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Wang Shi Yuan: a study of space in a

Chinese garden
Katherine Bedingfeld
Published online: 18 Feb 2011.

To cite this article: Katherine Bedingfeld (1997) Wang Shi Yuan: a study of space in a Chinese garden, The
Journal of Architecture, 2:1, 11-41, DOI: 10.1080/136023697374531

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Wang Shi Yuan: a study of space
in a Chinese garden
Downloaded by [Zhejiang University] at 21:49 11 May 2014
Katherine Bedingfeld
This paper is an investigation into the spatial devices employed in Chinese garden design,
and their relationship to the Chinese art of painting. The study focuses on Wang Shi Yuan
in Suzhou, which is similar in its objectives to other private Chinese gardens, and is a
small, well-designed example of its type.
Throughout their development Chinese garden
design and painting have been inextricably linked.1
An important treatise written in the seventeenth
century by Ji Cheng begins: ‘As a young man I was
known as a painter’.2 He also describes the success
of one of his garden designs by comparing it to a
painting.3 It was very important for a cultured
Chinese man to practise the arts, such as painting,
music, poetry and calligraphy, and his garden
would have been where he did so.
The garden was seen as a microcosm of nature
in the same way as a landscape painting. For
example, Li Yu describes the Chinese attitude to
landscape painting in his preface to The Mustard
Seed Garden Manual of Painting:
‘People nowadays enjoy looking at landscape paint-
ings as at the scenery itself . . . At one moment a
landscape may appear overcast with mist and
clouds, at another the view emerges clear and fair.
Or one may Žnd oneself by a spring of pure owing
water, ready to set out over hills and ravines, free
to roam without having to wax one’s sandals or
take up a bamboo staff’.4
Central to Chinese culture is the Daoist belief in
the unity of man and nature.5 In both Chinese
© 1997 E & FN Spon
11
The Journal
of Architecture
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Spring 1997
Department of Architecture, University of Bath,
Bath BA2 7LY, UK
painting and garden design a sense of inŽnity
is created, which is related to this Daoist awe
of nature. Chen Congzhou, a modern scholar of
Chinese gardens, says, ‘Most of our gardens in
ancient times were enclosed ones with a view to
creating a sense of inŽnite space within a limited
area’,6 and Hilda Hookham says of painting, ‘In
the muted monochrome work of Ma Yuan for
example, individuals are romantically dwarfed by
an immense natural environment, where space
and inŽnity are suggested with a few strokes
of the brush.’7 In painting, ‘mist’ or void is used
to create depth. In garden design a number of
methods are used to increase the sense of space
or to make the garden seem immeasurable. The
following three points are important in making this
connection.
I wish, Žrst, to make a connection between the
screen windows in the garden and ‘void’ within a
painting. Rowley says:
‘The Chinese perfected the principle of the three
depths, according to which spatial depth was
marked by a foreground, middle distance, and far
distance, each parallel to the picture plane, so that
the eye leapt from one distance to the next through
a void of space.’8
1360–2365
 12
Wang Shi
Yuan
Katherine Bedingfeld
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Figure 1. Looking through
a screen (photo by the
author).
I propose that the use of ornate screen windows
within walls in the garden creates an effect similar
to this method of creating depth in painting. The
screen cuts off any view of the ground on the other
side of the wall, while creating a foreground plane
of ‘foliage’. This conscious restriction of the view
of the ground acts to disguise the depth of the
courtyard. The viewer sees through the screen and
beyond to rocks, plants and a white wall behind
(Fig. 1). This wall is a backdrop to the plants and
rocks and any corners are covered by them. The
rocks are intricately eroded and arranged to look
like mountains, and an effect of distance is
created. 9 The wall is left in an undeŽnable position
and of indeŽnite solidity. This screening device
often exists more than once within the same view,
the screened windows taking one from courtyard
to courtyard with no indication of how far or what
size the courtyards are. This is very similar to the
effect created in Chinese painting.
If we look at the painting Travelling among
Streams and Mountains (early eleventh century), by
Fan Kuan,10 depth is created by a number of illu-
sions (Fig. 2). First, the tall vertical format of the
painting means that our eyes cannot rest in one
position to see the whole painting. They must ick
between foreground and background across the
void of mist. We can become so involved in the
foreground detail that it is a surprise when our eyes
jump back to the mountain. It seems that the
mountain grows with this act and is further away
because we cannot gauge the distance. Second,
the mountain is not completely visible. Its base
dissolves into mist, so we cannot see exactly where
it is in relation to the foreground. I propose that,
when looking through a screen in Wang Shi Yuan,
the unseen ground surface acts in a comparable
way to the void between foreground and moun-
tain in this and numerous other paintings.
The second point is about techniques of scaling.
The lake in the main space of the garden is difŽ-
cult to size. In this space the ‘ground’ surface is
visible and it is a release for the eye. But the surface
is water and, as such, is difŽcult to scale. Close to
the lakeside all the buildings are small in scale,
which increases the apparent size of the lake.
Certain objects, such as the arched bridge, are
deliberately underscaled. Because of this the lake
is made to seem much wider, and the false moun-
tain beside it is made to seem larger.
The placement of small buildings around the
garden lake can also be compared to painting in
the following way. When we look at a painting
such as The Waterfall on Mount Lu (late seven-
teenth century), by Dao Ji,11 at Žrst we have no
idea of the scale, as the top half of the painting
is quite abstract (Fig. 3). As soon as we notice the
two Žgures on a rock in the foreground the scenery
grows in scale to accommodate their smallness. The
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Figure 2. Travelling among

Streams and Mountains by
Fan Kuan, Palace Museum,
Taichung (from J. Cahill,
Chinese Painting, 1985).

