with a fountain and bason for gold fish ; a cascade ; an arbor of bamboo or vine interwoven with flowering shrubs ; or some other elegant contrivance, of the like nature.
Besides these separate habitations, in which the ladies are privately visited by the patron, as often as he is disposed to see them, there are, in other larger recesses of the thickets, more splendid and spacious buildings, where the women all meet at certain hours of the day, either to eat at the public tables, to drink their tea to converse, bathe, swim, work, romp, or to play at the mora, and other games known in China ; or else to divert the patron with music, singing, lascivious posture-dancing, and acting plays or pantomines ; at all which they generally are very expert.
Some of these structures are entirely open ; the roof being supported on columns of rose-wood, or cedar, with bases of Corean jasper ; or upon wooden pillars, made in imitation of bamboo, and plantane-trees, surrounded with garlands of fruit and flowers, artfully carved, being painted and varnished in proper colours. Others are enclosed ; and consist sometimes only of one spacious hall, and sometimes of many different sized rooms, of various forms ; as triangles, squares, hexagons, octagons, circles, ovals, and irregular whimsical shapes ; all of them elegantly finished with incrustations of marble, inlaid precious woods, ivory, silver, gold, and mother of pearl ; with a profusion of antient porcelain, mirrors, carving, gilding, painting and lacquering of all colours.
The doors of entrance to these apartments, are circular and polygonal, as well as rectangular : and the windows by which they are lighted, are made in the shapes of fans, birds, animals, fishes, insects, leaves and flowers ; being filled with painted glass, or different coloured gause, to tinge the light, and give a glow to the objects in the apartment.
All these buildings are furnished at a very great expence, not only with the necessary moveables, but with pictures, sculptures, embroideries, trinkets, and pieces of clock-work of great value, being some of them very large, composed of many ingenious movements, and enriched with ornaments of gild, intermixed with pearls, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and other gems.
Besides the different structures already mentioned, they have some made in the form of Persian tents ; others built of roots and pollards, put together with great taste ; and others, called Miau Ting, or Halls of the Moon, of a prodigious size ; composed each of one single vaulted room, made in the shape of a hemisphere ; the concave of which is artfully painted, in imitation of a nocturnal sky, and pierced with an infinite number of little windows, made to represent the moon and stars, being filled with tinged glass, that admits the light in the quantities necessary to spread over the whole interior fabric the pleasing gloom of a fine summer's night.
The pavements of these rooms are sometimes laid out in parterres of slowers ; amongst which are placed many rural seats, made of fine formed branches, varnished red to represent coral : but oftenest their bottom is full of a clear running water, which falls in rills from the sides of a rock in the center ; many little islands float upon its surface, and move around as the current directs ; some of them covered with tables for the banquet ; others with seats for musicians ; and others with arbors, containing beds of repose, with sophas, seats, and other furniture, for various uses.
To these halls of the moon the Chinese princes retire, with their favourite women, whenever the heat and intense light of the summer's day becomes disagreeable to them ; and here they feast, and give a loose to every sort of voluptuous pleasure.
No nation ever equaled the Chinese in the splendor and number of their garden structures. We are told by Father Attiret, that in one of the imperial gardens near Pekin, called Yven Ming Yven, there are, besides the palace, which is of itself a city, four hundred pavilions, all so different in their architecture, that each seems the production of a different country. He mentions one of them, that cost upwards of two hundred thousand pounds, exclusive of the furniture ; another, consisting of a hundred rooms : and sys, that most of them are sufficiently capacious to lodge the greates European lord, and his whole retinue. There is likewise, in the same garden, a fortified town, with its port, streets, public squares, temples, markets, shops, and tribunals of justice : in short, with every thing that is at Pekin ; only upon a smaller scale.
In this town the emperors of China, who are too much the slaves of their greatness to appear in public, and their women, who are excluded from it by custom, are frequently diverted with the hurry and bustle of the capital ; which is there represented, several times in the year, by the eunuchs of the palace : some of them personating merchants, others artists, artificers, officers, soldiers, shop-keepers, porters, and even thieves and pickpockets. On the appointed day, each puts on the habit of his profession : the ships arrive at the port, the shops are opened, and the goods are offered to sale ; tea-houses, taverns, and inns, are ready for the reception of company ; fruits, and all sorts of refreshments, are cried about the streets : the shop-keepers teize the passengers to purchase their merchandize ; and every liberty is permitted : there is no distinction of persons ; even the emperor is confounded in the crowd : quarrels happen – battles ensue – the watch seizes upon the combatants – they are conveyed before the judge, he examines the dispute and condemns the culprit, who is sometimes very severely bastinadoed, to divert his imperial majesty, and the ladies of his train.
