The Aesthetic Spirit of Chinese Classical Garden

The Chinese garden is a treasure of Chinese culture and somewhat of the essence of Chinese classical aesthetics.It can be regarded as a display material of the spirit of the Chinese classical culture and the Chinese aesthetics.The aesthetic spirit of the Chinese garden can be put as follows: Firstly,the spirit of Chinese garden is a combination of Confucianism and Taoism which values cleanness-elegancy(清雅).The Confucianism is based on two themes.One is family-oriented culture.Another is the value of life.The Chinese garden always creates a strong family-like atmosphere and yet shows the thought of distinction and order that come from the Confucian's etiquette.In general,the spirit of Chinese garden is a combination of Confucianism and Taoism but with more Taoist elements.The garden should be elegant,free from poor taste.It should also be clean,free from worldly affairs.In a word,cleanness-elegance,put together,sets the keynote of the Chinese classical garden.Secondly,a typical Chinese garden is vital-graceful(气韵生动).Grace has become an important aesthetic quality of the Chinese garden.The Chinese garden gives a vivid description of the theory of hiding-showing(隐秀) and keeps a balance between them,a balance between void and reality,finite and infinite,bringing the aesthetic ideal to Tao.Thirdly, the Chinese garden displays varied forms of beauty and resembles a musical world.It is a music-like state but far beyond music and that is the ideal of the Chinese garden.Fourthly,the Chinese garden is a world paradise harmonizing the universe and the man.That harmonize the universe and the man is the up most ideal of Chinese garden and also the basic idea of Chinese philosophy.The idea of garden design is after nature and to regard the nature as the most beautiful.So any practice against nature or ecology is not desirable.The Chinese garden is realistic for its material and ideal for it's spirit.It is the heaven in the world.