The difference between Chinese and Western gardens is very obvious from the formal point of view. Western gardens embody artificial beauty, not only the layout is symmetrical, regular and strict, even the flowers and plants are squarely trimmed, thus presenting a kind of geometrical pattern beauty, from the phenomenon that Western gardens are mainly based on artificial methods to change their natural state. Chinese gardens are completely different, neither axis symmetry, there is no rule to follow, on the contrary, it is the mountains surrounded by water, winding, not only flowers, plants and trees to the original appearance of nature, even if the artificial buildings also try to follow nature and the difference between the staggered, and strive to integrate with nature, "although made by people, just like the sky opened".

Humanization of nature/natural anthropomorphism

Since it is a garden, it can not be separated from nature, but the attitude of China and the West towards nature is very different. Although natural beauty is also mentioned in Western aesthetic writings, it is only a material or source of beauty. Natural beauty itself is defective and cannot be perfected unless it is artificially transformed, that is to say, natural beauty itself does not have an independent aesthetic significance. Hegel in his 〈Aesthetics〉〉 has specifically discussed the defects of natural beauty, because anything in nature is self-contained, without a conscious mind to infuse the conceptual unity of life and subject matter in a number of disparate and juxtaposed parts, and thus cannot see the characteristics of the ideal beauty." Beauty is the sensual manifestation of the idea", so natural beauty is bound to have defects, and it is impossible to be sublimated into artistic beauty. And the garden is artificial creation, he should be in accordance with the will to recognize the alteration, in order to achieve the perfect situation.

The discovery and exploration of natural beauty by the Chinese followed a different path. The Chinese seek mainly certain aspects of nature that are in harmony with the human aesthetic mind and that can arouse ****songs. The establishment of Chinese natural aesthetics can be traced back to the era of the Wei, Jin, and North and South Dynasties, when specific historical conditions forced the scholarly class to ignore politics and invite them to travel to mountains and forests and send their love to landscapes and see them, and so they used "love" as an intermediary to recognize the richness of the natural beauty in the lakes and mountains. Chinese gardens from the form and style of the natural landscape garden, but never simply reproduce or imitate nature, but in the deep understanding of natural beauty on the basis of extraction, abstraction, generalization, typification. This kind of creation does not go against the nature of amiability, on the contrary, it is conforming to the nature and expresses the nature more profoundly. The Chinese view of aesthetics is not to change nature according to human ideas, but to emphasize the emotional point of convergence between subject and object, i.e., the "free spirit". It can play a role in communicating between the aesthetic subject and the aesthetic object. From a higher level, it can also be used to personalize the object through the function of "empathy". Zhuangzi put forward "to travel by the object to the heart" is to think that the object and I can be intertwined, so as to achieve the realm of the object and the self are forgotten. Therefore, the aesthetics of the Western gardening idea of humanization of nature, while China is natural anthropomorphism.

The beauty of form and mood

Because of the different attitudes towards natural beauty, reflected in the pursuit of gardening art will have their own focus. Western gardening is not lacking in poetry, but deliberately pursued is the beauty of form; Chinese gardening also emphasizes the form, but dedicated to the pursuit of the beauty of the mood. Westerners believe that natural beauty has defects, and in order to overcome such defects and achieve perfection, it is necessary to enhance the natural beauty with a certain concept, so as to reach the height of artistic beauty. It is also a form of beauty. As early as in ancient Greece, the philosopher Pythagoras explored harmony from the angle of numbers and proposed the golden ratio. Vitruvius of the Roman period also mentioned proportion and balance in his "Ten Books of Architecture", proposing that "proportion is the outward appearance of beauty, the relationship of moderation in combining details". During the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and others also used the human body to prove the law of formal beauty. Hegel, on the other hand, took "the external beauty of abstract forms" as his proposition, and abstracted and generalized the laws of formal beauty, such as neatness, balance and symmetry, conformity to rules, and harmony. Thus, the law of formal beauty has become quite universal. It not only governs the visual arts such as architecture, painting and sculpture, but also has a great influence on the auditory arts such as music and poetry. Therefore, gardens, which are closely related to buildings, are regarded as golden rules. Western gardens that axis of symmetry, balanced layout, exquisite geometric pattern composition, strong rhythmic sense of rhythm are clearly reflected in the deliberate pursuit of formal beauty.

