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Winter in Classical Chinese Gardens

© Kirk Johnson

The woodblock print at the top of this article shows a classical Chinese garden. This particular garden was located next to a lake in Yangzhou, a city in southern China. I am not sure if the artist intended to depict a winter scene, but the highly linear quality of this print makes it a good choice to show what classical Chinese gardens look like during the winter.

The lack of color in the print makes it more confusing than a photograph would be, but classical gardens of southern China tend to look quite similar to an ink painting in shades of black, white, and gray.

The print shows pavilions along the edge of a pond. The number of pavilions isn't at all unusual; many classical Chinese gardens are much more architectural than this one. In a typical small to medium sized garden, buildings would occupy 30 percent of the total space. The largest gardens have more space for ponds and plants, but at least 15 percent of the total space is devoted to architecture. It could be said that traditional Chinese gardens were built rather than planted, but it is the architecture which makes them so attractive during the winter.

The photograph above is of the pond in Suzhou's Wang Shi Yuan after a snowfall. The photograph below is of the same garden during the summer. The roof tiles are dark gray. The roof is supported by wooden posts which are covered with black lacquer. These posts sharply contrast with the white walls behind them.

The black posts of Suzhou's garden pavilions may surprise many people because Chinese style pavilions in European and American gardens are often painted bright red. There are some pavilions like that in southern Chinese gardens, but the use of bright colors is much more characteristic of gardens in northern China.

Like the garden in the woodblock print, the main pavilions of the Wang Shi Yuan are distributed along the edges of a pond which is almost square. All of the pavilions are linked together by covered walks (lang). Covered walks alongside of a water feature are known as Shui Lang (Water Gallery).

I find it interesting to compare these gardens with the photograph below, which shows the Silver Pavilion in Kyoto, Japan.

The Silver Pavilion is very typical of traditional Japanese architecture, in that this pavilion is not connected with the garden's other buildings. The lack of covered walks seems a bit strange, since covered walks are perfectly suited to Japan's rainy summers and they would add to the pleasure of gardens during snowy winters.

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