The Chinese garden: History, art & architecture

By Maggie Keswick

Book Overview

Dense with winding paths, dominated by huge rock piles and buildings squeezed into small spaces, the characteristic Chinese garden is, for many foreigners, so unlike anything else as to be incomprehensible. Only on closer acquaintance does it offer up its mysteries; and such is the achievement of Maggie Keswick's celebrated classic that it affords us--adventurers, armchair travelers, and garden buffs alike--the intimate pleasures of the Chinese garden. In these richly illustrated pages, Chinese gardens unfold as cosmic diagrams, revealing a profound and ancient view of the world and of humanity's place in it. First sensuous impressions give way to more cerebral delights, and forms conjure unending, increasingly esoteric and mystical layers of meaning for the initiate. Keswick conducts us through the art and architecture, the principles and techniques of Chinese gardens, showing us their long history as the background for a civilization--the settings for China's great poets and painters, the scenes of ribald parties and peaceful contemplation, political intrigues and family festivals.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0847801934
• ISBN13: 9780847801930
• Release Date: January 1978
• Publisher: Rizzoli
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Essential Guide to The Chinese Garden

Rarely do we have a Westerner who can explain the intricacies and beauty of the Chinese Garden, which certainly played an important role in the lives of the Emperors and Empresses, and the Chinese literati. Maggie Keswick, by virtue of her education in Shanghai and her travels in China, has written a unique and lovely book to explain the philosophy behind the Chinese Garden. She has both depth and width in a subject that is scholarly, yet explained so well that the ordinary reader can appreciate. Ancient Chinese gardens gave inspiration to bonsai and miniature landscape art as well as the Zen gardens of Japan. Keswick's use of pictures and stories make the book indeed fulfilling.