Jardins et contemplation en Chine by Yolaine ESCANDE – Château de Bénouville

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Jardins et contemplation en Chine by Yolaine ESCANDE – Château de Bénouville

Gardens and contemplation in China

Chinese gardens, the most famous and accessible of which are now invaded by tourists, are, in the cultural imagination, either associated with wisdom or are places for leisure and relaxation, two notions that are by no means incompatible.  Indeed, Chinese gardens are neither the representation of a lost paradise nor a simple illustration of or reflection on the social life of the men and women of letters who design and enjoy the use of them: their vocation is to stimulate an “eremitism of the heart”, and the activities that take part there, the arts in particular, are intimately linked. Via these aesthetic principles, the well-read person’s garden restores the link with the great all, even in towns, and augments the vital energy of those who appreciate it by offering them a potential route that is as physical as it is imaginary and philosophical, or even mystical.

Yolaine ESCANDE

photo_yolaine_escande

Yolaine Escande is a CNRS research director, specialised in the practice and theory of Chinese graphic art, calligraphy and painting, but also in the question of landscape in the Far East.

Further reading :
Montagnes et eaux. La culture du shanshui, Hermann, 2005
Jardins de sagesse en Chine et au Japon, Seuil, 2013