Figure 3. The Waterfall on

Mount Lu by Dao Ji,
Collection of the late
Kanichi Sumitomo, Oiso,
Japan (from Cahill,
Chinese Painting).
 14
Wang Shi
Yuan
Katherine Bedingfeld
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river is suddenly wider, and the overhanging rock
becomes enormous and very dramatic. I propose
that its equivalent in the garden is the manipula-
tion of scale to increase its apparent size.
The third point is in the planning of the garden.
The space is deliberately confusing and non-
geometrical in its layout to the extent that an other-
wise straight corridor is kinked with a zigzag
preventing any kind of measurable or perspectival
view. 12 Chinese painting is also non-perspectival. A
Chinese painting is for strolling through in a similar
way to a Chinese garden. In both gardens and
paintings time is an important element.
Attitudes towards nature
Chinese culture centres on man in harmony with
nature. Daoist philosophy believes that a plant is
as much a being as a man, and that it would have
its own thoughts. The Chinese do not try to control
nature as we do, in the West,13 by making formal
garden arrangements such as avenues or symmet-
rical ower beds. Neither do they have our concept
of ruins, of being overcome by nature. The Chinese
fusion of opposites is one of Žnding balance, or
of dynamic compromise.
In detailed studies, the Chinese painter would try
to convey the life of a plant. If we look at Lotus in
the wind by Ching Yen (early thirteenth century)14
for example, we can almost imagine what it is to
be a lotus ower being blown in the wind. The
Western artist concentrates on describing the sur-
face textures of the objects he paints: the Chinese
care for its life. We can compare this to Western still
life paintings, where owers and fruit are normally
picked. The objects are removed from their natural
setting, and the scenes tend to be of kitchen tables
rather than studies of life. It may seem paradoxical
that a Chinese painter would not have painted a
mountain by sitting in front of it but this is because
they had a different attitude towards realism. It was
more important for a Chinese painter to capture the
idea or the essence of a mountain than to render it
exactly as it stood. This is also the case in garden
design, where the false mountain is a representa-
tion of the idea of a mountain rather than a scaled-
down version.
Life in a garden
The gardens of Suzhou were scholars’ gardens, and
the emphasis in their design is on escape from
society. This can be compared to the gardens of
Yangzhou, which were built mainly by merchants,
and were generally designed for the purpose of
entertainment. Thus Yangzhou gardens are open
with large pavilions, whereas Suzhou gardens are
composed of small pavilions set in winding, intim-
ate spaces.
The Chinese garden was a place in which to
retreat from city life, conveniently situated within
the city walls. This combines the Daoist ideal of
becoming a hermit in nature with the Confucian
requirements of being an ofŽcial in the govern-
ment and looking after one’s family. In his intro-
duction to The Craft of Gardens, Ruan Dacheng
says, ‘As a young man it was my dream to live the
hermit’s life . . . but to my chagrin I was constrained
by my ofŽcial career’.15 The Chinese garden was
a part of the family house, primarily a place
in which to enjoy nature and gain inspiration.
Ji Cheng provides us with many suggestions: ‘With

