The private gardens of Jiangnan are small gardens beside a dwelling. The space is not large, yet they must hold hills and water, and the means are three: changing the view with each step, so that each pace brings a new picture; piling rock and shaping water, heaping up stones for hills and leading water into pools; and facing and borrowing scenery, taking in the view opposite and the view beyond the wall.
In 1044 (Qingli 4 of the Northern Song) Su Shunqin built the Canglang Pavilion in Suzhou, borrowing the water beyond its walls, and it is the oldest surviving Suzhou classical garden.
From around 1509, in the Zhengde reign of the Ming, Wang Xianchen built the Humble Administrator's Garden, as the private gardens of Jiangnan entered their golden age.
In 1634 (Chongzhen 7 of the Ming) Ji Cheng's Craft of Gardens was published, setting out in order the rules of rockery, waterworks and borrowed scenery.
Jiangnan Gardens is the class in the chapter on Architecture on private gardens: the private gardens of the Song and after, represented by Suzhou's Humble Administrator's Garden and Lingering Garden, which make landscapes within a small house plot by changing the view with each step, by piling rock and shaping water, and by facing and borrowing scenery. The Northern Song had the Canglang Pavilion, the Ming the Humble Administrator's Garden, and Ji Cheng's Craft of Gardens set down the rules of garden-making.
