Craft of Gardens The Classic Chinese Text on Garden Design

Ji ChengAEs great work on garden design, the Yuan Ye or Craft of Gardens, was originally published around 1631 and is the earliest manual of landscape gardening in the Chinese tradition. This is the first complete English translation of Ji ChengAEs seminal work. This delightful book provides not only insights into Chinese gardening but also a unique perspective on Chinese culture and society in the late Ming dynasty. Full notes by the translator explain obscure points and introduce relevant aspects of Chinese culture, while an introduction by Maggie Keswick sets the book firmly in its historical context. Illustrations include not only Ji ChengAEs original diagrams but also historical paintings and contemporary photographs of a number of outstanding gardens in the part of East China where Ji Cheng lived and worked.

Ji Cheng was a practicing garden designer in the first half of the 17th century. He designed gardens for several well-known individuals in the late Ming dynasty, who supported the original publication of this book.

Alison Hardie, a graduate of Oxford and Edinburgh Universities, began to translate The Craft of Gardens in the 1980s. She is a Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Leeds, and internationally known as a scholar of Chinese garden history.

Zhong Ming is an artist whose work has been exhibited in many countries including China, France, the UK, Japan and Sweden. He divides his time between China, France and the UK.