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a patterned fabric of tiles, and a terrace covered
in stone slabs, you can sit on the ground and recite
poetry to the owers, or spread out a rug and
raise your glass to the moon.’16 The garden would
have been a place in which to paint, to practise
music, to compose poetry or to appreciate any
of these arts. Guests would have been entertained
in a garden, and we read in The Craft of Gardens
stories of poetry competitions and drinking
games.17 Ji Cheng writes: ‘As you strike a rhythm
on your lute the clouds ow in unison; as you pass
the cup around, the sunset mist lingers for a
while.’18
For women, especially, the garden would have
become their world, for they were seldom free to
leave the home. The household of an ofŽcial would
have consisted of a number of wives of strict hier-
archical order, and life within the house and garden
must have been claustrophobic. For some people
at least this microcosm of nature would have
become its totality.
The four essential elements
In designing a Chinese garden there are four
elements that must be included: rocks, water,
building and plants.
Rocks and water
Mountains and water are key components of the
Chinese conception of landscape (Shanshui, liter-
ally ‘mountain-water’), the Earth’s skeleton and its
blood. The pairing of mountain and water also
signiŽes the yin–yang, feminine–masculine dualism:
mountains are rigid and masculine whereas water
is owing and feminine. A Chinese garden will
15
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Spring 1997
always contain a representation of ‘mountain’ and
of ‘water’. In his poem T’ao T’ang Chi, Po Chü-i
says:
‘Since my youth I have lived in varying circum-
stances, sometimes in a hut, sometimes in an
elegant dwelling, but wherever I have lived, even
if it were only for some days, I have built a terrace,
piled up stones and excavated a pond, for my
passion for mountains and water was irresistible. ’19
Digging a pond and piling up stones was a way
of saying ‘making a garden’. Ji Cheng devotes a
large section of his book to the design of false
mountains, which he considers to be his speciality,
thus indicating their importance.20
There are two main uses of rock in a garden:
the false mountain and the sculptural rock. The
false mountain is normally made of earth and rock.
Its function is to appear as mountains in the
distance as well as to give the impression that
beyond this mountain are unlimited views, so that
the garden does not feel enclosed. The sculptural
rock, on the other hand, is a single rock or arrange-
ment of rocks, which have been eroded into
fantastic shapes by the water, often taken from the
lake Tai Hu, which is famous for such stones. In
the garden, they are often placed against a white
wall backdrop and seen as abstractions of moun-
tains. Rocks were very important to the cultivation
of the Chinese Scholar.21
When a hill is built in a garden a hollow is left
naturally: a lake and a mountain exist harmoniously
together. Water in a garden is made to seem
natural, in the form of lakes, streams and water-
 16
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Yuan
Katherine Bedingfeld
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falls. It is important that the water appears to have
a source and an outlet, so that the water is seen
to be owing (like blood in a living body).22 A
garden is designed so that the whole lake is not
visible from any one position, so the water will
always seem to stretch around a corner. Reection
is also an important aspect of the use of water,
and objects – such as pavilions – are always
reected in their entirety. If an object was too big
to be reected whole it would have been set back
from the water. Therefore composition within the
water is important.
Building
According to Ji Cheng, ‘The most important
element in the layout of gardens is the siting of
the principal buildings.’23 In Chinese gardens, archi-
tecture is the main structuring device. These build-
ings form the framework around which the garden
is designed. The buildings in the garden are
arranged in an organic manner, normally linked by
covered walkways. Conventions, some of which
are speciŽc to this region, dictate the layout of
the buildings. For example, the entrance to a room
is normally to the south – the warm side of the
building. Ji Cheng is relaxed about this convention,
valuing the view from the pavilion above its orien-
tation: ‘The primary consideration is the view, and
it is all the better if the buildings can also face
south.’24 The city of Suzhou is set out on a
north–south orthogonal grid, as it is a requirement
according to fengshui that the buildings face south.
The pavilions in a garden are open to the front and
the back, generally the north and south, so that
air can pass through as well as providing light to
the back of the rooms. This is achieved even when
the pavilion is near a boundary wall; it is built free
in order to admit light and air.
Plants
A Chinese garden without greenery would still
seem like a garden because of the rambling paths
and naturalistic scenery. Plants are much less impor-
tant in a Chinese garden than in a Western garden.
This is especially true of owers, which are too
brightly coloured for the Daoist.25 A tradition of
monochrome in painting was built up, originated
by the Daoist painter Wang Wei. Likewise, Chinese
gardens are not normally brightly coloured but rely
on green, grey and white with an occasional dash
of colour. Colours in a garden are highly controlled,
similar to the way in which they are controlled on
an artist’s palette.
Evidence of the changing season is a desirable
effect, and plants play an important role in this.
Views are set up so that there will be variation
throughout the year. Evergreen trees are planted
alongside deciduous ones so that there will always
be some foliage. Plants that ower at different
times of year will sometimes be planted together
for year-round interest, or separately so that
different parts of the garden become prominent in
different seasons. For example, in Wang Shi Yuan
peonies are planted around, and provide a name
for, Late Spring Cottage. In this way architecture
is linked to nature.
The garden and painting
Chinese gardens can be seen as a series of paint-
ings. Directed by corridors, a sequence of com-
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posed views is set up, visible through lattice screen Figure 4. Early Spring by
Guo Xi, Palace Museum,
windows. Each view is a ‘still’ or a ‘painting’, and
Taichung (from Cahill,
would appeal to the owner as a connoisseur Chinese Painting).
painter/gardener. These views often ‘compress’ the
space so that a three-dimensional view becomes
at, like a painting.26 The objects, at different
distances, are used as part of the composition.
Sometimes distant hills become part of a view, and
one forgets how far away they are.
A garden should be experienced slowly, revealed
as one walks. In Chinese painting the equivalent
is changing viewpoint, a non-perspectival spatial
technique serving to increase the space in a paint-
ing. A good example is Early Spring by Guo Xi
(dated 1072),27 where a number of views open up
within the scene (Fig. 4). It is almost impossible to
link them together as real scenery when we study
the transition from one view to another, but the
painting retains its integrity as a whole. In hori-
zontal scrolls the shifting viewpoint is used to intro-
duce a temporal dimension to the painting: as it
is unravelled, a story is told. This can be related to
garden design, as movement through the garden
is an essential part of experiencing the garden. Thus
the temporal dimension present in painting is also
experienced in the garden. sion. What does not exist serves for effectiveness. ’28
The most important creator of space in a painting
is the void or kong. Lao Tsu explains the concept For the Chinese painter void was used to create
of the void in the Tao Te Ching: space within a picture, and the void was part of
the composition. Their medium, ink on paper or
‘One hollows the clay and shapes it into pots: in silk, like our watercolour, allows part of the paper
its nothingness consists the pot’s effectiveness. One to remain empty.
cuts out doors and windows to make the chamber: The ultimate use of voids came in the Southern
in their nothingness consists the chamber’s effec- Song time, when the solids actually dissolved into
tiveness. Therefore: what exists serves for posses- mist, and even the mountains became part of the
 18

Wang Shi
Yuan
Katherine Bedingfeld
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Figure 5. Walking on a
Mountain Path in Spring
by Ma Yuan, Palace
Museum, Taichung (from
Cahill, Chinese Painting).

