Presence and Absence—Nature in French Landscape Garden and Chinese Garden

Presence and Absence—Nature in French Landscape Garden and Chinese Garden

Ruijun Shen

Western traditional culture revers the separation between humans and nature, and holds that humans can change and rule nature. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, however, advocates a return to nature and leading a simple life. Rousseau's ideas have had a profound impact on Western modern culture, and are embodied in Parc Jean-Jacques-Rousseau, a landscape garden named after him. Chinese culture advocates harmony between humans and nature. Unity with nature is one of our core values of traditional thought. Both of these ideas are at play simultaneously in contemporary Chinese culture. This research analyzes Parc Jean-Jacques-Rousseau and traditional Chinese gardens to compare the ways in which France, as a representative of Western culture, is similar to and different from Chinese culture in approaching nature and in its relationship with nature, and the conceptual roots behind these similarities and differences, as a way of understanding the overlaps and departures between these two systems of thought.

Parc Jean-Jacques-Rousseau uses individual experience to discover the self in an embodiment of modernist thinking.

Parc Jean-Jacques-Rousseau is from the end of feudalist dynasties. The feudal system advocated the divine right of rulers. God created the world and is the arbiter of truth, and God appointed the emperor to administer the people. The truth comes from the Bible and its agents in the mortal world. Science advanced during the Enlightenment, while Isaac Newton discovered universal gravitation, and Darwin published On the Origin of Species ect. Through constant experimentation, people became aware that the truth of the world could be gained through observation of the objective world and repeated verification. Anyone could gain and share knowledge. From this perspective, everyone has the right and the pathway for gaining the the truth, and everyone is born equal. Rousseau hated the rigid hierarchy of feudal monarchy, believing that all inequalities among people were the result of social hierarchy. This led him to praise the simple, common, diverse and freely growing beauty of nature. In his book Emile, he writes, “Coming from the hand of the Author of all things, everything is good; in the hands of man, everything degenerates.” He treats the natural state of children as “raw material” for education, and advocates fostering their interests based on their natural disposition. In Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men, he writes that if you do not respect your own perceptions, then no matter how many social norms you submit to, you will not find happiness. Rousseau advocated the free growth of the individual spirit.

Parc Jean-Jacques-Rousseau is a material embodiment of Rousseau's ideas. He once described his idea for a garden in great detail in his novel The New Heloise. In this book, Rousseau writes, “Upon entering this so-called orchard, I was struck by a pleasantly cool sensation which dark shade, bright and lively greenery, flowers scattered on every side, the bubbling of flowing water, and the songs of a thousand birds impressed on my imagination at least as much as my senses.” Unlike the traditional French landscape garden, which highlighted imperial power and humanity’s conquering of nature, the garden in Rousseau's mind used natural beauty to awaken people’s perceptivity and bring them back to their origins. Thus, the painstakingly trimmed bushes and trees from the French garden disappear. In the garden Rousseau imagines in The New Heloise, one finds no traces of artificial revision. “This place is enchanting, it is true, but rustic and wild; I see no human labor here. You closed the gate; water came along I don’t know how; nature alone did the rest and you yourself could never have managed to do as well.” Rousseau was obsessed with botany throughout his life, and imagined using the growth properties of plants to create a comfortable environment. “Alleys bordered by these flowered woods, covered with a thousand garlands of Judean vine, creeper, hops, bindweed, Bryony and other  plants of that sort, among which honeysuckle and jasmine saw fit to mingle. These garlands seemed to have been casually cast from tree to tree, as I had sometimes seen in forests, and formed something like draperies above us which protected us from the sun.” The gardening methods he describes in this novel include using the principles of natural diversity to produce surprises. “If you consider how enchanted one sometimes feels at spying a wild fruit deep in the wood and even taking refreshment from it, you will understand the pleasure one has in finding in this artificial wilderness excellent and ripe fruits even though they are scattered and unhandsome; which further affords the pleasure of seeking and selecting.” Rousseau’s political and philosophical ideal is peaceful coexistence between humans and nature, each taking what they need and establishing a kingdom of equality and peace between all things. These ideas are all embodied in the garden he describes. “I thought at first they were closed in by a latticework: but when we reached the end of the basin, I saw several of them fly down and come near to us on a sort of short alley that divided the esplanade in two and led from the basin to the aviary. Then Monsieur de Wolmar, coming around the basin, strewed on the alley two or three handfuls of mixed seed which he had in his pocket, and when he had withdrawn, the birds rushed in and started to eat like hens.” “Now I understand it: I see that you want guests and not prisoners.” “Patience and time... These expedients are hardly likely to occur to the wealthy in their pleasures. Forever in a hurry to satisfy themselves, force and money are the only means they know; they have birds in cages, spending so much money at a month to keep these friends. If house staff ever came near this place, you would soon see the birds disappear.” In his garden, he posited a form of coexistence where humans and nature do not interfere with each other, but instead grow freely and benefit each other.

