S.E. Kile, assistant professor of Chinese literature at the University of Michigan, examines the first two Chinese works that considered garden design as an art: Ji Cheng's Yuanye (Fashioning Gardens, 1631–34) and Li Yu's Xianqing ouji (Leisure Notes, 1671). By excavating the garden's relationship to other art forms, Kile presents an account of the garden as a medium of artistic expression in early modern China.
Image