void. If we look at Walking on a Mountain Path in
Spring by Ma Yuan (c.1190–1230),29 we see that
only half of the painting has been touched by the
brush, but it is the empty part of the painting that
draws our eye (Fig. 5). The scene is set with trees
in one corner and part of the path painted. Only
the faintest suggestion of mountains is indicated.
The man seen walking looks into the distance and
seems to breathe the mountain air. We follow his
gaze and imagine the scenery. The painting does
not suffer from the limitations of its boundaries
because it can grow in the imagination of the
viewer.
The Chinese deŽnition of the void as a positive
entity is central to its manifestation. The way that
void is used in a garden is highly complicated. Tsu,
for example, describes water as the ‘void’ in a
garden and relates it to painting.30 However, the
point is that the Chinese mind holds an awareness
of and is able to use this concept of void in what-
ever medium it chooses.
Wang Shi Yuan
A brief history of the garden
Wang Shi Yuan (Fig. 6) is located within the walls
of Suzhou, a city long famous for its gardens.
This garden was Žrst laid out in 1140, during the
Southern Song Dynasty, as part of rebuilding
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the city. The original building on the site was called Figure 6. View in Wang
Shi Yuan (photo by the
Wan Jun Tang or ‘The Hall of Ten Thousand Books’
author).
and was created by Shi Zhenzhi, who was a high
ofŽcial of the Southern Song Court. It subsequently
fell into disrepair.
In the Ming dynasty Suzhou was ‘a gathering
place for the nation’s leading poets and painters’,31
and the city developed an important tradition for
garden design. However, this garden remained a
ruin until the Qianlong Period of the Qing Dynasty,
when Song Zhongyuan redesigned it in 1770 and
renamed it Wang Shi Yuan (The Garden of the
Fisherman) to show that he was Žnished with
government life. Song Zhongyuan was also a high
ofŽcial, and this was his retirement home. The
garden passed through many hands until 1958,
when it was acquired by the State. Wang Shi Yuan
has changed greatly in the eight centuries since it
was founded, but it is mainly a product of the
Qianlong Period (1736–95), ‘when garden design
was at its most popular and its designers at their
most skilful.’32
It is considered to be one of the best examples
in the Suzhou tradition of garden building. It is a
small but complete garden designed in a very
tasteful manner,33 and has remained intact, with The total area of the garden is approximately
few recent changes. 1 acre (0.4 ha), but it is divided into sections. To
the east is the house, or the formal part of the
Description of the plan house, which consists of three rooms laid out in a
A conception of the plan is secondary to the under- row stretching north from the street entrance with
standing of the garden as, once inside, it is evident open courtyards between them. The Žrst room is
that the space, or sequence of space, is more the Entrance Hall or Sedan Hall, where sedan chairs
important than any overall view of it (Fig. 7). In would have been left and guests would have been
fact, it seems to be designed deliberately to evade greeted. The second is the Main Hall, or main
perception of its layout.34 reception room. The name of the original building,
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Wan Jun Tang, has been adopted for this room. It
would have been used for entertaining guests on
a formal level, and is elegantly decorated. Women
would not have been allowed in this room. The
third room, the family sitting room known as the
Flower Hall (Hua Ting) or Ladies’ Hall, is much less
formal and less ornate. The ceiling is lower and the
screens are plainer. This building is two storeys high
and the bedrooms would have been upstairs. There
is almost no relationship between this formal part
of the house and the garden.
The other rooms are intertwined with the
garden, and a close relationship is created between
inside spaces and nature. These rooms are for
studying, writing and painting or for entertaining
guests. Most of the garden is divided by these pavil-
ions and whitewashed walls into a number of small
courtyards. The main section of the garden, in the
centre of the site, is almost completely Žlled by the
lake with paths around the outside. The small
rooms at the front (south) and those near the back
entrance would have been mainly for servants.
However, the small courtyard in the south would
have been used for music, either for listening or
practising. The section to the west, a later addi-
tion to the garden, is replicated in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York. The new section to the
east, on which Chen Congzhou pours scorn,35 is
not shown on the plan as it is not considered to
be a part of Wang Shi Yuan.
A tour around the garden
In order to understand the garden it is necessary
to walk through it and experience the spatial
changes.
21
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Spring 1997
We leave the house through a side door and all
you can see is building. It seems to be a completely
enclosed space. We step over the threshold and
arrive in a semi-inside, semi-outside space. Decora-
tive woodwork screens open onto a small court of
bamboo and delicate rock, like fossilized mist.
Over the next threshold, we are outside but still
covered from the rain. The view expands and you
have a glimpse of the lake. You can see an arched
bridge and the lake stretching away indeŽnitely,
but the view is blocked by a mountain. To the left
is a rockery, built high with stones jutting sideways
in strange shapes, evoking the fantastic landscapes
in Chinese paintings. The rockery is built against a
white wall, its solidity disguised by the intricate
patterned openings. It lets light through and it
seems the garden must extend further.
As we walk on towards a semi-transparen t
pavilion the path splits. To the right, it leads myste-
riously around a corner, into the rock mountain.
But we take the other route, to the entrance of
this intriguing pavilion. As we cross the threshold
there is a perfectly framed view of the rocks oppo-
site: a clear circular opening within a shattered
square. Looking around there are patterns: screens
carved in wood, in stone, and rocks and branches.
You can see through them and outside (or is it
inside, again?). You see a zigzag path: it is possible
to reach this path but where it is going to one
could not say. There are bamboo and rocks but it
is difŽcult to tell how close they are. This pavilion
is transparent on all four sides but it feels like a
grotto or cave.
We leave the pavilion and start to follow the
zigzag path that tempted you from within. You are
 22
Wang Shi
Yuan
Katherine Bedingfeld
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sure, now, that you can see beyond the mountain
to distant roof tops. Was that another hint of water
through a gap in the rocks? We continue, mean-
dering as directed by the low walls. To the right is
an arrangement of rocks and plants, around a trel-
lised window, and you can see beyond to another
decorated screen and, beyond that, much further
away it seems, to trees and more pavilions. The
path leads us in this direction. We pass through
the wall, into a dark corridor. The space narrows,
and our view is restricted to the endless zigzag
corridors ahead. They twist left and right, even up
over rocky steps. To the left is a rock and bamboo
composition, light ooding down from above. It
distracts you for a split second before the space
opens out to the main garden. Now, the lake
stretches before us, rippling silently as the Žsh
move under its surface. Around its banks are rocks
and pavilions, which reect themselves in the
water.
We turn right into a low-slung waterside
pavilion. Wooden screens, delicately carved, con-
tain the space but allow the breeze to pass
through. Lantern tassels shift in the wind. A
window on the back wall could almost be a picture,
but for its brightness. It shows you where we have
just been. Leaning on the balustrade you watch
the reections of trees and upturned roofs move
in the unsteady surface of the lake. A goldŽsh
emerges slowly and sinks back into the deep water.
Jutting proudly above the water and supported
on craggy stone piles there is a hexagonal pavilion.
We move towards it, winding around the corner
of the lake. The path becomes mountainous. In this
pavilion, you can sit leaning out slightly over the
water. Directly across the lake is a beautifully
composed view of a pavilion and rockery. The high,
white wall of the house undulates gently; its gables
make a powerful but graceful backdrop to the deli-
cate lakeside scenery. To the right, you can see the
arched bridge. The lake seems very wide at this
point.
We walk away from the pavilion and descend
towards the zigzag bridge, glimpsing, on our way,
through a wall to a part of the garden further west.
The bridge meanders close to the water’s surface,
and the pavilion we have just left seems grand and
imposing, raised high over the water. We walk off
the bridge, and the path becomes less formal. The
ground surface is paved in a pattern of brown and
grey stones. Rocks are on both sides of the path
and seem to have been placed there by nature.
A seat is formed; shaded by the pine trees, we sit
and look across the water to the arched bridge
far away on the other side of the lake. The path
leads us on into a covered corridor. You have a
glimpse through a passage into another space and
can also see back through a screen into a court-
yard we have not visited. You wonder how big the
garden must be. Then, looking back to the hexag-
onal pavilion, you can see a large space behind it,
on the other side of the wall. How could you have
missed it? And then, you remember the mirror
there. You have to check . . . perhaps the other
spaces are only reections.
We walk past a perfect circle, stone rimmed and
cut into a white wall, a reminder of the circular
window, which must be directly opposite now,
hidden from view on the other side of the false
mountain. This moon gate leads to a small bamboo

