中國傳統(tǒng)園林作為寶貴的文化藝術(shù)遺產(chǎn)，歷經(jīng)數(shù)千年的發(fā)展，不斷推陳出新、升華完美，形成獨樹一幟的“中國山水園”，具有重要的國際地位和文化影響。文化的傳承與創(chuàng)新是永恒的時代話題，如何實現(xiàn)傳統(tǒng)園林的繼承與發(fā)展，并在新時代的人居環(huán)境營造中發(fā)揮更大的作用？對于營造技藝的挖掘和總結(jié)是一條重要途徑。

中國傳統(tǒng)園林的營造技藝，涉及選址布局的理論、疊山理水的手法、樹木花卉的造景和建筑小品的式樣，以及巧于因借的技巧等，是一個綜合的藝術(shù)體系，在古代已經(jīng)達到完美精深的程度。對于這套營造體系，今天應(yīng)該如何認知，并在深入認知的基礎(chǔ)上融入當(dāng)下的風(fēng)景園林創(chuàng)作呢？

老一輩學(xué)者在研究和實踐兩方面都做出了杰出的示范。1951年汪菊淵先生聯(lián)合吳良鏞先生籌備創(chuàng)建“造園組”，他親自負責(zé)中國古代園林史課程，并編寫了《中國古代園林史綱要》教材。教材的最后一章是“試論我國山水園林和園林藝術(shù)傳統(tǒng)”，展示了汪菊淵先生對于傳統(tǒng)造園技藝的思考和總結(jié)。這一章包括5節(jié)內(nèi)容：我國的園林創(chuàng)作的特色、傳統(tǒng)的布局原則和手法、關(guān)于掇山置石、關(guān)于理水和水法、關(guān)于植物題材，自上而下、從普遍到具體地論述了如何運用傳統(tǒng)技藝，營造“美的自然和美的生活境域”。

汪菊淵先生總結(jié)的5節(jié)內(nèi)容中，“關(guān)于掇山置石”一節(jié)的篇幅遠遠超出其他各節(jié)，反映了山石技藝在汪先生心中的地位。疊山置石確實是最具中國特色、藝術(shù)成就最高的一項技藝。童寯先生的《江南園林志》將“造園”和“假山”并列，各占一章。曹汛先生指出：“我國的自然山水園，無不以再現(xiàn)自然山壑為主要意趣?！徊吭靾@藝術(shù)史，也就注定和疊山藝術(shù)史同步”，表達了與童先生一致的觀點。

孟兆禎先生是“造園組”第二屆學(xué)生，曾向汪菊淵先生請教學(xué)習(xí)中國傳統(tǒng)園林應(yīng)從何處入手？汪菊淵先生強調(diào)：中國傳統(tǒng)園林最難學(xué)的就是假山。受此影響，孟兆禎先生選擇假山作為研究重點，通過收集學(xué)習(xí)前人的著作，與假山師傅切磋交流，攻堅克難，循序漸進，先后發(fā)表了《山石小品藝術(shù)初探》《假山淺識》《北海假山淺釋》等文章，總結(jié)出7條傳統(tǒng)假山的藝術(shù)理論，提出3種傳統(tǒng)假山“古為今用”的方法，在假山研究領(lǐng)域做出了重要的貢獻。理論需要與實踐相結(jié)合，孟先生進而將研究心得應(yīng)用于設(shè)計實踐，創(chuàng)作出北京奧森公園林泉奧夢假山、杭州花圃巖芳水秀假山等經(jīng)典作品，取得了突出的成就。

假山疊石是傳統(tǒng)園林營造技藝最可寶貴的部分，不過僅有疊山還無法營造完整的園林。疊山要與理水結(jié)合，水使景物生動起來，所謂“山得水而活”。有山有水，還要有樹木花草，所謂“山得草木而華”。山、水、植物構(gòu)成園林的自然環(huán)境，在此基礎(chǔ)上還要有可居可留的亭臺樓閣，作為供人活動的人工環(huán)境。劉敦楨先生指出，古典園林中的建筑具有使用與觀賞的雙重作用，“山池是園林的骨干，但欣賞山池風(fēng)景的位置，常設(shè)在建筑物內(nèi)”。汪菊淵先生將以上各種要素總結(jié)為，通過“因山就水來布置樹木花草，亭榭堂屋，互相協(xié)調(diào)地構(gòu)成切合自然的生活境域，并達到‘妙及自然’的境界”。