Neither are sharpers forgot in these festivals ; that noble profession is generally allotted to a good number of the most dextrous eunuchs, who, like the Spartan youths of old, are punished or applauded, according to the merit of their exploits.
The plantations of their autumnal scenes consist of many sorts of oak, beech, and other deciduous trees that are retentive of the leaf, and afford in their decline a rich variegated colouring ; with which they blend some fruit-trees, and the few shrubs and flowers which blossom late in the year ; placing amongst them decayed trees, pollards, and dead stumps, of picturesque forms, overspread with moss and ivy.
The buildings with which these scenes are decorated, are generally such as indicate decay, being intended as mementos to the passenger. Some are hermitages and alms-houses, where the faithful old servants of the family spend the remains of life in peace, amidst the tombs of their predecessors, who lie buried around them : others are ruins of castles, palaces, temples, and deserted religious houses ; or half buried triumphal arches and mausoleums, with mutilated inscriptions, that once commemorated the heroes of antient times ; or they are sepulchres of their ancestors, catacombs and cemeteries for their favourite domestic animals ; or whatever else may serve to indicate the debility, the disappointments, and the dissolution of humanity ; which, by co-operating with the dreary aspect of autumnal nature, and the inclement temperature of the air, fill the mind with melancholy, and incline it to serious reflections.
Such is the common scenery of the Chinese Gardens, where the ground has no striking tendency to any particular character. But where it is more strongly marked, their artists never fail to improve upon its singularities ; their aim is to excite a great variety of passions in the mind of the spectator ; and the fertility of their imaginations, always upon the stretch in search of novelty, furnishes them with a thousand artifices to accomplish that aim.
The scenes which I have hitherto described, are chiefly of the pleasing kind : but the Chinese Gardeners have many sorts, which they employ as cirumstances vary ; all which they range in three separate classes ; and distinguish them by the appellations of the pleasing, the terrible, and the surprising.
The first of these are composed of the gayest and most perfect productions of the vegetable world ; intermixed with rivers, lakes, cascades, fountains, and water-works of all sorts : being combined and disposed in all the picturesque forms that art or nature can suggest. Buildings, sculptures, and paintings are added, to give splendor and variety to these compositions ; and the rarest productions of the animal creation are collected, to enliven them : nothing is forgot that can either exhilarate the mind, gratify the senses, or give a spur to the imagination.
Their scenes of terror are composed of gloomy woods, deep vallies inaccessible to the sun, impending barren rocks, dark caverns, and impetuous cataracts rushing down the mountains from all parts. The trees are ill formed, forces out of their natural directions, and seemingly torn to pieces by the violence of tempests : some are thrown down, and intercept the course of the torrents ; others look as if blasted and shattered by the power of lightening : the buildings are in ruins ; or half consumed by fire, or swept away by the fury of the waters : nothing remaining entire but a few miserable huts dispersed in the mountains, which serve at one to indicate the existence and wretchedness of the inhabitants. Bats, owls, vultures, and every bird of prey flutter in the groves ; wolves, tigers and jackals howl in the forests ; half-famished animals wander upon the plains ; gibbets, crosses, wheels, and the whole apparatus of torture, are seen from the roads ; and in the most dismal recesses of the woods, where the ways are rugged and overgrown with weeds, and where every object bears the marks of depopulation, are temples dedicated to the king of vengeance, deep caverns in the rocks, and descents to subterraneous habitations, overgrown with brushwood and brambles ; near which are placed pillars of stone, with pathetic descriptions of tragical events, and many horrid acts of cruelty, perpetrated there by outlaws and robbers of former times : and to add both to the horror and sublimity of these scenes, they sometimes conceal in cavities, on the summits of the highest mountains, foundries, lime-kilns, and glass-works ; which send forth large volumes of flame, and continued columns of thick smoke, that give to these mountains the appearance of volcanoes.