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courtyard and, beyond, to a large study room.
Looking back, you can see, perfectly framed in a
window, a view of the pine trees and the zigzag
bridge beyond. Ahead, there are three screens cut
out of the white wall, each one carved into a
different pattern. Through the screens you can see
another courtyard with trees, rocks and a high
rooftop beyond.
We enter a tall square pavilion, directly across
the water from the hexagonal pavilion. Now it is
the hexagonal pavilion that is part of a visual
composition, and the composition that seemed at,
almost a painting, before has become the space in
which we stand. It is a grand view, the pavilion
central and undulating, covered corridors asym-
metrical on either side. In the late afternoon, you
can see the sun in the sky and another, balancing,
sun reected in the water and I remind you of a
description of the hexagonal pavilion, as the
pavilion of the three moons: one in the sky, one
reected in the water, and the third reected in
the mirror. It is only now, though, that the full
effect of this mirror becomes apparent. There, in
the centre of this composition, the mirror doubles
the size of the garden. As we step out of the
viewing pavilion you can see yourself reected, and
the illusion is broken. Within the pavilion, the space
carries on.
Nearly everything has been revealed. We walk
behind a very intricate rockery, and small, framed
views appear through windows in the rocks. You
are able to see the arched bridge close up, and are
surprised at its smallness. We walk next to a minia-
ture gorge, ‘source’ of the lake, past the glass
pavilion-grotto and back towards the door. Looking
23
The Journal
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over your shoulder briey, the arched bridge
already looks larger and further away than it
seemed a moment ago.
You turn and follow me back into the house.
Analysis of the entrance sequence
’In designing a garden, the designer always has in
mind a planned tourist route. . .’
Chen Congzhou36
The relevance of the ‘planned tourist route’ is that
the garden should gradually be revealed to a visitor
as the designer intended. In my interview with Liu
Yi, manager of the garden, he conŽrmed what this
route would have been in Wang Shi Yuan (Fig. 7),
so I have made a series of analysis diagrams to show
the extent of the views from various positions along
this route. It is also the route that I have followed
in my description, although it is only one of the
possibilities in exploring the garden. The sequence
of views described in Figs 8–18 demonstrates how
the space is manipulated to achieve a dramatic
entrance into the main section of the garden.37
This sequence of enclosure and revealment is the
most dramatic spatial device in the garden. The rest
of the tourist route is within the main garden so
that the visitor has time to digest this space.
Manipulation of scale within the garden
The experience of space in the garden has been
changed by the distortion of scale, including the dis-
tortion due to the time it takes to view the garden.
In Wang Shi Yuan there are a number of devices
used to increase the viewer’s perception of the
space in order to make the garden seem larger.
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Wang Shi
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Katherine Bedingfeld
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Figure 8.
Viewing position 1:
is inside the house, about
to step into the garden.
The views out are
restricted by the doorway
so that one is directed to
look at the pavilion (5)
with only a few longer
glimpses through windows
on the back wall of the
garden (Fig. 9). See Fig. 7
for key to plan.
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Figure 9. The view from

position 1 (photo by the
author)
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Katherine Bedingfeld
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Figure 10.
Viewing position 2:
the Žrst step into the
garden reveals quite a
dramatic change. Only part
of the main garden space
and lake can be seen.
Most of the view of the
lake is blocked by the
pavilion and the false
mountain behind. The
view extends surprisingly
far back into the garden,
so that the visitor’s Žrst
impression is of quite a
large space (Fig. 11). See
Fig. 7 for key to plan.
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Figure 11. The view

towards the lake from
position 2 (photo by the
author).
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Wang Shi
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Katherine Bedingfeld
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Figure 12.
Viewing position 3:
quite quickly the views are
enclosed again. Standing
in the glass pavilion (5),
the views are all short,
blocked by the false
mountain (6) to the north
and courtyard walls on the
other sides. The views are
further limited by the
trellised screens and the
glass, which is slightly
reective. However, the
visitor still has an idea
that there is space beyond
this area, as he or she will
have glimpses through
screens in the south and
west walls to other
courtyards (Fig. 13). See
Fig. 7 for key to plan.
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Figure 13. The view

towards the covered
corridor in position 3
(photo by the author).

