Garden

In Han China (202 B.C.E.–220 C.E.) gardens such as Tu Yuan (Rabbit Park) were used to "extend the grandeur of the princely dwelling, to be a site for ceremonies and magic, and to continue the time-honored mold of a game park" (Morris, p. 13). The contemporary Chinese imperial garden described by Pere Attiret (1757) was designed to represent the country for the emperor, whose status forbade traveling freely.

From the sixteenth century, French gardens were used politically in myriad ways: "to impress foreigners with the power of the court, to stir the loyalty of Frenchmen and, after the political and religious crisis deepened in the second half of the sixteenth century, to subtly express the political policy of the state. The court festival, especially as it was masterminded by Catherine de Médicis, often provided an opportunity to bring together opposed factions, turning their 'real conflicts into a chivalrous pastime'" (Adams, p. 33). Versailles has been shown to be an elaborate four-dimensional demonstration of the power of Louis XIV; decision-making that went into the planning of its park was explicitly political (Berger). The British designed and interpreted gardens that were symbolic of the state and of political power. Such a connection was first drawn in Britain by Shakespeare in the gardener's speech in Richard II (act 3, scene 4).

Mughal India. Jahangir and Prince Khurram Feasted by Nur Jahan, c. 1617. Opaque watercolor and gold on paper. FREER GALLERY OF ART, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, WASHINGTON, D.C.: GIFT OF CHARLES LANG FREER, F1907.258

England. View of the Elysian Fields, Stowe, which were first established in 1731. MARA MILLER

The propensity to use gardens to express political arguments and commitments, and to understand garden design in political terms, permitted the garden historian Walpole to associate French formal gardens with monarchy and tyranny, and "natural" growth and irregularity with the newly emerging opposition government (Chase; Miller, "Gardens as Political Discourse").