Aesthetics of Chinese garden architecture—using the Lin Ben Yuan family Mansion and Garden in Banqiao, Taiwan as an example

Abstract

According to the literature, Taiwanese garden architecture dates back to Dutch Formosa when prominent tycoons built gardens for the sake of recreation and social contact. In the periods of Daoguang and Tongzhi at the end of Qing dynasty, powerful and wealthy families throughout China were competitive in constructing gardens. Among these, the best preserved one is the Lin Ben Yuan Family Mansion and Garden located in Banqiao, Taiwan. Generally known as Lin Family Garden, it is the recognized representative of Taiwanese gardens built in Qing dynasty and ranked as the second-grade historical site [1]. Chinese traditional gardens reflect Chinese people's yearning for and viewpoint of the nature. Chinese family's garden is the embodiment and miniature of the nature. Garden, the landscape created by human, becomes a kind of spiritual sustenance, and a form of architecture generated from the empathy of enjoying the nature. Unlike button-down common mansions, garden architecture is characterized by flexible and variable layout. How to create an environment possessing natural landscape within a limited range (from design of tour path and levels of landscaping to layout of the whole garden) is a profound and complicated knowledge. This research uses descriptive method, personal contemplation method, and design aesthetics viewpoint proposed by Yu-Fu, Yang (2009) to analyze garden architecture aesthetics and artistic presentation forms of the Lin Family Garden, in order to glimpse mysterious veil of design aesthetics of Chinese gardens.