Considerations for garden visitors
from Yue Zhuang
Generally the traditional Chinese see a duality of '/xing/' and '/chi / sheng'/ in works of art.
/xing/ refers to physical attributes of objects, like shapes, or forms; whereas /chi/ sheng / refers to life-spirit, and it is the latter that is preferred.
In accord with this preference of life-spirit to shape, the Chinese don't see works of art as an imitation of the physical world and they consider mere imitation, no matter how alike it is, as something lacking creativity, and childish.
But what exactly is this life-spirit? It is so vital to understand Chinese arts, but it is very hard to explain. Its simplest meaning is vapour, or stream, and may be extended to 'breath', 'exhalation', 'life-spirit'. It permeates in the universe, and flows from body to body, or from the body into material things. And like breath, it is not visible as the 'Form' is, but must be embodied through 'things'.
It is not mere imitation of the real things, but kind of abstracted, or it may be put as 'imitating Nature and then transcending Nature'. It is such a principle that the Chinese garden follows. I understand this is not a good enough account of how the life-spirit expressed in gardens? But, believe me, it is something that still bewilders all the contemporary Chinese garden designers.
from Yue Zhuang, Phd student at the university of Edinburgh