The Image of Pine and Cypress in View Naming of Traditional Chinese Private Gardens

The Chinese traditional pine and cypress culture has a long history, presenting a fascinating spectacle. Examining such a culture in Chinese classical gardens is important for advancing the excellent traditional culture of China and promoting the modern garden culture. The existing researches on the pine and cypress culture focus on the fields of poetry, painting, and folklore, without a systematic and deep study of the view naming in the gardens. Through archival work and statistical analysis, this paper explores the view names of private gardens throughout the history, identifying the pine and cypress views, the frequent images in the view naming, and the spiritual and cultural meanings of the pine- and cypress-related naming. The results show that: 1) Pine- and cypress-related naming was rare in private gardens before the Tang Dynasty, and the images of view naming were simple; 2) The image of view naming during the Song and Yuan Dynasties became rich, although they were still limited in number; 3) The number of pine- and cypress-related views was the highest during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the images of view naming were the most diverse; 4) Besides the pine- and cypress-related view naming, private gardens throughout the history also have a large number of views named in connection with the pine-wind-related images, followed by the images of cold season, numbers and pine shade; 5) The spiritual meaning of the pine- and cypress-related view naming reflects ancient literati's pursuit of reclusiveness, morality, Buddhism and health.