研究傳統(tǒng)園林的營造技藝，既可以按山、水、植物、建筑做分類的挖掘，更需要將它們合成一個整體，獲得綜合性的把握。孟兆禎先生借鑒傳統(tǒng)的造園理法，將園林的設(shè)計序列總結(jié)為明旨、相地、立意、布局、理微和余韻6個環(huán)節(jié)，并以借景作為核心，與各個環(huán)節(jié)構(gòu)成緊密的整體，稱作“孟氏六涵”。這套凝練了中國傳統(tǒng)造園內(nèi)質(zhì)的規(guī)劃設(shè)計理法體系，對于今天的創(chuàng)作實踐具有直接的指導(dǎo)意義。

中國傳統(tǒng)園林蘊含著中華優(yōu)秀文化基因。如今許多的中國傳統(tǒng)園林，如皇家的避暑山莊、頤和園，私家的拙政園、網(wǎng)師園等都已被列為世界文化遺產(chǎn)，貫穿于它們內(nèi)部的營造技藝作為“非物質(zhì)文化遺產(chǎn)”，同樣值得重視。非物質(zhì)文化遺產(chǎn)是一個國家和民族的智慧結(jié)晶和精華，也是這一文化遺產(chǎn)能否繼續(xù)傳承，并影響到當(dāng)下和未來的關(guān)鍵。這提醒我們既要注重傳統(tǒng)園林實體的保護和修復(fù)，又要重視傳統(tǒng)造園技藝的挖掘和傳承，還要關(guān)注造園匠師的研究和培養(yǎng)，從而形成從園林實例到造園技藝再到傳承人的完整體系。

從20世紀上半葉以來，經(jīng)過幾代學(xué)者的努力，中國傳統(tǒng)園林的研究從無到有、由淺入深，已經(jīng)獲得到了豐碩的成果。在此基礎(chǔ)上，今天的學(xué)者正在將相關(guān)研究推向新的階段，以中國傳統(tǒng)園林營造理念及其技藝為切入點，必將為當(dāng)代的普遍實踐提供更有效的借鑒。

Methods and Crafts of Traditional Chinese Garden Design and Construction

As the valuable cultural and artistic heritage, traditional Chinese gardens have been innovating and perfecting in thousands of years of development,forming unique “Chinese Landscape Gardens” with important international status and cultural influence. The inheritance and innovation of culture is an eternal topic of the times. How to inherit and develop traditional gardens so that they can play a greater role in the construction of human settlements in the new era? It is an important way to explore and summarize the construction crafts.

The construction crafts of traditional Chinese gardens are a comprehensive artistic system, which has been perfected in ancient times,involving the theory of site selection and layout, the technique of mountain and water management, the pattern of trees and flowers, the style of architecture, as well as the skills of making landscape according to local conditions, etc. How should we recognize this construction system today and integrate it into the current landscape architecture creation on the basis of in-depth cognition?

Scholars in the past have made remarkable achievements in both research and practice. In 1951, Wang Juyuan, together with Wu Liangyong,set up the “Garden Group”. In addition, he taught the course of History of Ancient Chinese Gardens and compiled the textbookOutline of History of Ancient Chinese Gardens. The last chapter of the textbook is “l(fā)andscape garden and landscape art tradition in China”, which shows Wang Juyuan’s thinking and summary of the traditional gardening skills. This chapter is composed of five sections: “characteristics of landscape creation in China”,“principles and techniques of traditional layout”, “setting of mountains and stones”, “water management”, and “plants”, which, from top to bottom and from general to specific, discuss how to create “beautiful nature and beautiful life” with traditional skills.

