The Evolvement and Variety of the Term of Borrowed Scenery in Chinese Gardening

Focusing on the term of Borrowed Scenery, this paper probes into the historic evolvement and variety of this term in Chinese gardening, in other words how this term started, evolved and changed from classical to modern times. The study here is mainly based on literature survey, which could be divided into three parts: etymologic, classical and modern literatures. On the other hand, the space composition related to the term of Borrowed Scenery is summarized in aspects of both visual and body feature. Then the characteristics of this term and historic variety are concluded. The Pavilion of Borrowed Scenery recorded by Huang Tingjian is the first example of this term, and it played an important role in the classical times, in which the devise to the visual medium became important. In modern studies since 1930s, this term is mainly grounded on the literature of Yuan Ye, and greatly influenced by modern scholars. As a result, the concept of Borrowed Scenery is expanded from small-scale to large-scale, from the field of garden to others, gradually close to the concept of View.