Conference abstract: “The Boat-trip to a Yangzhou garden on the 7th of 7th, 1771”

Image: Heyuan in Yangzhou, 2011, Josepha Richard, All rights reserved

 

New approaches in Chinese garden history, conference abstract

19th June 2015, at the University of Sheffield

Lucie Olivová,  M.A., Ph.D., DSc.

Masaryk University, Czech Republic

“The Boat-trip to a Yangzhou garden on the 7th of 7th, 1771”

Chinese scholar gardens were not only exquisite architectural creations, but were also intended for receiving guests and for socializing.  Modelling themselves after the particular  ‘elegant gatherings’ which had taken place centuries earlier, the best renowned garden parties during the late imperial times also dwelt on literati pursuits and had composing of poems as their core activity.  One would presume, however, that not all gatherings were quite as formal.  This paper recollects one such happening on the Slender West Lake, recorded by Li Dou in his book The Pleasure Boats of Yangzhou.  His unpretentious rendering of the event may help us further define the actual nature of the upper society lifestyle. 

See the book Lucie edited about the history of Yangzhou here. 

See her Czech profile here.