Long views
The illustration shows that there are a number
of surprisingly long views through the garden
(Fig. 18). This is even more surprising when you
visit the garden because the impression otherwise
is that it is divided into a number of different
spaces. These long views give the impression that
the garden is bigger than it is. The most remark-
able of these views are:
• The view from the entrance of the garden from
which one can see almost to the back
boundary wall.
• The view from the east wall to the west wall,
the complete width of the garden.
• The view from inside the Flower Hall (4) to
the mirror on the other side of the garden
and reected back to the rockery and house
wall.
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Katherine Bedingfeld
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Figure 14.
Viewing position 4:
the views are narrowed
down dramatically and
become channelled for-
ward, so that the visitor
can see only the roofed
corridor winding away.
This narrowing-down of
space is in preparation for
the next step into the
main space. See Fig. 7 for
key to plan.
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Figure 15. The view from

position 4 (photo by the
author).
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Katherine Bedingfeld
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Figure 16.
Viewing position 5:
the whole main space of
the garden can at last be
appreciated. Its impact has
been enhanced by the
closing down, or
compressing, of visible
space up to this point.
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Figure 17. The view of the

lake from position 5
(photo by the author).

Use of water
‘The level surface of the lake is a boundless expanse
of oating light’38 says Ji Cheng. Within the main
space of the garden the use of water is an impor-
tant factor.39 The lake in Wang Shi Yuan is kept at
a high level and clear from weed in order to reect
the surroundings and the sky. Lilies are planted in
the water rather than the more usual lotuses
because they have smaller leaves, and therefore
look further away, making the lake seem wider.
Added to this, the shoreline is never completely
visible at any one time, so that the lake always
seems to be owing.
The buildings directly on the side of the lake are
small in scale. Bigger buildings are in other areas
of the garden or set further back and screened by
plants and rocks, such as pavilions 5 and 14. The
arched bridge serves a number of purposes. It
conceals the ‘source’ or end of the lake. It is also
underscaled, which makes the lake seem very wide
as well as increasing the perceived size of the false
mountain adjacent to it.
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Wang Shi
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Katherine Bedingfeld
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Figure 18. Long views

across the garden. See
Fig. 7 key to plan.

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Subdivision of space
Most of the garden is broken up into small court-
yards by walls and pavilions. The walls are rendered
and whitewashed so that they become a neutral
background or ‘paper’ on which to ‘paint’.40 Any
scaling effect such as bricks is denied.
A number of effects are achieved by breaking
down the space. First, one is always aware of other
spaces in the garden. Sometimes this is because of
doorways or of tree-tops showing above the walls,
but on the whole it is due to the use of screen
windows within the walls, which allow glimpses of
the spaces beyond. Second, where a pavilion is built
next to a boundary wall of the garden, for example,
the Pavilion for Looking at Pines and Paintings,
instead of being built against the wall in order to
maximize the physical size of the garden it is built
away from the wall, perhaps only half a metre, and
the gap is used as a light well. Plants and rocks
are arranged in these spaces. The pavilion is thus
open front and back, allowing a through-draught
and making it feel more spacious.
Use of screens
There are two types of screen. In buildings, the
screens are timber, intricately patterned and carved
from dark wood. They are normally in window or
door openings or sometimes free standing simply
to divide the space. In the past these screens would
have contained translucent shell (mingwa) or paper,
and the dense patterning would have served to
support the paper or cover the joins of the small,
mother-of-pearl tiles. Later, when glass was made
available, larger panes were created, leaving the
intricate patterns purely as decoration. The other
35
The Journal
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type of screen exists in the external walls, so they
would have remained open and therefore see-
through. These screens form openings within the
white walls, and would have been moulded in
either terracotta or clay with wire supports. The
patterns of these screens are different for each
window, and vary between geometrical and plant
patterns. In The Craft of Gardens, Ji Cheng gives
us an extensive collection of possible patterns.
I have argued that the space on the other side
of the screen is made to seem bigger or further
away because the ground is not visible, the screen
cutting off any view of the ground because it is
placed high in the wall. Because the ground is not
visible the space is not measurable by the eye so
the courtyard appears inŽnite or unplaceable. This
is equated with the void in paintings between fore-
ground, middle distance and far distance.
In the high wall of the house there are false
screens. Blocked by the wall behind they serve no
function. But even these screens suggest a view to
another place, with only the sky visible behind, and
their addition breaks down our perception of the
mass and the solidity of this, the highest wall in
the garden.
Use of plants and rocks
Plants and rocks are used to hide corners and edges
in the garden. For example, the tall blank wall of
the house, which could easily seem a powerful or
heavy element, is diffused with the planting of a
row of lily turf along its base. It conceals the junc-
tion with the ground and makes the wall recede
so that it becomes a backdrop or a piece of paper
on which the creeper and rockery can be displayed.
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Katherine Bedingfeld
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Only where ‘void’ is considered to be a positive
entity in composition could something as concrete
or deŽnite as a wall become a void or sky.
Within the courtyards the corners of the walls
are covered by carefully placed rocks and plants,
which, as before, reduce the solidity of the wall
and, by removing any view of its corners, make it
possible to place the wall in space. This is espe-
cially evident when it is combined with viewing the
courtyard through a screen.
Path
In the garden, covered walkways are used to deŽne
winding routes through the scenery. They undulate
with the rise and fall of the path, and are roofed
with a traditional covering of dark grey tiles and
supported on round, lacquered, timber columns.
There are knee-high walls, which prevent shortcuts
and, as the path winds and zigzags, prevent a view
of the ground further than a few metres. From this
norm, the path is varied. Variation adds to the
perceived size of the garden by heightening the
visitor’s awareness of the space and slowing him
or her down.
The texture and patterning of the surface of the
path are varied. Every few metres the pattern
changes on the ground. Sometimes it is regular
paving; sometimes pebbles laid in patterns; some-
times pictures are laid into the pebbles. Natural
rock is used, often as a step into a pavilion or to
give a feeling of climbing over a mountain. The
rough surface means that one has to slow down
to negotiate it. The gradient is also varied.
Sometimes the path becomes a gallery, giving views
out to one side; occasionally it becomes a tunnel
through a mountain. The routes are planned so
that you do not retrace your steps or see the same
view. These manipulations perform a similar func-
tion to varying the surface texture, slowing the
visitor down because of an enrichment of experi-
ence. We can say that time is distorted by this.
The Pavilion for Looking at Pines and Paintings
As the name suggests, The Pavilion for Looking at
Pines and Paintings (Kan Song Du Hua Xuan) would
have been for the owner of the house and garden
to contemplate nature and to use as a gallery or
studio. It is within the main space of the garden,
but is shielded by pine trees and set back from the
lake.
The pavilion has been built forward of the
boundary wall to the north, so air passes freely and
light can reach this side. In this wall, there are three
windows, framing views onto the narrow space
behind. The views contain compositions of plants
and eroded rocks from lake Tai Hu, and would have
provided inspiration for the owner of the garden
as he would have contemplated the views as if
they were paintings. In the left-hand window the
boundary wall juts in and the space narrows, and
there are no plants and rocks; only the white back
wall to the garden is visible, reecting light into
the room.
Central to this paper has been the role of the
screen giving views onto further courtyards, and
the view through the east window of the pavilion
is a good example of such a view. Standing inside
the pavilion the window is the Žrst layer; dark
wood is carved to form an intricate screen. Directly
outside, a display of eroded rock with circular holes