Their surprising, or supernatural scenes, are of the romantic kind, and abound in the marvelous ; being calculated to excite in the minds of the spectators, quick sucessions of opposite and violent sensations : Sometimes the passenger is hurried by steep descending paths to subterraneous vaults, divided into apartments, where lamps, which yield a faint glimmering light, discover the pale images of antient kings and heroes, reclining on beds of state ; their heads are crowned with garlands of stars, and in their heads are crowned with garlands of stars, and in their hands are tablets of moral sentences : flutes, and soft harmonious organs, impelled by subterraneous waters, interrupt, at stated intervals, the silence of the place, and fill the air with solemn melody.
Sometimes the traveller, after having wandered in the dusk of the forest, finds himself on the edge of precipices, in the glare of day-light, with cataracts falling from the mountains around, and torrents raging in the depths beneath him ; or at the foot of impending rocks, in gloomy vallies, overhung with woods, on the banks of dull moving rivers, whose shores are covered with sepulchral monuments, under the shade of willows, laurels, and other plants, sacred to Manchew, the genius of sorrow.
His way now lies through dark passages cut in the rocks, on the side of which are recesses, filled with colossal figures of dragons, infernal fiends, and other horror forms, which hold in their monstrous talons, mysterious, cabalistical sentences, inscribed on tables of brass ; with preparations that yield a constant flame ; serving at once to guide and to astonish the passenger : from time to time he is surprised with repeated shocks of electrical impulse, with flowers of artificial rain, or sudden violent gusts of wind, and instantaneous explosions of fire ; the earth trembles under him, by the power of confined air ; and his ears are successively struck with many different sounds, produced by the same means ; some resembling the cries of men in torment ; others the roaring of bulls, and howl of ferocious animals, with the yell of hounds, and the voices of hunters ; others are like the mixed croaking of ravenous birds ; and others imitate thunder, the raging of the sea, the explosion of cannon, the sound of trumpets, and all the noise of war.
His road then lies through lofty woods, where serpents and lizards of many beautiful sorts crawl upon the ground, and where innumerable monkies, cats and parrots, clamber upon the trees, and intimidate him as he passes ; or through flowery thickets, where he is delighted with the singing of birds, the harmony of flutes, and all kinds of soft instrumental music : sometimes, in this romantic excursion, the passenger finds himself in extensive recesses, surrounded with arbors of Jessamine, vine and roses, where beauteous Tartarean damsels, in loose transparent robes, that flutter in the air, present him with rich wines, mangostans, ananas, and fruits of Quangsi ; crown him with garlands of flowers, and invite him to taste the sweets of retirement, on Persian carpets, and beds of camusathkin down.
These enchanted scenes always abound with waterworks, so contrived as to produce many surprising effects ; and many splendid pieces of scenery. Air is likewise employed with great success, on different occasions ; not only for the purposes above-mentioned, but likewise to form artificial and complicated echoes : some repeating the motion of the feet ; some the rustling of garments ; and others the human voice, in many different tones : all which are calculated to embarrass, to surprise, or to terrify the passenger in his progress.
All sorts of optical deceptions are also made use of ; such as paintings on prepared surfaces, contrived to vary the representations as often as the spectator changes place : exhibiting, in one view, groups of men ; in another, combats of animals ; in a third, rocks, cascades, trees and mountains ; in a fourth, temples and colonades ; and a variety of other pleasing subjects. They likewise contrive pavements and incrustations for the walls of their apartments, of Mosaic work, composed of many pieces of marble, seemingly thrown together without order or design ; which, when seen from certain points of view, unite in forming lively and exact representations of men, animals, buildings and landscapes : and they frequently introduce pieces of architecture, and even whole prospects in perspective ; which are formed by introducing temples, bridges, vessels, and other fixed objects, lessened as they are more distant from the points of view, by giving greyish tints to the distant parts of the compositions ; and by planting there trees of a fainter colour, and smaller growth, than those that appear in the fore ground : thus rendering considerable in appearance, what in reality is trifling.
The Chinese Artists introduce into these enchanted scenes, all kinds of sensitive, and other extraordinary trees, plants and flowers. They keep in them a surprising variety of monstrous birds, reptiles, and animals, which they import from distant countries, or obtain by crossing the breeds. These are tamed by art ; and guarded by enormous dogs of Tibet, and African giants, in the habits of magicians.
