{"id":4439,"date":"2016-10-03T19:02:01","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T19:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siteandinsight.com\/?p=4439"},"modified":"2016-10-03T19:02:01","modified_gmt":"2016-10-03T19:02:01","slug":"yin-and-yang-at-the-dr-sun-yat-sen-classical-chinese-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/yin-and-yang-at-the-dr-sun-yat-sen-classical-chinese-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Yin and Yang at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vancouver’s Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden is an \u00a0oasis in the middle of a busy city, a place to rest and reflect on\u00a0a garden tradition that reached its peak in the Ming dynasty (1358-1644). In accord\u00a0with the Taoist philosophy of yin and yang that guides the garden’s design, the aim is to balance opposing forces and thereby\u00a0to achieve the equilibrium that constitutes\u00a0perfection. \u00a0Behind the walls that separate the garden from the city, contrasts of dark and light, flexible and immovable,\u00a0rough and smooth, large and small combine to create a\u00a0picture of harmony that pleases the eye and soothes the soul.<\/p>\n

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\"Black

The first courtyard at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese garden shows many yin and yang contrasts — black roof tiles and white walls, rugged rocks and soft foliage.<\/p><\/div>\n

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In this type of classical Chinese\u00a0garden, rocks and plants are arranged asymmetrically, emulating the rhythms of nature. \u00a0Winding paths and corridors present\u00a0different viewpoints, some full of energy and movement, others\u00a0calm\u00a0and reflective.<\/p>\n

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\"Water

Water lilies cover the surface of the water, screened here by branches of a weeping willow.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Rocks are a major component of\u00a0 the garden. The most striking are the limestone rocks imported from Lake Tai near Suzhou. These weathered, water-worn rocks full of holes and crevices bring\u00a0a rough beauty to the garden which is particularly evident in contrast to the softness of pine needles and foliage touched with autumn.<\/p>\n

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\"Tai

Tai rocks are essential elements in a Ming dynasty garden. The holes and crevices are caused by the high acidic content of the lake water where they are found.<\/p><\/div>\n

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This yin and yang contrast is built\u00a0into the very structure of the garden — there is a male side composed of hard straight lines and a female side with soft curves. The use of opposites is seen also in the choice of plants, the use of water and stone, even in a\u00a0double corridor where one side is sunny when the other is in shade.<\/p>\n

Patterns\u00a0in the stone paving used\u00a0throughout the garden underline not only the opposing forces but also\u00a0the search for\u00a0balance and\u00a0harmony between them.<\/p>\n

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\"The

The paving in the female half of the garden uses stones of different colours and different textures, arranged in different directions, to create a beautiful flower design.<\/p><\/div>\n

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I was particularly struck by how subtly the different pavement patterns illustrate\u00a0the principle.<\/p>\n

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\"This

This pavement pattern in the male part of the garden is composed of straight lines, thought to be representative of male characteristics.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Black and white are the most obvious contrasts but rough and smooth textures also feature, as do changes in direction and the size of the stones.<\/p>\n

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\"Black

Black and white are highlighted in this paving pattern. But note as well that the stones are laid in three different directions.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Harmony and balance are the aim, for the garden is meant to be a resting place for both\u00a0body and\u00a0soul. The weathered Tai Hu rocks form the skeleton of the garden, water forms its lifeblood, a soft yin balancing the rocks\u2019 hard yang. The cloudy, jade green colour of the water is intentional. Created by clay that lines the bottom of the pond, the cloudiness symbolizes tranquillity and enhances the reflective quality of the water, doubling the pleasure brought by the view.<\/p>\n

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\"Reflections

The reflective quality of the water helps us to appreciate the contrast between the real pavilion and its reflection — between reality and illusion. This is a key element in Taoist philosophy<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Plants set the mood of the garden, evoking a landscape that was the ideal for\u00a0the Ming dynasty scholar whose garden this is meant to replicate.\u00a0The three friends of winter — pine, bamboo and winter-flowering plum — \u00a0are planted\u00a0outside his\u00a0study, symbolizing the human virtues of strength over time, resilience combined with flexibility and continuity and rebirth. Outside the scholar’s\u00a0bedroom window a banana plant acts like a weather bulletin: if is raining, the scholar hears drops falling onto its broad, flat leaves and dresses accordingly.<\/p>\n

