Jesuit Garden in Beijing and Early Modern Chinese Culture

by Zou, Hui

• ISBN13: 9781557535832
• ISBN10: 1557535833
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-02-15
• Publisher: Purdue Univ Pr

Summary

In this volume, Hui Zou analyzes historical, architectural, visual, literary, and philosophical perspectives on the Western-styled garden that formed part of the great Yuanming Yuan complex in Beijing, constructed during the Qing dynasty. Designed and built in the late eighteenth century by Italian and French Jesuits, the garden described in this book was a wonderland of multistoried buildings, fountains, labyrinths, and geometrical hills. It even included an open-air theater. Through detailed examination of historical literature and representations, Zou analyzes the ways in which the Jesuits accommodated their design within the Chinese cultural context. He shows how an especially important element of their approach was the application of a linear perspective the "line-method"-to create the jing, the Chinese concept of the bounded bright view of a garden scene. Hui Zou's book demonstrates how Jesuit metaphysics fused with Chinese cosmology and broadens our understanding of cultural and religious encounters in early Chinese modernity. It presents an intriguing reflection on the interaction between Western metaphysics and the poetical tradition of Chinese culture. The volume will be of interest to scholars and students in a variety of fields, including literature, philosophy, architecture, landscape and urban studies, and East-West comparative cultural studies.

Author Biography

Hui Zou teaches architectural history, theory, and design at the University of Florida. His areas of research include comparative studies in architecture and garden histories, architectural philosophy, and Chinese architecture and garden histories. His publications have appeared in journals of architectural history, garden history, philosophy, and Sinology such as Chora: Intervals in the Philosophy of Architecture (2011), Journal of Environmental Philosophy (2010), Journal of Chinese Philosophy (2008), and Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes (2002).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. 1
A Theoretical and Historical Introduction to the Chinese Garden	p. 2
The Chinese Garden and the Concept of the Virtue of Round Brightness	p. 20
The Chinese Garden and the Concept of the Vision of Jing	p. 51
The Chinese Garden and Western Linear Perspective	p. 76
The Chinese Garden and the Concept of the Line Method	p. 103
Conclusion	p. 139
Works Cited	p. 145
Appendix	p. 168
Kangxi's Record of the Garden of Uninhibited Spring
Kangxi's Record of the Mountain Hamlet for Summer Coolness
Qianlong's Later Record of the Mountain Hamlet for Summer Coolness
Qianlong's Record of the Village of Ten Thousand Springs
Qianlong's Record of Kunming Lake
Qianlong's Record of the Garden of Clear Ripples on Longevity Hill
Qianlong's Record of the Best Spring of China on Jade-Spring Hill
Qianlong's Record of the Garden of Tranquil Pleasure
Index	p. 185
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