Chinese gardening focuses on the "scene" and "feelings", the scene naturally belongs to the category of material form. However, the standard of measurement depends on whether it can be used to trigger people's feelings, so as to have a poetic and picturesque environmental atmosphere that is the "mood". This is obviously different from the formal beauty pursued by Western gardening, and this difference is mainly due to the cultural background of Chinese gardening. In ancient China, there were no specialized gardeners, but since the Wei, Jin, and North and South Dynasties, due to the intervention of literati and painters, Chinese gardens have been y influenced by paintings, poems, and literature. Both poems and paintings paid much attention to the pursuit of the mood, resulting in the strong emotional color of Chinese gardens from the very beginning. Qing dynasty Wang Guowei said: "the realm is not only scenery, but also joy, anger, sadness and happiness is also one of the realms in the hearts of people, so those who can write real scenery and real feelings are called realm, otherwise it is called no realm. Context is to rely on "realization" to get, and "realization" is a kind of mental activity, "the scene is not sent without feelings, feelings are not born without the scene". Therefore, the main purpose of gardening is to pursue the mood.

A good garden, whether Chinese or Western, is bound to be pleasing to the eye, but because of the different emphasis, Western gardens give us the feeling of pleasing to the eye, while Chinese gardens are intended to be pleasing to the heart.

Necessity/Contingency

Western gardens follow the law of formal beauty, deliberately pursuing the beauty of geometric patterns, which inevitably show a geometric relationship, such as symmetry of axes, equilibrium, and a wide range of defined geometric shapes such as straight lines, squares, circles, triangles, etc. Although the combination of changes can be many variations of the former, the former is not the same as the former, and the latter is not the same as the latter. Although the combination of changes can be varied, there are still rules to follow. Western gardening since the deliberate pursuit of formal beauty, it is impossible to violate the law of formal beauty, so the garden components can not be detached from the whole, but must be a certain shape and size in a certain part of the mosaic, so it shows a kind of conformity to the laws of necessity.

Chinese gardening is a far way from the natural landscape, the pursuit of the same realm of poetry and painting. If it also pays much attention to the words of landscaping, then its material, original shape, source, inspiration 。。。。。。 It can only be found in nature. The more in line with the nature of nature, the more rich in meaning it contains. Therefore, Chinese gardening is characterized by a great deal of randomness and chance. Not only is the layout ever-changing, but there is no strict subordination between the whole and the parts, and the structure is so loose that there is no regularity. As the saying goes, "there is no method of gardening". Even many landscapes are consciously hidden but not revealed, "winding paths, Zen room grass and trees", "the mountain is no way out, dark flowers and a village", "Summit Road turn, there are pavilions winged", which are extremely poetic realm.

Chinese and Western compared to the composition of the Western gardens to elaborate patterns show his inevitability, while many of the deep and winding landscape in the Chinese gardens are often unexpected, full of serendipity.

Clear/ambiguous

Western gardens are clear and focused, the relationship between each part is clear and certain, the boundaries and spatial scopes are obvious, and the spatial sequences are clearly defined, which gives people the impression that the order is well-organized and clear. The main reason is that western gardens pursue formal beauty, following the law of formal beauty shows a kind of regularity and inevitability, but all regular things will give people a clear sense of order. In addition, westerners are good at logical thinking, things are used to analyze the method to reveal its essence, this social ideology greatly affects people's aesthetic habits and concepts. This is naturally due to the aesthetic habits and concepts of the Chinese. Unlike the Westerners, the Chinese know things by direct realization, and believe that intuition is not a direct response of the senses, but a mental activity, a sublimation of inner experience, which cannot be obtained by reasoning. Chinese garden landscape borrowed from poetry, painting, and strive to be subtle, deep, illusory, and to seek to see the small in the big, small in the big, real in the virtual, real in the virtual, or hidden or exposed, or shallow or deep, so that many of the opposite factors intertwined and blended into a single entity, and there is no clarity to speak of. On the contrary, it makes people feel hazy and ambiguous everywhere.

