Qianlu Villa is a private garden owned by YANG Zong-lian (1832-1905,Yifang is his style name),a government official in the end of the Qing Dynasty.There are only a few private gardens in that period,Qianlu Villa stands out for its compact layouts and artful designs,its gardening concepts and cultural connotations are of great referential value to understand garden styles in the southern regions of the Yangtze River and traditional Chinese gardening arts.By analyzing seclusion culture and Fengshui doctrines implied in Qianlu Villa,as well as its water layouts,Qianlu Villa is divided into two major areas:eastern area and western area,the former includes mainly halls which are symmetrically designed along the central axis,and the latter indicates mainly residential spaces in a free layout.Gardening arts such as divided scenery,borrowing scenery,winding scenery and traditional gardening techniques such as stone layouts in Qianlu Villa are pointed out,"virtue-like" attributes of plants are utilized to create cultural and artistic concepts.Metaphor and symbolism are applied in the landscaping via garden ornamentals,in this study,the frequently-applied crane ornamentals and special "卐" pavement patterns are introduced to demonstrate the significance of interpreting ornamentals for exploring cultural connotations of Qianlu Villa.