Parc Jean-Jacques Rousseau was created by René de Girardin, a progressive aristocrat, and a follower of Rousseau. The park's design was inspired by the descriptions of the garden in The New Heloise. After the park’s completion, Girardin invited Rousseau to stay, which he did for a short time before dying there in 1778. He was buried on a small island in the park lined with poplar trees. There his body stayed until 1794, when it was moved to the Pantheon in Paris. Traditional French landscape garden design begins with a building (a palace), and from the vantage point of the central building, adjust the size of the waters and hedges to utilize perspective for achieving balanced proportions and harmony. In Parc Rousseau, Girardin went against the landscaping methods of the past, and began by observing the topography and familiarizing himself with the terrain in order to adapt to local conditions. He even shifted the viewer’s gaze to “accommodate” natural scenery, rather than use human power to alter nature. These techniques embodied the view on nature Rousseau laid out in The New Heloise. In his treatise, An essay on landscape, he writes, “If there is a village or buildings outside of the garden, then make the buildings in the garden larger. If the garden is surrounded by trees, there is no reason to make such large buildings”... “If scenic elements block the view, try not moving the scenic elements, but instead walk to a higher point and look out over the entire scene to determine its distance, and ask a painter to design the foreground for it.” His Parc Rousseau is a painting, a poem, a delight to the eyes and a joy for the heart. He collaborated with landscape painters to utilize the shapes, colors and lighting of the garden to create a sense of a relief painting, touching people with beautiful sights. He bestowed his gardens with philosophical spirit. Through the “unfinished” Temple of Philosophy—a building representing ancient Greek reason and democracy—he encourages visitors to continue writing and pondering humanity’s existential issues. There is a plaque at the entrance to the park engraved with Girardin’s words. The inscription reads, “Before nature, all are equal, and there are no boundaries. We learn ourselves through practice. The journey of life is hurried, but do not be afraid to fall. One must not fall short of giving their all, or know when to stop.” This passage conveys Girardin's ideas of landscape design—he wanted to create an Eden of equality and freedom, so that all individual spirits could grow through practice. Parc Rousseau begins with restraint before taking flight. The entrance is a small, low-lying pond. Following the pathway, the visitors move upwards and pass through a cave before the terrain suddenly opens up. It is a metaphor for the journey from the depths of darkness and ignorance into the light of wisdom, an Enlightenment idea. The beautiful scenery cannot be revealed in a single glance, but instead unfolds scene by scene in every corner of the garden, like a stage background turning frame by frame, a book turning its pages as the visitor wanders. There is no end point to the garden, so that visitors may wander and linger. Through the acts of walking, stopping, resting, thinking and getting lost, they engage in a dialogue with nature, and with their own body and soul. The perceptions of the body awaken self-awareness and the perceptions of the heart. To experience the beauty and spirit of Parc Jean-Jacques-Rousseau, one must wander, rather than contemplate it in stillness.

Chinese Gardens: Patterns of Fusion between Humans and Nature

In Chinese culture, humans and nature are indivisible. People are a part of nature, and act according to the principles of nature. Laozi once said, “Man takes his law from the earth; the earth takes its law from the heavens; the heavens take their law from the Dao, and the Dao takes its law from nature." Zhuangzi proposed “carefree wandering,” forgetting the boundary between the self and the world around you to reach a state of selflessness, non-action and no ego, a state of complete detachment. People are not constrained by things because they have attained the highest state of freedom. Zhuangzi's nature is a state of following nature to gain emptiness, tranquility and lightness. Influenced by Daoist thought, nature became a vehicle for escaping the social yokes of fortune and fame, and returning to one’s true self. Ruled by the world-engaging Confucian idea of “those who excel in learning take up office,” the Daoist ideal of “retreat” became a vehicle for the literati to escape from the struggles of officialdom and pursue individual spiritual contentment. At the same time, influenced by the Confucian idea that humans share the same composition as the cosmos, nature was bestowed with human sentiments. Traditional Chinese theories on painting anthropomorphize the landscape: “Rivers are the veins of the mountains, the vegetation their hair, the fog their demeanor. Thus, the water brings life to the mountains, the vegetation brings essence, and the fog, beauty.” The two schools of thought together formed Chinese attitudes towards nature, but Chinese landscape painting and private gardens developed to embody the Daoist influence more.