Entering the world/Exiting the world

In many Western garden writings, often referred to the Garden of Eden built by God for Adam and Eve. The Garden of Eden as depicted in the Bible is similar to the immortal mountain and pavilion fantasized by the Chinese. But with the development of history, western gardens gradually get rid of the fantasy and step by step close to reality. The classical gardens in France are the most obvious. Princes and nobles in the garden often banquets guests, balls, theater, thus turning the garden into a people, bustling, bustling open-air mansion, not the slightest glimpse of heavenly paradise of transcendental illusion, step by step to the world.

The envy of the gods and goddesses of life in ancient China's gardens have a far-reaching impact, the Qin and Han emperors out of the superstition of the Founder, in the construction of gardens, always open pools to build islands, and named Penglai, Founder, Yingzhou to symbolize the East China Sea immortal mountains, and from then on, it will form a kind of "a pool of three mountains" model. And to the Wei, Jin and the North and South Dynasties, due to the cruel political struggle, so that the social turmoil and division, the scholar class in order to save their lives in the chaotic world, more to escape from reality, indulgence and enjoyment, invited to visit the famous mountains and rivers in order to love the landscape, and even live a life of seclusion. At this time, a kind of negative thought of leaving the world was born. Tao Yuanming's 〈〈peach blossom garden〉〉 depicts a life outside the paradise. This y affected the gardens in the future. Whenever the literati were disillusioned with their official positions or retired from the world, they would build mansions in order to live in poverty and be happy with the world. Therefore, compared with Western gardens, Chinese gardens are only suitable for a small number of people to enjoy the taste, unlike Western gardens can accommodate a large number of people for public **** activities.

Only reason/emotion

What is the reason for such a big difference between Chinese and Western gardens? This can only be analyzed from the cultural background, especially philosophy and aesthetic thinking. The art of gardening, like other arts, is influenced by aesthetic thinking, and aesthetics grows under a certain system of philosophical thought. Historically, both materialism and idealism have emphasized the cognitive role of reason in practice. The Pythagorean school of the sixth century B.C. attempted to find beauty in quantitative relationships, and the famous "golden section" was first proposed by them. This kind of aesthetic thought has been ruling Europe tenaciously for thousands of years. She emphasized unity, order, balance, symmetry, respect for the circle, square, straight line 。。。。。。 etc. European geometric patterns in the form of garden style is this "only reason" under the influence of aesthetic thought.

Unlike the West, classical Chinese gardens were born in the fertile soil of Chinese culture, and y influenced by painting, poetry and literature. Due to the direct participation and management of poets and painters, Chinese gardens have a strong emotional color of poetry and painting from the very beginning. Chinese painting, especially landscape painting, had the most direct and profound influence on Chinese gardens. It can be said that Chinese gardens have always been developed in the vein of paintings. In ancient China, there were no monographs on the theory of gardening, but the works on the theory of painting were very voluminous. These painting theories played a guiding role in gardening. There is no other principle that painting theory follows more than the principle of "learning from the outside and developing from the inside". The principle of "external master means to take the natural landscape as the model for creation, while the principle of "internal development" emphasizes that it is not to copy the natural landscape from the class, but to take the essence of it through the subjective feeling of the artist.

Besides painting, poetry has also had a profound influence on the art of Chinese gardening. Since ancient times, there are poems and paintings of the same origin, poetry is the invisible painting, painting is a tangible poem. The influence of poetry on gardening is also reflected in the side of "love". Ancient Chinese gardens were mostly created by literati painters, which inevitably reflected the temperament and sentiments of these people. These people, as the scholarly class, undoubtedly reflected the philosophical and ethical concepts of the society at that time. Ancient Chinese philosophy "Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism" of the importance of sentiment, respect for nature, escape from reality and the pursuit of purity and inaction of the thought together to form a unique literati quiet and elegant fun, romantic and elegant style and simplicity of the temperament and sentiments, which also determines the Chinese gardening of the "love" of the aesthetic ideas.