Scholarly record

RESEARCH ON PLANNING OF MEDIEVAL PUBLIC PARKS OF CHINA, BASED ON THE EXAMPLE OF QINGXI PARK IN NANJING OF THE SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY.

Marianna Shevchenko

Abstract

Arrangement and composition of park ensembles of medieval China remains rather difficult to study, since there is no park of that time preserved in its original form. In particular, this applies to public parks, since the historical descriptions mainly relate to the famous imperial or private parks of the Song Dynasty. In addition, these descriptions are generally not provided with plans or any other images. However the historical chronicle "Jinding Jiankangzhi", describing the city of Nanjing of the Southern Song dynasty, contains the plan and detailed description of the Qingxi Park. These data are of special interest to the study, as the only surviving plan of the public park ensemble of the Song dynasty. In addition, the water system and almost all the buildings of this park were constructed at the same time under the leadership of one person – Ma Guangzu. In other words, this is a complete park ensemble, which was constructed not spontaneously, but was built according to one masterplan. A study of the historical maps of Nanjing led to the conclusion that the structure of modern Nanjing preserves the features of the Southern Song dynasty Jiankang city. As a result, the location of the ancient park and the configuration of its site were determined quite accurately. This has made it possible to reconstruct a master plan of the Qingxi Park, using the plan and description of the chronicle, as well as draw certain conclusions about the planning of the medieval public parks of China.

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