Abstract:Chinese traditional gardens pay attention to use plants to create smellscape which is given rich humanistic connotations in the long-term garden aesthetic activities. Through investigating the garden poetry, paintings, plaques and couplets of the past dynasties, it is found that after the Song Dynasty, influenced by Neo-Confucianism, Zen Buddhism, and Taoism, the plant smellscape has gained philosophic meanings which are prominently illustrated in four aesthetic viewings, namely “viewing the vitality”, “smelling in no fragrance”, “understanding fragrance and Zen”, and “listening to the smell”. The core of these smellscape aesthetic activities is that, through enjoying the vital fragrances of plants, the ancients could understand the law of nature and the truth of life, and reach the transcendent realm where nature and human are united.