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\"Straight

The rugged Tai rock and bamboo combined with the straight lines of the ‘leak’ window indicate that this is male territory.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Throughout the garden individually patterned ‘leak’ windows as shown in the photo above allow air, light and views to leak through from one part of the garden to another. Words play a part in this garden as well, making explicit what otherwise might be hidden. Calligraphy was, and is, an art form in China, and the beauty of a person’s calligraphy was an indication of status and education. \u00a0A Ming scholar’s garden would always include words appropriate to the setting, and the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden is no exception.<\/p>\n

A pair of panels in the moon-gated Jade Water\u00a0Pavilion\u00a0describe the scene\u00a0nearby:<\/p>\n

Pond waters,<\/p>\n

Mysteriously green,<\/p>\n

Sky light,<\/p>\n

Eternally enshrined.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The

Fretwork panels are carved from ginkgo, a soft wood favoured by carvers. The calligraphic panels are on the right-hand wall.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Clearly the words are meant to evoke a response to the light on the water nearby, and to the vision of the pavilion and its reflected double. The setting enlarges the context, taking it from the particular to the universal. For here, the moon gate presents a never-ending circle, heaven and perfection, while the square opening that surrounds it symbolizes the earth. Together, balanced, they\u00a0are\u00a0yin and yang made visible.<\/p>\n

The idea of balance, searching to follow\u00a0the central Way, avoiding the extremes of left and right, male and female: these are ideas that appeal to me personally. Yet finding the balance, particularly between illusion and\u00a0reality, was a challenge for me as I walked through this very special garden. It was beautiful, without question, and I enjoyed being there enormously. Our knowledgeable guide enriched the experience with information that helped me understand more thoroughly all I was seeing.<\/p>\n

But a garden that\u00a0aims to find the balance between energy and calm needs to be experienced in both ways. I need to return to the garden, to sit and soak in the sunshine, to appreciate the contrast between the quiet sounds of\u00a0nature and the raucous\u00a0cries of children playing outside the walls. I need time to reflect on the ideas behind the garden and how they relate to the reality beyond.<\/p>\n

While in many ways the garden feels timeless, it is actually quite new, built only thirty years old in 1985-1986. \u00a0And while I felt calm, isolated from the noise and aggression of the city while I was inside the garden’s walls, the city was there all the time, peering over the walls, inescapable.<\/p>\n

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\"I

I had to chuckle at the sign that appeared just above the garden wall. Surely it should have said East, not West.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Gardens bills itself as \u00ab\u00a0Refreshment for the Heart.\u00a0\u00bb It prides itself on being the first classical garden constructed outside China, built through a cooperative arrangement between Canada, the People’s Republic of China and Vancouver’s Chinese and non-Chinese communities. That collaboration is admirable, as is the garden’s location next to a public park.<\/p>\n

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\"say

Strong pines and graceful willows frame a curved-roof pavilion visible from the private garden but accessible only from the public park.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Yet I couldn’t help comparing the reality around me with the reality I experienced when I lived in China during the Cultural Revolution, from 1969-1971. \u00a0The country I lived in then bore no resemblance to the idealized landscape that was around me. I was a different person, with different priorities and different needs.<\/p>\n

Illusion, it seems, is at the heart of the garden. Reality is outside the walls.<\/p>\n

\n

Who was Dr. Sun Yat Sen?<\/p>\n

Sun Yat-sen<\/b>\u00a0(1866 \u2013 12 March 1925)\u00a0was a Chinese revolutionary<\/a>,<\/span> first president and founding father of the Republic of China<\/a>. He was a doctor and<\/span>\u00a0played an instrumental role in the overthrow of the Qing dynasty<\/a>. \u00a0A<\/span>ppointed as Provisional President of the Republic of China when it was founded in 1912, he was a uniting figure in post-Imperial China<\/a><\/span>\u00a0and remains unique among 20th-century Chinese politicians, widely revered among people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait<\/a>\u00a0and the political divide.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vancouver’s Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden is an \u00a0oasis in the middle of a busy city, a place to rest and reflect on\u00a0a garden tradition that reached its peak in the Ming dynasty (1358-1644). In accord\u00a0with the Taoist philosophy of yin and yang that guides the garden’s design, the aim is to balance opposing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,21,22,23],"tags":[630,631,632,633,634],"class_list":["post-4439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design","category-plants","category-reviews","category-travel","tag-chinese-gardens","tag-dr-sun-yat-sen-classical-chinese-garden","tag-taoism","tag-vancouver","tag-yin-and-yang","category-24","category-21","category-22","category-23","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}