[Introduction] This book does not present a history of 'the Chinese garden'. It is written out of a distrust that such a thing exists. What I attempt to do is give an account of some of the discursive practices surrounding the idea of a garden among the ruling society of China, in a restricted geographical area between c.1450 and 1650. These practices are expressed in textual visual representations, in the form of maps, paintings and illustrations to books. ..... This study therefore begins with discussion of some specific gardens in China, in the major urban centre of Suzhou. It uses this discussionn as a way of interpreting less well-documented types of owned landscape, what was said about them, and how they were represented at the time of their creation. I have tried not to see visual representations of landscape as constituting the main field of enquiry, or as the main objects requiring explanation, a criticism that has been levelled. I donot wish to see the gardens discussed as objects, with actual gardens reduced to their 'background', any more than I wish to see the the gardens situated 'in their context', be it social or economic. Rather I would like to try to produce an open-ended investigation. The inconsistencies present in this account will serve to emphasize the over-determination of the complex phenomenon that has perhaps been too often subsumed into 'the Chinese garden'.

Craig Clunas is professor of the History of Art in Oxford University.