World Cultural Heritage: The Classical Gardens of Suzhou (6)

Heritage value

The idea of freestyle landscape art

Chinese garden art, literature and paintings have a far-reaching history and have been particularly influenced by the free-style landscape art paintings during the Tang and Song Dynasties. Throughout its development history, Chinese gardens have developed into two series, royal and private gardens. Royal gardens are mainly located in Beijing and its surrounding areas, while private gardens are represented by Suzhou gardens. Due to differences in terms of political, economic and cultural status, as well as natural and geographical conditions, royal and private gardens have obviously different scales, layouts, styles, and colors. Royal gardens are usually large, grand, magnificent and solemn, while private gardens are small, exquisite and elegant, and also adopt a free style. As private gardens put more emphasize on the harmony between culture and art, royal gardens in its late development period also adopted many "freestyle" skills of private gardens in conception, design, architectural techniques and humanity.

Perfect housing conditions and living environment

The Classical Gardens of Suzhou are mansions combining houses and gardens. People can view, tour or live in these classical gardens. The formation of these gardens is a result of people being attached to nature, pursuing harmony between humans and nature and improving their living conditions in densely populated and natural landscape lacked cities. The Humble Administrator's Garden, the Lingering Garden, the Master of the Nets Garden and the Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty, which have complete architectural types and are well-preserved, comprehensively and systematically show the layout, structure, form, style, color and decoration of the Classical Gardens of Suzhou.