They likewise have amongst the plantations, cabinets, in which are collected all the extraordinary productions of the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms ; as well as paintings, sculptures, medals, antiquities, and ingenious inventions of the mechanic arts : which are a fresh source of entertainment, when the weather is bad, or when the heat is too intense to admit of being in the open air.
The communications to the different scenes and other parts of the Chinese Gardens, are by walks, roads, bridleways, navigable rivers, lakes, and canals ; in all which their artists introduce as much variety as possible ; not only in the forms and dimensions, but also in their decoration : avoiding, nevertheless, all the absurdities with which our antien European style of Gardening abounds.
"I am not ignorant", said one of their artists, "that your European planters, thinking Nature scanty in her arrangements, or being perhaps disgusted with the familiarity and commonness of natural objects, introduce artificial forms into their plantations, and cut their trees in the shapes of pyramids, flower-pots, men, fishes, and brute animals ; and I have heard of colonades, and whole palaces, formed by plants, cut as precisely as if they had been built of stone. But this is purchasing variety at the expence of reason : such extravagancies ought never to be tolerated, excepting in enchanted scenes : and there but very seldom ; for they must be as destitute of beauty, as they are of propriety ; and if the planter be a traveller, and a man of observation, he can want no such helps to variety, as he will recollect a thousand beautiful effects along the common roads of the countries through which he has passed, that may be introduced with much better success".
Their roads, walks and avenues, are either directed in a single straight line, twisted in crooked one, or carried zig-zag, by several straight lines, altering their course at certain points. They observe that there are few objects more strikingly great than a spacious road, planted on each side with lofty trees, and stretching in a direct line, beyond the reach of the eye ; and that there are few things more variously entertaining, than a winding one, which opening gradually to the sight, discovers, at every step, a new arrangement ; and although, in itself, it has not the power of raising violent emotions, yet, by bringing the passenger suddenly and unexpectedly to great or uncommon things, it occasions strong impressions of surprise and astonishment, which are more forcibly felt, as being more opposite to the tranquil pleasure enjoyed in the confined parts of the road : and, in small compositions, they find crooked directions exceedingly useful to the planter, who, by winding his walks, may give an idea of great extent, notwithstanding the narrowness of his limits.
They say that roads which are composed of repeated straight lines, altering their directions at certain points, have all the advantages both of crooked and straight ones, with other properties, peculiar to themselves. The variety and new arrangements of objects, say they, which present themselves at every change of direction, occupy the mind agreeably : their abrupt appearance occasions surprise ; which, when the extent is vast, and the repetitions frequent, swells into astonishment and admiration : the incertitude of the mind where these approaches towards the periods, are likewise very strong impressions, preventing that state of languor into which the mind naturally sinks by dwelling long on the same objects.
The straight directions, particularly the zig-zag, are, on account of these effects, well adapted to avenues or high roads, which lead to towns, palaces, bridges, or triumphal arches ; to castles or prisons, for the reception of criminals ; to mausoleums ; and all other works of which the intent is to inspire horror, veneration or astonishment. To humbler objects, the waving line is a more proper approach ; the smallness of their parts rendering them unfit for a distant inspection : and as they are trifling in themselves, they please most when their appearance is unexpected : and from the very point whence all their little beauties are seen in the highest lustre.
In disposing the walks of their Gardens, the Chinese artists are very attentive to lead them successively to all the principal buildings, fine prospects, and other interesting parts of the composition ; that the passenger may be conducted, insensibly, as it were by accident, and without turning back, or seeming to go out of the way, to very object deserving notice.
Both their straight and winding walks are, in some places, kept at a considerable distance from each other, and separated by close planted thickets, to hide all exterior objects ; as well to keep the passenger in suspense with regard to the extent, as to excite those gloomy sensations which naturally steal upon the mind, in wandering through the intricacies of a solitary forest. In other places the walks approach each other ; and the thickets growing gradually less deep, and more thinly planted, the ear is struck with the voices of those who are in the adjacent walks, and the eye amused with a confused fight of their persons, between the stems and foliage of the trees. Insensibly again the plantations spread and darken, the objects disappear, and the voices die in confused murmurs ; when unexpectedly the walks are turned into the same open spaces, and the different companies are agreeably surprised to meet where they may view each other, and satisfy their curiosity without impediment.
