中西方交流视角下的近代园林

中国近代启蒙是在中西方交流的历史背景下出现的。相比于明末清初时通过贸易形式进行文化交流，晚清民初的中西文化交流无论是在内容上还是方式上都要丰富得多。由中国学者创办的英文期刊《天下》月刊涉及书法、美术、雕刻、建筑、园林等内容，主动系统地向西方介绍了中国文化；由朱启钤兴办的中国营造学社延聘和资助了梁思成、刘敦桢等学兼中西的学者参与研究，通过古代建筑实例的调查测绘和中外文献资料的搜集整理，为中国造园史研究做出了重大贡献。在此背景下，本土传统园林研究的持续与部分外国园林观念的引入构成了中国园林发展的内外2种动因。中国近代园林的发展因此跨越了创新变革的鸿沟，逐渐从传统向现代过渡：皇家园林由于社会制度的变更而发生了性质上的转变，近代城市公园、租界园林、侨商园林等新的园林类型陆续出现，在园林中往往会见到西方文化的影子，甚至出现了一些所谓中西合璧的园林。

1842年第一次鸦片战争结束后，中国进入了开埠时代。最早从南部的广州、福州等沿海城市开始，一路沿宁波、上海北上，后至天津等地；稍晚有南京、九江、汉口等长江沿线城市，直至重庆开埠，此时距沿海第一批城市开埠已近半个世纪。在此期间，西方列强开始在这些城市中设立租界并建设公园，1868年在上海公共租界中建造了中国首座公共花园外滩公园，后又陆续建造了虹口公园、法国公园（现为复兴公园）、极司非而公园（又曾名兆丰公园，现为中山公园）。这些租界公园虽然限制国人使用，但是将西方已日益成熟的“公园”带进了中国，丰富了园林类型、引入了外来技艺，起到了一定积极作用。中国风景园林行业泰斗孙筱祥先生的经典之作花港观鱼公园在设计手法上也受到了部分租界公园的影响，在营造中国传统园林中植物主题特色的同时，融入了英国自然风景园中的疏林草地等元素。

2021年4月6日，正逢厦门大学建校100周年，陈嘉庚先生的长孙出席了校庆活动并为百年厦大献上了诚挚的祝贺。其祖父陈嘉庚先生是中国近代著名的爱国华侨领袖，他一生热心捐资兴学，在回国后陆续创办了集美大学、厦门大学等高校。陈先生虽然不是风景园林师，但是他把新加坡的城市建设经验带回中国，对中国风景园林的发展做出了卓越贡献。此外，他本人也参与到校园的规划中，提出了集约用地、合理布局等建设性意见。中国近代史上有许多像陈先生这样的有识之士，将其所学应用于实践，为中国风景园林的建设与发展贡献了力量。如19世纪末左宗棠于西北边陲之地开展酒泉名胜的公园建设，20世纪初，林则徐主持疏浚福州西湖并修建公园，以及朱启钤改建皇家社稷坛为北京第一座公园。这些早期真正由中国人亲自修建、具备现代公共服务性质的公园推动了近代城市园林的发展，留下了宝贵财富。

半个多世纪以来，中国风景园林的学科建设和理论完善同样得益于中西方的文化交流。一批行业前辈学习西方的先进经验，回国后投身于中国风景园林行业的发展，奠定了学科的理论基础。如毕业于哈佛大学的余森、程世抚，他们将美国风景园林的思想与理念带回国内；留学于东京的陈植、刘敦桢则通过出版著作介绍了日本的造园理念。

