The garden designer's text : a prolegomenon to Yuan ye

Abstract

This thesis is a study of Yuan ye, a Chinese treatise on garden design written by Ji Cheng and published in or after 1635. Although not prominent in Chinese discourse on gardens during the 17th to the 19th centuries, Yuan ye became an indispensable classic for many scholars of Chinese gardens in the 20th century. This thesis develops a path of thinking that enhance our understanding of Yuan ye in three ways: first, by articulating an interdisciplinary field of discussion that shows how recent developments in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture and comparative philosophy have opened up significant possibilities for re-reading Yuan ye. Second, by offering nuanced readings of selected passages from Yuan ye that go beyond conventional readings of this treatise that take the form of content summary. And, third, by considering Yuan ye in relation to a range of Chinese texts from the 13th to the 20th century that have been selected with two concerns in mind: movement and stillness in the experience of landscape design, and the formation of the cultural memory of gardens.