The Chinese Gardeners very seldom finish any of their walks en cul de sac ; carefully avoiding all unpleasant disappointments : but if at any time the nature of the situation obliges them to it, they always terminate at some interesting object ; which lessens the disappointment, and takes off the idea of a childish conceit.
Neither do they ever carry a walk round the extremities of a piece of ground, and leave the middle entirely open, as it is too often done amongst us : for though it might render the first glance striking and noble, they think the pleasure would be of short duration ; and that the spectator would be but moderately entertained, by walking several miles, with the same objects continually obtruding upon his fight. If the ground they have to work upon be small, and that they choose to exhibit a grand scene, either from the principal habitation, or any other capital point, they do indeed leave a great part of the space open ; but still care is taken to have a good depth of thicket, which frequently breaks considerably in upon the open space, and hides many parts of it from the spectator's eye.
These projections produce variety, by altering the apparent figure of the open space from every point of view ; and by constantly hiding parts of it, they create a mystery which excites the traveller's curiosity : they likewise occasion, in many places, a great depth in the thicket, to make recesses for buildings, seats, and other objects, as well as for bold windings of the principal walks, and for several smaller paths to branch off from the principal ones ; all which take off the idea of a boundary, and afford amusement to the passenger in his course : and as it is not easy to pursue all the turns of the different lateral paths, there is still something left to desire, and a field for the imagination to work upon.
In their crooked walks, they carefully avoid all sudden or unnatural windings, particularly the regular serpentine curves, of which our English Gardeners are so fond ; observing, that these eternal, uniform, undulating lines, are, of all things, the most unnatural, the most affected, and most tiresome to pursue. Having nature in view, they seldom turn their walks, without some apparent excuse ; either to avoid impediments, naturally existing, or raised by art, to improve the scenery. A mountain, a precipice, a deep valley, a marsh, a piece of rugged ground, a building, or some old venerable plant, afford a striking reason for turning aside ; and if a river, the sea, a wide extended lake, or a terrace commanding rich prospects, present themselves, they hold it judicious to follow them in all their windings ; so to protract the enjoyments which these noble objects procure : but on a plain, either open, or formed into groves and thickets, where no impediments oblige, nor no curiosity invites to follow a winding path, they think it absurd, saying, that the road must either have been made by art, or be worn by the constant passage of travellers ; in either of which cases, it cannot be supposed that men would go by crooked line, where they could arrive by a straight one. In general, they are very sparing of their twists, which are always easy, and so managed that never more than one curve is perceptible at the same time.
They likewise take care to avoid an exact parallelism in these walks, both with regard to the trees which border them, and the ground of which they are composed. The usual width given to the walk, is from eight to twenty, or even thirty feet, according to the extent of the plantation ; but the trees, on each side, are, in many places, more distant ; large spaces being left open, and covered with grass and wild flowers, or with fern, broom, briars, and underwood.
The ground of the walk is either of turf or gravel ; neither of them finishing exactly at its edges, bur running some way into the thickets, groves or shrubberies, on each side ; in order to imitate nature more closely, and to take off that disagreeable formality and stiffness, with a contrary practice occasions in our European plantations.
In their straight roads or walks, when the extent is vast, the Chinese artists observe an exact order and symmetry, saying, that in stupendous works, the appearance of art is by no means disgusting ; that it conveys to posterity instances of the grandeur of their ancestors ; and gives birth to many sublime and pleasing reflections. The imperial roads are astonishing works of this nature ; they are composed of triple avenues, adorned with four rows of enormous trees ; generally Indian chesnuts, spruce firs, mountain cedars, and other of formal shapes ; or oaks, elms, tulips, and others of the largest growth, planted at proper regular distances ; and extending in straight lines, and almost on a perfect level, two, three, even four hundred miles. The center avenues are from one hundred and fifty, to two hundred feet wide ; and the lateral ones, are generally from forty to fifty feet ; the spreading branches of the trees forming over them a natural umbrella, under which the travellers pass, at all times of the day, unmolested by the sun.
In some places these roads are carried, by lofty vaulted passages, through the rocks and mountains ; in others, upon causeways and bridges, over lakes, torrents, and arms of the sea ; and in others, they are supported, between the precipices, upon chains of iron, or upon pillars, and many tire of arcades, over villages, pagodas, and cities : in short, no difficulty has been attended to in their construction ; but every obstacle has been conquered with amazing industry, and at an almost incredible expence.