纵观中西方园林交流的历史，自15世纪地理大发现开始至20世纪第二次世界大战结束，以欧洲“中国热”和中国园林的近代转型2次事件持续时间较长且影响显著。19世纪之前，中国园林通过商业、宗教等途径传到了西方世界并掀起热潮，中式园林不仅出现于海外的休闲娱乐空间中，还启发了自然风景园的产生，推动了西方园林艺术的发展。20世纪初，国内外学术研究缺乏导致西方设计师和民众对中国园林的认识有限，阻碍了其在海外的进一步传播。在此背景下，近代中国园林研究先驱们对于传统园林不遗余力的探寻、记载和推介，促成了中国园林的传承与传播。童寯先生的《中国园林—以江苏、浙江两省园林为主》是第一篇由中国学者撰写、向海外详尽介绍中国园林的英文文章，他将其放在世界园林体系的大环境中进行比较研究，为当时国际学者开展中国园林研究奠定了基础。童寯先生的文章还影响到了瑞典学者喜龙仁（Osvald Sirén），喜龙仁的著作《中国园林》对中国园林的考察首开先河，被视为西方学界关于中国园林的第一部系统性著作。自此，越来越多的中外学者投身此列，他们致力于中国园林的研究并借此发声，以期向世界展现中国园林的真实面貌。

回望近代中国，无数先辈砥砺山河、笃行不怠，准确认识和把握了历史发展的重要转折。从西学东渐到师夷长技，中国逐步与世界并轨，近代园林在2种异质文化的碰撞中留下了独特的历史与艺术价值。此后，中西方交流未再有过彻底中断，随着世界格局变迁和中国文化的复兴，中西方园林文化的对话形式也历经几番更新，一部分古典园林名扬海外，一部分当代园林兼容并蓄，前者在受众层面拓宽，后者向创新层面纵深，二者并举，协同发展，这样的发展势头，可谓方兴未艾。

Modern Landscape Architecture from the Perspective of Cultural Exchanges Between China and the West

The Modern Enlightenment of China appeared in the historical background of cultural exchanges between China and the West. Compared with cultural exchange in the form of trade in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the cultural exchange between China and the West in the late Qing dynasty and the early Republic of China is much diversified both in its content and means.T'ien Hsia Monthly, an English periodical founded by Chinese scholars, involves calligraphy, fine arts, sculpture, architecture and landscape architecture etc. to actively and systematically introduce Chinese culture to the West. The Society for the Study of Chinese Architecture,founded by Zhu Qiqian, hired and funded scholars who studied both Chinese and Western cultures, such as Liang Sicheng and Liu Dunzhen, to participate in the research. Through the investigation and mapping of typical ancient architectures and the collection and collation of Chinese and foreign literature, it has made great contribution to the study of Chinese gardening history. In this context, the continuous research of Chinese traditional garden and the introduction of foreign garden concepts constituted the internal and external motivation of the development of Chinese gardens. Consequently,the development of modern Chinese landscape architecture crossed the innovation and transformation gap and gradually transited from traditional to modern. Catering to the change of social systems, the nature of royal gardens changed, and new types of gardens, such as modern urban parks, concession gardens, and overseas Chinese merchants' gardens, emerged one after another.Western culture was often seen in gardens and there were even some so-called Chinese and Western combining gardens.

After the first Opium War in 1842, China entered the port opening era,starting from coastal cities in the south, such as Guangzhou and Fuzhou, all the way to the north along Ningbo and Shanghai, and then to Tianjin and other places. Later, some cities along the Yangtze River, including Nanjing, Jiujiang,and Hankou, started to open their ports, followed by Chongqing. At this time,it was nearly half a century since the first batch of coastal cities opened their ports. During this period, Western powers began to set up concessions and build parks in these cities. In 1868, the first public garden in China, the Bund Park (once called Public Park), was built in Shanghai public concession. Later,the Hongkou Park, French Park (now Fuxing Park) and Jessfield Park (later Zhaofeng Park, and now Zhongshan Park) were built successively. Although these concession parks banned Chinese people, they brought the increasingly mature western “parks” into China, enriched the types of gardens, introduced foreign gardening skills, and played a positive role in the construction of Chinese modern gardens. For instance, the masterpiece of Sun Xiaoxiang, the leader of China's landscape architecture industry, the Huagangguanyu Park, was also influenced by some concession parks in terms of design techniques. In addition to creating the plant theme features in traditional Chinese gardens, this park also integrated the sparse wood and grassland elements in English landscape gardens.

