A Comparative Study on Chinese and Western Classical Garden Arts/ Une Etude Comparative Entre Les Arts Classiques Description Jardins Chinois Europeens (Report‪)‬

1. INTRODUCTION Present day's world is characterized by a growing interdependence among the nations. The implementation of a nation's policies and the exploration of the solutions to the unceasing problems are beyond a nation's boundary. Under the push of revolution in science and technology, the world is operating as a whole and each part is inseparably united. Therefore, it is necessary to apply a comparative approach to annotate social phenomena, to study related problems and to seek satisfactory answers. In viewing of this, the comparative study on Chinese and Western cultures has become a hot subject. Though few people have had a touch of the comparison between Chinese and Western garden arts, which is an organic part of comparative study on Chinese and Western cultures, the research is quite significant. It can not only broaden our vision, but also stimulate the gardeners to understand the overall situation of garden making in China objectively, to use others' strong points for reference to overcome our short points, and to enable the arts of garden making in China catch up with other countries' and develop in a healthy way. Furthermore, the comparative study on Chinese and Western garden arts is conducive to our understanding of the essentials of garden arts, to our exploration into the general principles of garden arts and to the change of situation that theory lags behind practice in garden arts. The study can also be a guide to garden making in China and furthermore be an attempt to contribute to the prosperity and development for the cause of garden making in the world. Seeing that, the comparative study on Chinese and Western garden arts has a profound significance in theory and practice.