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forms a semi-screen through which a small court-
yard is visible. More rocks and plants are arranged
in this courtyard to conceal its corners and the junc-
tion between wall and ground. In the far wall there
is a screen opening, decorated in an abstract, plant
pattern. Beyond this screen there is another place,
a green space, at an indeŽnable distance. It seems
that if one could see further there would be
another courtyard and another screen, as if the
view were never to end.
On the west wall is another wooden screen. The
view is of pine trees and beyond to a distant hill,
37
The Journal
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Spring 1997
Figure 19. The trompe-
l’oeil view on the west
wall (photo by the author).
with a pagoda and temple visible through the trees.
In fact, this view is a painting, a trompe-l’oeil, set
in a frame similar to the other windows (Fig. 19).
Including the open south facade, the effect is of a
room open to the landscape on all four sides.
Conclusion
In the West it is, perhaps, only in this century that
we can start to understand Chinese conceptions
of space and the means of spatial depiction in
their paintings. As Giedion suggests in his chapter
on Cubism41 in Space, Time and Architecture, we
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Katherine Bedingfeld
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can now explore aspects of spatial representatio n
other than perspective. Unlike perspectival repre-
sentation, which is limited to one moment in time
and one viewpoint, the painters of Chinese scroll
paintings were concerned with time as well as
space. A scroll was unrolled from right to left and
would tell a story. This narrative concept allowed
the Chinese to design gardens so that they had to
be experienced by walking through them, whereas
a formal Western garden, for example, can be
taken in from one viewpoint.
The key elements in the garden – water and rock
– function as the ‘natural’ setting into which man
has woven his paths. The whole experience is
constructed to replicate, in a small space, the expe-
rience of walking through real landscape. Time, as
well as scale, is disturbed by the richness of expe-
rience and the condensing of varied views,
materials and details. The delaying devices of
changing texture, direction or view imply that one
is travelling through a large place, on a long
journey in which both time and space are intensi-
Žed. The garden is a microcosm of the natural wild
landscape made available in the city.
I have said that void in painting and the ‘void’
or absence of visible ground surface in the garden
when looking through a screen increase apparent
depth. A similar concept is expressed in The Tao
of Architecture by Amos Ih Tiao Chang:
‘The point . . . is that a fragmentary shape has the
potential to grow, to become a Žnished entity in
our mind. A complete one appears static, rigid and
lacks vividness because it allows no room for the
growing mind to function.’42
We can say that by not revealing an object
completely, in this case neither the mountain in the
painting nor the courtyard on the other side of the
screen, its apparent size is increased because it is
able to grow in our minds, and our minds are not
limited by the boundaries of the painting or the
actual size of a courtyard.
Chang also says, ‘Size does not necessarily count
in architectural space. It is the growth of size which
is vital.’ 43 A large space can be made to appear
smaller than its actual size by boundaries that
deŽne it strongly, and, conversely, a small space
can be made to appear large by weakening its
boundaries. Space is not experienced by its actual
size but by its container, or the strength of its
boundaries. By dissolving the boundaries the space
grows. In the garden the boundaries of the main
space are deliberately diffused by a number of
elements: the mountain, the small-scale pavilions
around the lake, and the receding wall surface. All
these devices, while actually reducing the physical
size of the space, weaken its boundaries and cause
it to seem larger.
Just as we are beginning to gain an under-
standing of their culture, the Chinese are moving
away from their roots to crass imitation of the
West. Shopping centres and hotels are springing
up throughout the country, replacing the small-
scale buildings. Chinese traditional thinking and
their approach to architecture are so different from
ours and so rich in original aesthetic knowledge
and experience that it would be a great loss not
to see them as a source of valuable lessons.