The Chinese garden has been likened to a poem in solid form, a three-dimensional painting. The landscape garden pursues the conceptual realm expressed by Chinese landscape painting. Garden designers are connoisseurs of poetry, literature and painting. Literati figures use the expressive techniques of Chinese landscape painting to create the layouts of their gardens. We can understand the manufactured “nature” of the Chinese landscape garden through the depiction of nature in Chinese landscape painting. Chinese landscape painting expresses not only a beautiful natural scene, but also the entire process of wandering through the landscape, conveying every perception along the way, from far to near, from low to high. This led Chinese landscape painters to develop the “three distance method,” a unique technique for expressing a “roving view.” Song dynasty painter Guo Xi defines the three distance technique in his treatise Lofty Message of Forests and Streams: “There are three distances in the mountains: looking up to the peak from the foot of the mountain is high distance; looking behind the mountain from in front of it is deep distance; looking at the distant mountains from a close mountain is flat distance.” The three distance technique is a spatiotemporal view which describes a scene through the different views of looking up, down and out into the distance. With the three distance technique, the painter can record everything they see as they wander from the bottom of the mountain to the top, including the minor details and the sweeping panorama. It records the three-dimensional perceptions of the entire journey through the winding mountain paths, a meandering verse, rather than a fixed photograph. In Chinese landscape painting, the movements of people compose the layout of the painting, forming a record of what is seen and perceived when they enter nature. There can only be scenery when there are people. People find resonance with nature by observing nature. Meanwhile, the natural environment becomes precious for its ability to contain people. Guo Xi writes, “Paintings that present a landscape which is worthy of visiting, of viewing, of wandering through and of residing are masterpieces. But a landscape which is worthy of viewing is not as good as the one which is worthy of wandering through or residing. Why? Look at the mountains today. There is so much space to view, but so little to wander or reside. It must gain those qualities. Those are the places for which the gentleman longs.” Thus, Chinese landscape painting does not depict nature untrodden by humans, but instead conceals pavilions, huts, travelers and fishermen in the scene to note the traces of habitation, to allude to people entering nature in search of the Dao. The object of depiction is the Dao itself—retreat into the mountains and forests. It seems as if there are people and also as if there are not. There are traces of people, but not their subjective emotions.

Along the same line of reasoning, Chinese landscape gardens are not averse to traces of artifice. In The Craft of Gardens, Ji Cheng writes, “though it is made by man, it looks to be the work of nature.” In the traditional gardens of Suzhou, every bush and tree, every rock and pebble, is carefully crafted. The artificial is treated as the real, and the real is treated as the artificial. Stones are piled into rockeries that mimic mountain landscapes; bamboo is planted to pick up the sound of the wind; sights are transposed, borrowed and concealed to produce the experience of wandering the mountains. The proportions and appearances of scenic elements can differ from those of nature, but the delight in nature and the experience of venturing through it are real. Even in the vast imperial garden of the Summer Palace, the pavilions, bridges, walkways and other manmade buildings are carefully devised embellishments to the landscape. When we look out across the natural landscape, we can find the fusion of the heavens, earth and humanity woven into the layout at every turn. The embankment at the Summer Palace is planted with willows and peach trees. The swaying of the willows and the enchanting twists of the peach branches accentuate the voluptuous curves of the embankment, as the deportment of a graceful woman. The beauty we see in Chinese landscape gardens is anything but unadorned nature. Chinese gardens pursue spiritual and philosophical echoes of nature, rather than physical or formal semblance of nature. In nature there are people, and in people there is nature. Travel was difficult in ancient times, and one goal of creating gardens was to be able to enjoy the experience of roaming the mountains, and finding enlightenment, without long journeys. Laozi said, “Heaven and earth are not inherently benevolent. All things are disposable to them.” Through observing and experiencing nature, people cultivate a selfless heart that is equal to all things.