At the 100th anniversary of Xiamen University on April 6, 2021,the eldest grandson of Mr. Tan Kah Kee, attended the celebration and offered sincere congratulations to the centennial of Xiamen University. His grandfather, Mr. Tan Kah Kee, was a famous patriotic overseas Chinese leader in modern China, who devoted all his life to donating money and establishing schools. After returning China, he successively established Jimei University,Xiamen University and some other universities. Mr. Tan Kah Kee was not a landscape architect, but he brought Singapore's urban construction experience back to China and made outstanding contribution to the development of Chinese landscape architecture. In addition, he participated in the planning of campus himself and put forward constructive suggestions, such as the intensive landuse and reasonable layout of buildings. In the modern history of China, many other people with insight like Mr. Tan Kah Kee applied what they had learned to practice and contributed to the construction and development of Chinese landscape architecture. For example, in the late 19th century, Zuo Zongtang constructed Jiuquan Park in the northwest frontier; in the early 20th century, Lin Zexu took charge of the dredging project of Fuzhou West Lake and constructed a park there, and Zhu Qiqian reconstructed the Imperial Divine Temple into the first park in Beijing. It is just these parks which were built by Chinese in the early period and which had the nature of modern public services that has promoted the development of modern urban landscape architecture and left Chinese people precious wealth.

For more than half a century, Chinese landscape architecture benefited from the cultural exchanges between China and the West in the respects of discipline construction and theoretical perfection. A group of predecessors in this industry went abroad to learn the advanced experience of the West and devoted themselves to the development of China's landscape architecture industry after they returned homeland, which laid a theoretical foundation for the discipline. For example, Yu Sen and Cheng Shifu, graduates of Harvard University, brought the ideas and concepts of American landscape architecture back to China, and Chen Zhi and Liu Dunzhen, who studied in Tokyo, introduced Japanese gardening ideas through publishing works.

In retrospect to the history of landscape architecture exchange between China and the West, from the beginning of the great geographical discovery in the 15th century to the end of World War II in the 20th century, the European“China fever” and the modern transformation of Chinese landscape architecture lasted for a relatively long time and made a relatively significant impact. Before the 19th century, landscape architecture with Chinese style was spread through commercial, religious and other means to the western world and set off a boom there. Chinese-styled gardens appeared in overseas leisure and recreational places. Moreover, it inspired the emergence of natural landscape gardens and promoted the development of western garden arts. At the beginning of the 20th century, due to a lack of academic research at home and abroad, western designers and the public had only limited understanding of Chinese gardens, which hindered its further spread abroad. Against this background, the research pioneers of modern Chinese landscape architecture spared no efforts to explore, record and promote the traditional Chinese gardens, which helped to bring about the inheritance and spread of Chinese garden. Mr. Tung Chuin'sChinese Garden-On the Gardens of Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provincesis the first English article written by Chinese scholars to introduce Chinese garden in detail overseas. Mr. Tung Chuin put Chinese garden into the world landscape architecture system and made a comparative study of them, which laid a solid foundation for international scholars to carry out Chinese garden researches at that time. Besides, Mr. Tung Chuin's article also influenced the Swedish scholar Osvald Sirén. HisGardens of Chinais the first to investigate Chinese gardens and is regarded as the first systematic work on Chinese gardens in western academic circles. Since then, more and more Chinese and foreign scholars have started to devote themselves to the study of Chinese gardens, hoping to unveil the true Chinese gardens to the world.

Looking back at modern China, countless forefathers have endeavored to recognize and grasp the important turning point of historical development.Learning from the West to practicing in the East, China has gradually integrated with the world. In the collision of the two heterogeneous cultures,modern landscape architecture in China has left its unique historical and artistic value. Since then, China and the West have never completely interrupted their cultural exchanges. With the change of the world pattern and the rejuvenation of Chinese culture, the form of dialogue between Chinese and western garden cultures has undergone several reforms. Some classical gardens become famous overseas, and some contemporary gardens start to be inclusive. The former broadened its audience, while the latter deepened its innovation. With classical gardens and contemporary gardens developing simultaneously in coordination,the modern landscape architecture of China is in the ascendant.

Deputy Editor-in-Chief: ZHAO Jing

May 10th, 2021