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Notes and references
This paper is derived from studies undertaken at
Oxford Brookes University; the original dissertatio n
was awarded a RIBA President’s Medal.
1. ‘Especially characteristic of Chinese garden art
is its intimate relation to painting. It was in very
large part the great painters who created the
typical gardens in China, and in this they were
inspired by ideas similar to those which found
expression in their painting.’ O. Sirén, Gardens
of China (New York, The Ronald Press
Co.,1949), p. 3.
2. Ji Cheng, The Craft of Gardens (Hong Kong,
South Sea International Press Ltd, 1988; Žrst
published 1634), p. 37.
3. ‘Master Cao praised it over and over again, say-
ing it was just like a painting by Jing Hao or
Guan Tong . . .’ Ibid., p. 35.
4. Li Ya, preface to original edition of The Mustard
Seed Garden Manual of Painting, trans. Mai-
Mai Sze (Princeton University Press, 1978; Žrst
published 1679–1701), p. 11.
5. ‘There was something formless yet complete
that existed before heaven and earth, without
sound, without substance, dependent on noth-
ing, unchanging, all-pervading, unfailing. One
may think of it as the mother of all things under
heaven. Its true name we do not know. Tao is
the by-name that we give it.’ Lao Tsu, Tao Te
Ching (London, Penguin Books, 1989), chapter
25.
6. Chen Congzhou, On Chinese Gardens
(Shanghai, Tongji University Press, 1984), p. 13.
7. H. Hookham, A Short History of China (London,
39
The Journal
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Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd, 1969), p. 127.
8. G. Rowley, Principles of Chinese Painting,
(Princeton University Press, 1974), p. 64.
9. ‘. . . Build up a cliff face on the inside of the
walls and perhaps plant some owering shrubs
or hanging creepers above it, and thus you can
achieve the effect of distance.’ Ji Cheng, The
Craft of Gardens, p. 107, op. cit.
10. J. Cahill, Chinese Painting (New York, Rizzoli
International Publications Inc.,1985), p. 33.
Palace Museum Collection, Taichung.
11. Ibid., p. 183. Collection of the late Kanichi
Sumitomo, Oiso, Japan.
12. ‘The covered walkway is a further development
of the verandah. For it to be a proper walkway
it should be both winding and long.’ Ji Cheng,
The Craft of Gardens, p. 71, op cit.
13. Rowley, Principles of Chinese Painting, p. 20, op
cit.
14. O. Fischer, Kunst des Fernen Ostens (Berne, Iris
Verlag, 1944), Plate III. Early 13th Century.
15. Ji Cheng, The Craft of Gardens, p. 33, op cit.
16. Ibid., p. 99.
17. ‘When guests gather together for a poetry con-
test, you can make them drink a forfeit of three
ladles of wine . . .’ Ibid., p. 51.
18. Ibid., p. 53.
19. Sirén, Gardens of China, p. 75, op cit. from a
poem, T’ao T’ang Chi, by Po Chü-i.
20. ‘One day I happened on some of these [moun-
tain builders], and burst out laughing. When
somebody asked me what I was laughing at, I
answered, “It has been said that art imitates life,
but why do you not imitate the appearance of
real mountains, instead of those heaps of Žst-
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Katherine Bedingfeld
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shaped stones which country people put up to
welcome the God of Spring?” “Could you do
any better yourself?” they asked, so I arranged
some rocks into the shape of a cliff; everyone
who saw it exclaimed, “What a magniŽcent
mountain!”.’ Ji Cheng, The Craft of Gardens,
p. 35, op. cit.
21. ‘. . . A handful of rocks can stir the emotions.’
Ibid., p. 47. ‘For the Confucian, the contem-
plation of rocks was an aid to the cultivation of
human character.’ Ibid., translator’s footnote
165, p. 135.
22. ‘You should let the water ow freely as if it had
no end.’ Ibid., p. 55.
23. Ibid. p. 54.
24. Ibid. p. 54.
25. ‘The Žve colours blind men’s eyes. The Žve
tones deafen men’s ears. The Žve avours spoil
men’s palates.’ Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter
12, op. cit.
26 ‘Looking at this scene through a round window
is just like seeing scenery reected in a mirror.’
Ji Cheng, The Craft of Gardens, p. 109, op. cit.
27. Cahill, Chinese Painting, p. 36, op. cit. 1072,
Palace Museum, Taichung.
28. Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 11, op. cit.
29. Cahill, Chinese Painting, 1985, p. 82, op. cit.
c.1190-1230 Palace Museum Collection,
Taichung.
30. Frances Ya-Sing Tsu, Landscape Design in
Chinese Gardens, (New York, McGraw-Hill,
1988), p. 63.
31. R.S. Johnston, Scholar Gardens of China
(Cambridge University Press, 1991), p. 94.
32. Ibid. p. 112.
33. ‘Wang Shi Yuan, recognised as the Žnest exam-
ple of the small-scale garden, is an instance of
“small and Žne, and few surpassing many”.’
Chen Congzhou, On Chinese Gardens, p. 6,
op. cit.
34. ‘At the end the visitor will have no more idea
of the plan of the garden than he did when
he started. He will feel that there are innumer-
able parts he never had time to explore.
Certainly he will Žnd it hard to believe that the
garden, and the house, are totally contained
inside an acre of ground.’ M. Keswick, The
Chinese Garden (London, Academy Editions,
1980), p. 24.
35. Chen Congzhou, On Chinese Gardens, p. 6, op.
cit.
36. Ibid. p. 24.
37. ‘A cry of admiration escaped them as they
entered, for there, immediately in front of
them, screening everything else from their view,
rose a steep, verdure clad hill. “Without this
hill,” Jia Zheng somewhat otiosely observed,
“the whole garden would be visible as one
entered, and all its mystery would be lost.” ‘
Cao Xueqin, The Story of the Stone, trans.
David Hawkes (London, Penguin Books, 1973;
Žrst published 1792), Volume 1, p. 327.
38. Ji Cheng, The Craft of Gardens, p. 121, op. cit.
39. ‘Water is the only garden component that
does not constrict space.’ Frances Ya-Sing Tsu,
Landscape Design in Chinese Gardens, p. 63,
op. cit.
40. ‘What are known as precipitous mountains are
built up against walls, so that the whitewashed
surface acts as paper and the rocks are the

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painting upon it.’ Ji Cheng, The Craft of
Gardens, p. 109, op. cit.
41. ‘From the Renaissance to the Žrst decade of the
present century perspective had been one of
the most important constituent facts in paint-
ing. It had remained a constant element
through all changes of style. The four-century-
old habit of seeing the outer world in the
Renaissance manner – that is, in terms of three
41
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Spring 1997
dimensions – rooted itself so deeply in the
human mind that no other form of perception
could be imagined.’ S. Giedion, Space, Time
and Architecture (Cambridge Ma, Harvard
University Press, 1978), p. 435.
42. Amos Ih Tiao Chang, The Tao of Architecture
(Princeton University Press, 1981), p. 27.
43. Ibid. p. 53.