Key Elements of Traditional Chinese Scholar's Garden

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By Margaret Trey, PhD

The serene beauty of The New York Chinese Scholar's Garden transports one back in time to ancient China.

It's an authentic replica of Ming Dynasty-style Chinese gardens.

[Lynn Kelly, Snug-Harbor Cultural Center, Botanical Garden President & CEO]:
"The idea was proposed to build a replica of an actual Suzhou Garden right here in New York City but to do outside as opposed to inside in a building."

The garden embodies several key elements found in every Chinese scholar's garden.

[Dr. Ron Altman, NY Chinese Scholar's Garden Representative Board Member]:
"We have a Banana Leaf Gate here. It basically is a form—looks like a banana—where you've a doorway. The Chinese classical gardens all have unusual doorways. You've a Moon Gate over there, which every Chinese scholar's garden would have."

[Dr. Ron Altman, NY Chinese Scholar's Garden Representative Board Member]:
"You have what they called 'Leaky Windows" over there, which lets you see part of the other side of the garden and wants to you see what's on the other side."

Another type is the framed viewing window.

[Dr. Ron Altman, NY Chinese Scholar's Garden Representative Board Member]:
"A lot of photographers would use that as a frame for a picture. So there are a lot of traditional items that this garden has that every other garden has."

Water has a special symbolic meaning in a Chinese scholar's garden. It represents the essence of life. Hence waterfalls and waterways in the garden symbolize the flow and rejuvenation of life.

[Dr. Ron Altman, NY Chinese Scholar's Garden Representative Board Member]:
"Almost every Chinese scholar's garden will have water, which will be the artery of the gardens. You'll have rocks which are basically the bones of the garden. And you'll have plant material, which will soften the garden."

Likewise, rocks have a special meaning in traditional Chinese gardens.

Four types of rocks are used in The New York Chinese Scholar's Garden. These include granite for building rockeries, stalagmite for vertical accents, small goose egg-shaped pebbles on the walkways and the mosaics of the courtyard, and the Lake Tai sculpture rocks.

[Dr. Ron Altman, NY Chinese Scholar's Garden Representative Board Member]:
"Originally in ancient China, they mined these rocks from Lake Tai, outside of Suzhou. The lake itself was an acid lake, probably, and the rocks are a limestone rock. And the water as it moved around the rocks and through the rocks ate holes in them. The Chinese appreciate them or revere these rocks as a natural sculpture."

The Lake Tai rocks symbolize wisdom and immortality.

[Dr. Ron Altman, NY Chinese Scholar's Garden Representative Board Member]:
"These Taihu rocks are definitely found in almost every Ming garden."

Inside the teahouse, there's another type of sculpture rock—Lingbi rocks—one shaped like a phoenix or a dragon, the other like a buffalo or a pig.

"The Lingbi rocks are very dense metallic rock. If you go over to it, very gently hit it with your fingernail, it'll actually ring like a bell. The Chinese used these rocks when they shaped them and they make bells out of them."

The Chinese appreciated these rocks or viewing stones for their sheen, unusual shapes, and interesting veins, or cavities.

This deep appreciation for rocks originates from ancient spiritual beliefs and close harmony with nature. Rocks and mountains are believed to exude energy. They symbolize the dwelling places of ancient Daoist immortals the Chinese scholars aspire to emulate.

The concept of having huge natural sculpture rocks in the scholar's garden first started during the Tang Dynasty from 618 to 907 AD.

Apparently Emperor Huizong from the Song Dynasty almost drained the imperial treasury looking for the rare Lake Tai rocks for his imperial garden. An avid painter, poet, and calligrapher himself, the emperor was so keen that he instructed the entire residents of two towns to search the lakebeds for these rocks.

Rocks play an important role in Chinese poetry and landscape painting—a past time of the Chinese scholars as they seek refuge in their gardens.

In the Ming-style garden, rocks, waterways, and plant life thus provide a serene and idyllic setting for the Chinese scholar—as he sits in his garden to do his calligraphy, his painting, or write his poetry.

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