The earliest "or "gardens in forests" came into being in the Shang period (21 st century BC-16th century BC) as pleasure grounds for aristocrats. These were, in fact, natural sites enclosed for hunting. There were no structures built with human labor at such sites, except ascenery. As time went by, palace structures were built and ponds dug for angling in "gardens in forests" to better satisfy the needs of aristocrats for hunting, recreation and banqueting. In both the Qin and Han

dynasties, even larger "gardens in forests" were developed along with construction of palace complexes. The Weilin Garden, the imperial garden of the Han Dynasty, was a vast expanse of rolling mountains, deep forests and winding rivers, stretching for well over 150 kilometers outside the capital city, Chang'an. In addition to animals and plants, the garden had clusters of palace buildings.

    From the third to the sixth century, China experienced a period of incessant internal wars and conflicts. The country split into three independent kingdoms -- the Wei, Shu and Wu -- after the Han Dynasty collapsed in 220. Through nearly half a century's war, rulers of the Wei unified China in 265 under what is known to historians as the West Jin Dynasty. Then, in 317; a new dynasty, the East Jin, replaced the West Jin.

    Right after the East Jin collapsed in 420, China split again.

In areas south of the Yangtze River, four dynasties overturned one another in succession through bloody wars and, in the north, five dynasties ruled in succession, before China was unified again in 581, under the Sui Dynasty. Bitterly disappointed and disillusioned, members of the intelligentsia tried to evade the reality by finding a spiritual sustenance in the natural world, hence the popularity of landscape paintings and poetry depicting natural scenery in what is known as the period of "Wei- Jin and South-North Dynasties". Many of them also tried to make where they lived "natural" by planting trees and flowers, building artificial hills and digging streams, and this marked the

beginning for construction of gardens in their true sense. Meanwhile, changes began taking place in imperial "gardens in forests", where man-made landscapes were added with construction of pavilions and building of artificial hills.

    Under the Tang Dynasty, China experienced an unprecedented economic and cultural boom. Consequently, gardening thrived along few raised platforms on which people stood for a better view of the with construction of imperial palace structures. As a matter of fact, gardens were an indispensable part of the palace complexes in Chang'an, the national capital. Behind the Darning Palace, the largest palace complex, there was the Celestial Lake with a man-made isle modeled

after what Taoists described as Penglai, a dwelling place of immortals on the high seas.

    On festival occasions, people would gather at a public pleasure ground set up by the government along the Qujiang River that snaked through the northern suburbs of the city. Public pleasure grounds were also found in other major cities, including Hangzhou in east China and the southwest city of Guilin. As regional inspector of Hangzhou, Bai Juyi (772-846), better known as a most important poet of the Tang Dynasty, did a lot to develop the West Lake scenic area in the city. In his late years, the poet, now stripped of all official posts, settled in Luoyang, central China, where he had a residence built for himself.

    The residence occupied an area of 17 mu (about 667 square meters in one mu). Housing and other buildings accounted for one third of the area, bamboo groves, for one ninth, and a pond, for one fifth. Though not large, the pond had three islets and, on each of the islets, there was a pavilion. Meanwhile, trails were built round the pond and through the bamboo groves, and lotus and water chestnut were grown in the pond. Here and there in the courtyard there were pavilions and corridors, where the poet did reading in solicitude or met friends for poetry recitation, dining and wining.

    Artificial hills added beauty and taste to the garden-like residence, and so did rocks from places far away, such as Lake Taihu about 1,000 kilometers to the southeast of Luoyang. The courtyard-garden took ten long years to build, where everything was painstaking planned.

    Gardening became even more popular in the Song Dynasty. Just in Bianliang (the present-day Kaifeng, Henan Province), the national capital, there were nine imperial gardens. Of these, the largest and most magnificent was built during the reign of Emperor Hui Zong (1082-1135). The emperor, who couldn't be worse in managing state affairs but excelled in painting and calligraphy, ordered building, in the Yinyue Garden, of true-to-life imitations of all the major mountains, lakes and rivers across China.

    Attention was paid to every minute detail, including even those terraced trails cut on mountains and plank roads winding round cliffs on riverbanks. A government office was specially set up in Suzhou to collect exotic plants and rocks for use in the imperial garden. More often than not, these were forcibly taken away without payment. No wonder public anger kept mounting when construction of the garden was in progress.

    Court ministers and other aristocrats, on their part, were no less crazy. More than 100 upper class gardens were eventually counted in and round Bianliang as the craze went from bad to worse. Meanwhile, garden-like restaurants and pleasure boats were becoming increasingly common. Horticulture thrived as a side-product of the construction boom, and large numbers of gardeners and garden designers came forth. Luoyang, a major city to the west of Bianliang, was the national center of horticulture, where gardeners and horticulturists developed nearly 1,000 varieties of plants by using hybridization, domestication and other techniques. These included, in particular, peony of more than 100 varieties, for which the city has been famed until today as the "kingdom of peonies".

    Gardening continued to boom in the Ming and Qing dynasties spanning from the late 14th century to the early 20th. Ancient gardens that we can still enjoy were mostly built during that period.