There are, in different parts of China, many works of the kinds just mentioned ; but amongst the most considerable, are counted the Passage of King-tong, the Bridges of Fo-cheu and Lo-yang, and the Cientao, in the province of Xensi.
The first of these is a communication between two precipices, composed in twenty enormous chains of iron, each two hundred feet in length, which are covered with planks and earth, to form the road.
The second is a bridge between Fo-cheu and the suburb Nan-ti, consisting of one hundred arches, of a sufficient size for the passage of ships under full sail : it is built of large blocks of hewn stone, and enclosed with a magnificent marble balustrade, the pedestals of which support two hundred colossal lions, artfully cut in the same material.
The bridge of Lo-yang is in the province of Fokien, and is the largest and most surprizing work of the sort that yet has been heard of. It is composed of three hundred piers of black marble, joined to each other by vast blocks of the same material, forming the road, which is enclosed with a marble balustrade, whose pedestals are adorned with lions, and other works of sculpture. The whole length of the bridge is sixteen thousand two hundred feet, or upwards of three miles ; its width is forty-two feet ; and the blocks of which it is composed are each fifty-four feet long, and six feet diameter.
The Cientao, or Way of Pillars, is a communication between many precipices, built to shorten the road to Pekin. It is near four miles long, of a considerable width, and supported over the vallies upon arches and stone piers of a terrifying height.
In the mountains, on each side of these imperial roads, are erected a great number of buildings, adorned with colossal statues, and other works of sculpture, which afford constant entertainment to the passengers. These are the monuments of their wise men, their saints, and their warriors, erected at the expence of the state, and furnished with nervous inscriptions, in the Chinese language, giving an account of the lives and actions of those they commemorate : some of these buildings are distributed into many spacious courts and stately apartments, being little inferior to palaces, either in magnificence or extent.
Instead of roads, the center avenues are sometimes formed into navigable canals, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet wide, being sufficiently deep to admit galleys and other small vessels ; with horse-ways on each side of the canals, for the convenience of towing them, either against the wind or the stream. On these the emperor, and Chinese mandarins, are frequently conveyed, in large magnificent sampans or barges, divided into many splendid rooms ; being sometimes attended by a considerable train of smaller vessels, of different constructions, adorned with dragons, streamers, lanterns of painted silk, and various other ornaments, the whole composing a very brilliant and entertaining show.
The imperial forests, besides the high roads which pass through them, have many spacious avenues cut in the woods, spreading from different centers, like rays of stars, and terminating at idol temples, towers, castles, and all the interesting objects of the circumjacent country. The centers from which these avenues part, are of a circular or octagonal figure, with eight avenues ; or of a semi-circular form, with only three branching from them. Their area is generally very considerable ; and its middle is adorned with a triumphal arch, a pagoda, a magnificent fountain, or some other considerable monument.
Where the extent is vast, each single avenue has besides, in its course, one or more open spaces, from which a number of smaller avenues again branch out, and terminate at many buildings, erected in the woods, for various purposes ; all which, without any confusion, add to the variety and intricacy of these compositions ; giving them an appearance of immensity not to be conceived, but by such as have seen them : and wherever a deep valley, a large river, or an arm of the sea, interrupt and break off the course of the avenues, the plantations are nevertheless continued on the opposite shore, in order to make them appear more considerable.
In straight roads, of smaller dimensions, the Chinese very artfully imitate the irregular workings of nature ; for although the general direction be a straight line, yet they easily avoid all appearance of stiffness or formality, by planting some of the trees out of the common line ; by inclining some of them out of an upright ; or by employing different species of plants, and by placing them at irregular distances, with their stems sometimes bare, and at other times covered with honey-suckles and sweet-bryar, or surrounded with underwood. They likewise cut and dispose the branches of the trees in various manners ; some being suffered to spread, to cover and shade the walks ; whilst others are shortened, to admit the sun. The ground too is composes of rises and falls ; and the banks on each side of the walk are, in some places, of a considerable height, forming hollow ways, which they often cover at the top with bushes and trunks of fallen trees : frequently too the course of the walk is interrupted by a large oak, or elm, or tulipifera, placed in the middle ; or by a screen of trees running quite across ; which, when the part on one side of the screen is opened and illuminated by the sun, and the part on the other side, close and shaded, produced a pleasing contrast.