A Jesuit Garden in Beijing and Early Modern Chinese Culture, livre ebook

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.
Acknowledgments
Chapter One: A Theoretical and Historical Introduction to the Chinese Garden
Chapter Two: The Chinese Garden and the Concept of the Virtue of Round Brightness
Chapter Three: The Chinese Garden and the Concept of the Vision of Jing
Chapter Four: The Chinese Garden and Western Linear Perspective
Chapter Five: The Chinese Garden and the Concept of the Line Method
Conclusion
Works Cited
Appendix
1. Kangxi's Record of the Garden of Uninhibited Spring
2. Kangxi's Record of the Mountain Hamlet for Summer Coolness
3. Qianlong's Later Record of the Mountain Hamlet for Summer Coolness
4. Qianlong's Record of the Village of Ten Thousand Springs
5. Qianlong's Record of Kunming Lake by Longevity Hill
6. Qianlong's Record of the Garden of Clear Ripples on Longevity Hill
7. Qianlong's Record of the Best Spring of China on Jade-Spring Hill
8. Qianlong's Record of the Garden of Tranquil Pleasure
Index