Abstract:
Hangzhou’s Feilaifeng Hill is closely related to the rockery art origin in Chinese classical gardens. In the literature records of the Southern Song Dynasty, there were many cases showing royal gardens used Hangzhou’s Feilaifeng Hill, “the best hill landscape around the West Lake”, as a reference of rockery art. In the case of unclear documents and insufficient archaeological materials, this paper relies on the sorting and analysis of historical paintings of Hangzhou’s Feilaifeng Hill to analyze its visual images in the eyes of the ancients from the perspective and method of landscape paintings: exposed mountains, exquisite caves, and peculiar stones. The ancients took Feilaifeng Hill as a whole rather than a stone peak literally. Based on the literature records and remains of Hangzhou’s Feilaifeng Hill, this paper explores how the ancients referred Hangzhou’s Feilaifeng Hill to build a rockery garden and further reveals the value of Hangzhou’s Feilaifeng Hill.