Yuanye variously translated as The Garden Treatise or The Craft of Gardens, is a 1631 work on garden design

Garden design

Garden design is the art and process of designing and creating plans for layout and planting of gardens and landscapes. Garden design may be done by the garden owner themselves, or by professionals of varying levels of experience and expertise...

 by Ji Cheng

Ji Cheng

Ji Cheng was a Ming dynasty garden designer.Ji Cheng was born in the Ming Wanli Reign 10th year in Tong Li township, Wujiang county, Suzhou....

 of the late Ming Dynasty

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

. It is now considered the definitive work on garden design of the many produced during that period, and has been labeled as the first monograph dedicated to garden

Garden

A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has...

 architecture

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

 in the world, and among the great masterpieces of garden literature.

Structure

The work is broken in to three volumes. Volume one focuses on overall principles, in particular: situation, layout, buildings and their fittings. Volume two contains descriptions and illustrations of decorative balustrades. Volume three covers doorways, windows, walls, decorative pavements, artificial mounds, rock selection, and borrowed scenery (jie jing).

Emphasis

The work is primarily focused on architectural features, rather than natural features. Contrasts have been drawn between this and other classic works of East Asian garden design, such as Sakuteiki (of the Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese Heian

Heian

The name Heian may mean:* Heian period, an era of Japanese history* Heian-kyō, the Heian Period capital of Japan that has become the present-day city of Kyoto* Heian series, a group of karate kata ....

 period) which concentrates on water and rocks, and numerous Japanese works of the Edo

Edo

, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...

period (Tzukiyama teizoden, Sagaryuniwa kohohiden no koto, Tsukiyama sunsuiden), to suggest a fundamental difference in approach between Chinese and Japanese garden design - namely, emphasis on architectural and natural features, respectively.