Ji Cheng

Ji Cheng (计成) (1582 - c. 1642) was a Ming dynasty garden designer.

Ji Cheng was born in the Ming Wanli Reign 10th year (1582) in Tong Li township, Wujiang county, Suzhou. As a youth, Ji Cheng made a name for himself as a landscape painter and private garden designer, he worshipped two North Song painters: Guan Tong (关仝) and Jing Hao (荆浩)

During his life time, he designed numerous private gardens in Southern China. In his late years, he summarized his life time experience into a monograph on landscape design: (园冶), Yuan Ye: The Craft of Gardens, 1631.

Ji Cheng's Yuan Ye (园冶), is the first monograph dedicated to garden architecture in the world. His work has being translated into many languages.

Ji Cheng's thirty-five room former residence at Hueichuan Bridge, Tong Li, is now a tourist attraction.

"The garden is created by the human hand, but should appear as if created by heaven."

References

*Ji Cheng: Yuan Ye Tu Shuo, ed. Zhou Nong, Shandong Huabao Chubanshe, 2004, ISBN 7-80603-691-1
*Ji Cheng: Yuan Ye, ed. Wang Changmei, Golden Maple Publishing House. ISBN 957-763-133-9
*Translations
**Ji Cheng: Craft of Gardens, Yale University Press, 1988, Translated by Alison Hardie ISBN 0-300-04182-9
**Yuanye, le traite du jardin, Ji Cheng, Traduit par Che Bing Chiu ISBN 2-910735-13-3