Abstract
The purpose of this study is to search into the relation between the chinese seclusion culture and the gentleman's gardens by means of the historical and aesthetic approach. The periodic limits of this study is from pre-Qin to Tand. For gentleman's gardens in Tang dynasty at once got out of the noble's gardens which had imitated the imperial gardens until Tang, and became the origin of the gardens of the literati appearing in post-Tang dynasty. The major findings are as follows : First, in pre-Qin period, the origin of the seclusion culture is classified as the metaphysical seclusion of Taoism and the physical seclusion of Confucianism. Although Pu, Yuan, and Uou which could be said the first step of the chinese gardens were inquired, the clear relation between the seclusion and them is not found. Second, during Qin-Han dynasty, the role of the gardens, as the settings of the seclusion, are comparatively minor, too. But uan Kuang-Han's garden considerably escaped from that of pre-Qin in the aspect of function, and it has the characteristics of recreation. Third, during Wei-Chin and Liu dynasty, two types of the seclusions emerged. One is the small seclusion, and the other the Great Seclusion. Though, as formerly, the contemporary gardens did not escaped from the imperial gardens, Shi Chong's garden can be the setting of the Court Seclusion. But the seven Righteous in Bamboos' and Tao Yuan-Ming's settings of the seclusion were real natural environments rather than gardens. Forth, in Tang dynasty, in spite of relatively low status, Bai Ju-Yi's theory of the middle Seclusion enabled gentlemen to make seclusion in sinecures unlike the court Seclusion. The theoretical background of the Middle Seclusion was Zen Buddhism and the State Examinations System and Bai Ju-Yi's private social position also had an important effect on it. In Tang dynasty, there being nobiliary gentleman's gardens, Bai Ju-Yi's garden, Lushan Caotangyuan, was the setting of the Middle Seclusion. It can be called a real gentleman's garden, for it is simple and small unlike the imperial gardens or the nobiliary gentleman's gardens.