Ji Cheng (; 1582 – c. 1642) was a
Ming dynasty garden designer.
Ji Cheng was born in the 10th year of the reign of the
Wanli Emperor (1582) in
Tongli,
Wujiang County,
Jiangsu province.
As a youth, Ji Cheng made a name for himself as a landscape painter and private garden designer, he admired two
Northern Song painters:
Guan Tong
Guan Tong () (c. 906-960) was a Chinese painter of the Northern Landscape style during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period and early Song dynasty from the city of Chang'an.''中国绘画全集'', Vol 2, p. 6. He was a pupil of Jing Hao, an ...
() and
Jing Hao
Jing Hao (, also known as Hongguzi) (c. 855–915) was a Chinese landscape painter and art theorist of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period in Northern China. As an artist, he is often cited along with his pupil, Guan Tong, as one of the ...
().
During his lifetime, he designed numerous private gardens in Southern China. In his late years, he summarized his lifetime experience into a monograph on landscape design: (), Yuanye: The Craft of Gardens, 1631.
Ji Cheng's ''
Yuanye'' (), is the first monograph dedicated to garden architecture in the world. His work has been translated into many languages.
Ji Cheng's thirty-five room former residence at Hueichuan Bridge, Tongli, is now a tourist attraction.
"The garden is created by the human hand, but should appear as if created by heaven."
References
Notes
Bibliography
*Ji Cheng: Yuan Ye Tu Shuo, ed. Zhou Nong, Shandong Huabao Chubanshe, 2004,
*Ji Cheng: Yuan Ye, ed. Wang Changmei, Golden Maple Publishing House.
*Translations
**Ji Cheng: Craft of Gardens, Yale University Press, 1988, Translated by Alison Hardie
**Yuanye, le traite du jardin, Ji Cheng, Traduit par Che Bing Chiu
1582 births
1640s deaths
Landscape or garden designers
Architects from Suzhou
Ming dynasty artists
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