Emulating and transcending literati gardens: landscape design of the Plum Villa, the garden of a literatus-merchant

Abstract

Abstract The study explores the garden landscape design of Plum Villa (梅花墅), which exemplifies the unique garden style of Shishang (士商: a literatus-merchant) in the late Ming dynasty in Suzhou, China. As Confucian social hierarchy began to disintegrate in the late Ming period, educated and affluent Shishang joined the leading urban elite literati group centred in Suzhou, becoming key protagonists of the new garden culture. While Plum Villa’s landscape design reflects the Ming literati’s cultural decorum and principles, it exhibits Shishang’s hybrid social status through its grand scale and exuberant spatial arrangement, as well as its use of garden space for theatrical entertainment that enabled public engagement. The Plum Villa’s landscape design offers a window into the transformation of Chinese gardens from the Confucian elite’s private exclusivity to public openness, marking an entry of modernity in Chinese garden history.