Visiting the Garden

龙昇Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press · ChinaOct 2018

Rating 3.5
Word count
105K words
Chapters
46
ISBN
9787313193995

Tags

Essays and Miscellany Human GeographySlow ReadingTraditional AestheticsGarden CultureJapanese Aesthetics

Summary

This book is one volume in the "Enjoy Reading Japan" series. It moves from the three major forms of Japanese gardens to a wide range of garden types, including Buddhist-family gardens, samurai-family gardens, court gardens, shrine gardens, merchant-family gardens, and museum gardens. Through the development of gardens it traces the long arc of Japanese social history, so that readers walking through the text and touring among gardens and landscapes are also strolling through the scroll of Japanese history.

Editor's review

*Garden Strolling* is a collection of cultural essays published in 2021 by Long Sheng, a writer living in Japan. Its most distinctive value lies in its dual perspective—a Chinese writer who has lived in Japan for decades looks back with a keen and warm gaze at the gardens of his homeland, while observing Japanese gardens and nature through an accumulated Eastern aesthetic. Long Sheng is not a professional garden scholar, and precisely for that reason he avoids the dryness of academic writing; his prose is full of personal experience and memory, like a learned old friend leading you through gardens either famous or secluded and unknown. His descriptions of Suzhou gardens are steeped in the nostalgia of one who left home young and the cultural delight of rediscovery; his readings of Japanese dry landscapes and tea gardens carry the familiarity of long residence and subtle cultural comparison. This is not merely a book about garden spaces, but a book about time, memory, and cultural identity. The prose is plain and unhurried yet rich in information, and in its leisurely narrative it quietly completes an intimate guide to the essence of Chinese and Japanese garden aesthetics. For readers who want to understand Eastern garden culture but are deterred by heavy theory, this is an excellent introduction and a work for going deeper.

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Reading tips

  1. It is suggested that you read selectively according to your own interests, starting with the garden you know best or the chapter that interests you most; there is no need to follow the order.
  2. While reading, you may pair the book with images or documentaries of the gardens it mentions for a more immersive experience.
  3. This book is suited to quiet, slow reading in leisure hours, savoring the mood and feeling that flow between the lines.

About the publisher

Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press China · Founded in 1983

Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press is an academic publisher that gives equal weight to science and technology and the humanities, with titles spanning biography, documentary literature, popular science, cultural studies, artificial intelligence, and social culture. Representative books in the collection range from spaceflight memoirs such as Carrying Fire to the Moon: My Lunar Journey to historical investigations like Evidence: Uncovering 172 Comfort Stations in Shanghai, as well as academic works including Qian Xuesen's Lectures on Physical Mechanics: Collector's Edition, Tang Dynasty Extraterritorial Astronomy, and Eyewitness to the Tokyo Trial. Authors represented include Michael Collins, Qian Xuesen, Su Zhiliang, Wang Meng, and Pai Hsien-yung. The press emphasizes a combination of scientific spirit and humanistic concern, balancing scholarly editions with general reading. Public information is limited, so this profile focuses on the publishing directions reflected in the books held in the collection.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 内容提要
  3. 作者简介
  4. 序
  5. 第一章 日本庭园的三大形态
  6. 池泉：水上大世界
  7. 枯山水：关于想象的游戏
  8. 露地，源自茶道
  9. 第二章 日本三名园及借景、缩景式庭园
  10. 日本三名园
  11. 借景式庭园：无界的风景
  12. 缩景式庭园：苏杭景色在日本
  13. 第三章 此岸与彼岸：贵族文人与佛家的庭园
  14. “造”：几种庭园建筑样式
  15. 曲水庭园：对魏晋风雅的再现
  16. 净土庭园：构筑理想乡
  17. 第四章 幕府时代的武家庭园
  18. 武家崛起：武家庭园的出现
  19. 大名庭园：藩主的接待会所
  20. 城中庭园：堡垒里的花园
  21. 第五章 皇家所到之处：宫廷庭园和离宫庭园
  22. 京都御所庭园
  23. 仙洞御所庭园
  24. 修学院离宫庭园
  25. 桂离宫庭园
  26. 第六章 神灵的降临：神社和神宫中的庭园
  27. 从自然信仰到神佛习合
  28. 各有特色的神社庭园
  29. 谷崎润一郎笔下的庭园：平安神宫神苑
  30. 第七章 商人的如意算盘：从商家庭园到料亭
  31. 商人抬头：商家庭园的涌现
  32. 料亭：政治、文化集大成之地
  33. 第八章 流芳于世的作庭家
  34. 禅僧作庭家：枯山水的缘起与发扬
  35. 画家作庭家：如画的庭园
  36. 茶人作庭家：禅茶一味
  37. 近现代作庭家：玫瑰花背后的和洋折衷
  38. 第九章 明治维新的产物：近代实业家的造庭
  39. 清澄庭园：石头的崇拜
  40. “水紫山明”三溪园
  41. 游九年庵
  42. 足立的“足立美术馆庭园”
  43. 第十章 美术馆庭园和庭园美术馆
  44. 美术馆庭园
  45. 庭园美术馆
  46. 结语

FAQ

What is this book's Douban rating? According to Douban, the book has a rating of about 8.5, placing it among better-received works of cultural essays.
What is special about the author Long Sheng's background? Long Sheng is a Chinese writer long resident in Japan who has worked as an editor and journalist. His unusual life experience gives his work a consistently cross-cultural observational and reflective perspective.
Which gardens does this book mainly cover? It covers many representative gardens and natural landscapes in China (mainly Suzhou gardens) and Japan, and is the fruit of the author's personal travels and reflections.

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About the author

龙昇 Author

Public information about Long Sheng is limited. At present, the only confirmed detail is that one work by this author is held in the collection: a collection of prose and miscellaneous writings titled Visiting a Garden (You Yuan). Other biographical details, such as place of origin, dates of birth and death, and an English name, have not been clearly recorded. Judging from the available clues, Visiting a Garden is classified as prose and miscellaneous writings, suggesting that the author writes in a prose style devoted to recording observations and expressing personal reflections rather than to fiction or specialized treatises. The title itself carries a strong sense of travel and leisurely wandering, evoking descriptions of garden scenery, the process of visiting, and the thoughts such outings inspire. Because more works and background materials are lacking, it is difficult to make a full assessment of the author's overall style and literary influence. Readers may begin with Visiting a Garden to appreciate the author's observational perspective and linguistic sensibility in prose writing; further details can be added if new materials come to light.