Wind and water together express the power of the elements that flow in the natural environment. At the agricultural and landscape level they represent the strength that, if it is not stagnant, produces fertile and luxuriant soils, being the energy that nourishes a territory.
The ancient art of Feng Shui
Feng Shui emphasizes the shapes and signs of the landscape by analyzing them from where they rise up to where they end, thus determining their position and orientation.
Cosmology and landscape have always been the two roots of Feng Shui, as also the sacred respect for the genius loci, that is one of the key points of this discipline, conceived as the morphogenetic matrix that has worked in the past, to which we owe the urban and environmental quality present in a territory.
The rejection of linearity is the basis of the practice of Wind and Water, in a sense that curved lines are typical of Chinese civilization, just as the lines and right angles are characteristic of Western civilization.
This same logic is repeated in the design of the garden that differs from the western scheme, where the character of enormous geometric and perspective rectification of nature is detected: on the contrary the Chinese garden escapes all compositional rules, it is all a succession of “green and water “, in the right balance of the five elements and pervaded of theory of yin and yang (succession of slow and fast waters, soft and vivid colors, light and shadow …).
The spirit that animates the concept of the Chinese garden, in fact, is totally different from that found in Western gardens: the latter reflect the tendency of man to dominate nature, to see in the garden yet another possibility of expressing one’s own rationality through the above mentioned rectilinear geometric shapes and elaborate symmetries; on the contrary, in the Chinese garden the common and dominant theme is that of a profound respect for nature, for the balance and the proportions of its elements.
The ingredients of the Chinese garden
The creation of artificial depths through simulating views of the distance effect, such as the use of psychological devices (colors, perfumes, natural forms, light, shade, water and green), skillful masking of the elements and structures to simulate the surprise effect, natural symbols and respect for sacred numbers (in particular three and five).
The image we have of Chinese architecture including the majestic imperial gardens, is based in principle on the complexes built in the Ming era (1368 – 1644) and still exist today, as the Imperial Palace with its beautiful gardens (built between 1417 and 1420), the Temple of Heaven, the Temple of the Ancestors, the Great Wall, the administrative offices and the fortifications of the cities. The Ming dynasty made no significant changes to the conventions formulated in the Yingzao fashi manual of the Song era (in power in the years 960 -1127 and 1127 – 1279).
The garden constituted one of the great themes of Ming painting.
Next to the descriptions of royal gardens, around 1634 the first theoretical essay on gardening was published, the Yuan Ye by Ji Cheng (1582 -?), a treaty in three volumes that addresses all the fundamental sectors of the architecture of the garden: buildings, choice of land, jiashan artificial mountains (with caverns), lakes and artificial waterways (not always available in nature), decorative elements such as half-timbered frames to frame landscapes, doors, octagonal windows, paths bordered by low walls, elegant bridges , balustrades as well as precise indications on the construction of the pavement or on the choice of “capricious stones” and panoramic views (jie jing, or “loaned” panoramas).
The supreme rule was to create a copy of nature, even richer in terms of meaning of the “original”.
Nothing was left to chance
An essential feature of Feng shui was the choice of the location of the garden; to be oriented along the north-south axis with the north towards the mountains, to the west with respect to the cities, and on the water, surrounded by an interesting landscape from which one could see a beautiful view, the principle of variety, of which nature itself provides an example, and the alternation of animate and inanimate elements.
This explains the wide range of architectural types inside the garden, from the triangular pavilion open to the ambulatories (covered corridors by the portico), to the two-storey castelletti (lou).
The symmetry in the garden is instead absolutely banned
Taking the irregularity of nature as a model, the goal becomes arranging the buildings in an irregular way in the space, in order to arouse as much as possible a sense of marvelous astonishment.
The creation of a garden was considered complete only when each of its scenery had been baptized with a specific name (such as the Dry Garden, the Garden of the Master of the Nets, the Garden of the Eternal Spring or the Garden of Relaxation).
Ji Cheng’s manual was not intended as a set of strict rules, but as a source of inspiration, to be developed at will. For Ji, the art of gardening consisted in creating an absolute illusion of natural landscape, capturing in the garden the spirit (Qi) of nature with artificial means, almost a sort of refinement of nature itself
(Fahr Becker G., 1999 ).
The garden has to offer a shelter
The sense of the garden is to offer a shelter, a shelter surrounded by sight of captivating landscapes “loan” from nature.
There is no shortage of symbolic and formal motifs, often represented by dragons as a symbol of the flow of water, or the shape of the vase used in many gardens because this form, ping evokes the word “peace” for homophony, or even the pavilions with stone foundations reproducing the keel of a boat.
The architecture of the Qing era (1644 – 1911) kept the standards of the Ming tradition unchanged.
Having no more sufficient free space available, the Qing emperors did not have the possibility to realize in Beijing or in the imperial palaces works as grand as their predecessors.
They had to limit to embellishment and restoration work.
The Qing era was above all the age of the restoration of the imperial gardens.
There were no specialized architects, but only artisans in the sector.
Rich traders, officials-writers and the emperor himself, drew all intellectual contentment from modeling and improving nature.
They were the ones to suggest the ideas that geomancers, carpenters, laborers, gardeners and “stone artists”, or “masters of the artificial mountains”, had to translate into practice.
The initial idea was often suggested by the imitation of other people’s gardens, by literary descriptions, by documentary painting and by poetry, together with suggestions drawn from Yuan Ye and from the discipline of Feng shui.
Fundamental characteristics of the garden, regardless of size, were always the variety, the surprise effect and the presence of natural landscapes created with artificial means.
Yuyuan garden a Shanghay
The Yuyuan garden is located in the northeastern part of the old city of Shanghai, and in the heart of today’s city.
According to the practice of Feng shui, by analyzing the Compass School, one notes that the garden is located in the area subjected to the Wood energy perfectly in harmony according to the 5 elements.
Furthermore, the garden is located in the favorable loop (embrace) of the Huangpu river.
It is a classic Chinese garden originally private that dates back to the Ming era with a history of over 400 years.
Interesting is the Dragon wall located according to the theory of the 4 animals on the left side of the main entrance.
The water gardens are almost all in the east and southeast part, that is in the area with wood energy.
In the final part of the garden there is a nine-zig-zag bridge as a crossing element of a large pond.
The five elements are all present:
Fire: it is found in the shape of the roofs of the pavilions with the points facing upwards, in the color of the walls of the pavilions, in the goldfish present in huge quantities and in the coloration of some holes.
Earth: in the rocks, stones, in the plan of some pavilions.
Metal: in the arches of some passages, in the white color of the wall.
Water: in the ponds, and in the windows of the pavilions.
Wood: in the vegetation.
The modern tendency is to create gardens and outdoor rooms for meditation, in fact the demand is also growing strongly in the western world.