Drinking games and other garden Leisure practices of Chinese literati

Abstract

The object of this paper is to look into the traditional Chinese “garden of literati” from the perspective of its functions in the social life of Chinese aristocracy. Based on Ji Cheng's Yuanye and some other original sources on Chinese gardens, such yuanji — the records of gardens made by their owners, – the “garden of literati” appears to be a perfect environment for “leisure practices” of Chinese intellectuals. For many centuries, private gardens accommodated gatherings of offcials, poets, painters, calligraphers and served as an arena for their “enlightened practices”: drinking poetry games, spiritual rituals, connoisseurship etc. The paper includes a translation, with annotations, of the most relevant fragments of Ji Cheng's Yuanye.