In these five sections, the length of the section “setting of mountains and stones” far exceeds the other sections, highlighting the position of mountain and stone setting skills in Wang Juyuan’s mind. The setting of mountains and stones is indeed a skill of the most Chinese characteristics and artistic achievements.Jiangnan Gardensby Tong Jun puts “gardening”and “rockeries” in the same important position, elaborating on them using one chapter respectively. “All natural landscape gardens in China are all dedicated to reproducing natural mountains,” Cao Xun said, “the history of garden building art is destined to be synchronized with the history of mountain building art.” These words echoed the views of Tong Jun.

Meng Zhaozhen, as a student of the second batch of the “Garden Group”, once asked Wang Juyuan where to start learning traditional Chinese gardens. Wang replied that the most difficult thing to learn about traditional Chinese gardens is the rockery. Affected by Wang, Meng chose rockery as the focus of research and made important contributions in the field of rockery research. Through studying predecessors’ works and communicating with rockery masters, he overcame numerous difficulties and published a lot of articles, such as “A Preliminary Study on Rockery Art”, “On Rockeries”,and “The Interpretation of the Rockeries in Beihai Park”, summed up seven theories of traditional rockery art, and proposed three methods of applying traditional rockery in modern construction. Theory needs to be applied to practice. Meng then applied his research ideas to design practice, and made outstanding achievements by creating classic works such as “Linquan Aomeng” Rockery in Beijing Olympic Forest Park, “Yanfang Shuixiu”Rockery in Hangzhou Flower Nursery Garden.

Rockery design is the most valuable part of traditional garden construction skills. Yet a complete garden cannot be made by stacking mountains alone.Mountain and rockery creation should be combined with water management since water gives life to scenery, just as the saying that “Mountains become alive because of water”. In gardens, there should be not only mountains and water,but also trees and flowers, just as the saying that “mountains become colorful because of vegetation”. In addition to the mountains, water and plants that constitute the natural environment, the garden should also be equipped with habitable pavilions to serve as an artificial environment for human activities. Liu Dunzhen considered that the buildings in classical gardens have dual functions of use and appreciation, saying “Mountain and water are the pillar of the garden, but the place to appreciate it is always inside the building”. Wang Juyuan summarized the functions of the above elements and believed that “plants and buildings should be arranged according to the mountains and water so that they can coordinate with each other to create a life domain that conforms to the nature and reach the natural realm”.

The research on the construction technology of traditional gardens should not only classify mountains, water, plants and buildings, but also integrate them into a whole to obtain a comprehensive grasp. Referring to the traditional gardening method, Meng Zhaozhen summed up the design sequence of the garden into six links: “Mingzhi (Understanding the purpose), Xiangdi (Locating),Liyi (Theme setting), Buju (Layout proposing), Liwei (Detailing) and Yuyun(Polishing and adorning) and connected each link into a tight whole with the view borrowing as the core, which is called “Meng’s six connotations”. This system, which integrates the planning and design principles of traditional Chinese gardens, has a direct guiding significance for today’s practice.

China’s traditional garden contains unique Chinese outstanding culture.Nowadays, many traditional Chinese gardens, such as the imperial gardens “the Mountain Resort of Chengde”, “Summer Palace”, the private gardens “the Humble Administrator’s Garden”, “the Master-of-Nets Garden” etc., have been listed as World Cultural Heritage, and the construction techniques running through them are also worthy of attention as “intangible cultural heritage”.Intangible cultural heritage is the essence of the wisdom of a country and a nation, and it is also the key to whether this cultural heritage can continue to be passed on and affect the present and future. This reminds us that we should not only pay attention to the protection and restoration of traditional garden entities, but also attach importance to the inheritance of traditional gardening skills, and the cultivation of garden builders, so as to form a complete system from gardens to gardening skills and then to inheritors.

Since the first half of the 20th century, with efforts of several generations of scholars, the study on traditional Chinese garden has grudually become fruitful, from shallow to deep. On this basis, today’s scholars,centering on concepts and skills of traditional Chinese garden construction,are advancing relevant research, aiming to provide more effective reference for the contemporary practice.

Editor-in-Chief: Professor ZHENG Xi

July 29, 2022