Abstract:This article draws on the accounts of famous gardens in the diary of the notable scholar Xie Lansheng and the letters Madame Gray wrote home, focusing on the relationship between tide and garden design in Canton (Guangzhou). The article first analyses the seven main clues of how a garden was laid out along the waterway system of Canton over time. Then, based on historical texts and images of representative gardens, the article offers an interpretation of the phenomena of multiple ponds, dikes between ponds, trees along dikes, elevated galleries, stilt houses over water, and the meaning and symbolism of the paradise (sea-mountain motif) contained therein. These following gardens are discussed: Yu Garden in Canton city, Fuyin Garden in Fati (Huadi), the Puan Khequa’s Garden on Honam (Henan) Island, Puntinqua’s garden in Lychee Bay, the garden of Longevity Temple and the Howqua’s garden in Saikwan (Xiguan). The article argues that tide had a profound impact on the site selection, layout, conception, scenery design, building construction, vegetation, as well as the meaning of sea and mountain imagination. Moreover, tide led to the formation of the main characteristics of Canton gardens: placement near water; structures spanning across water; tall trees next to deep ponds; wind galleries and stilt houses over water; and the motif of the paradise (“true-sea-fairy-mountain”).
