Abstract:Although public garden has always been outside the mainstream of the history of Classical Chinese gardens,it has the scale and function as other types of gardens by the Ming and Qing Dynasties.Combining with the realistic novel of the same period The Scholars,from the perspective of historical literature research,this paper summarizes and classifies more than 20 public gardens into three categories: urban public gardens with landscape dependence,public gardens in rural settlements and other kinds of gardens with public garden nature. The paper further explores the aesthetic,social and cultural functions of public gardens in the life of all classes of citizens in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and summarizes that the public gardens in this period have the functional characteristics of simple form and wide source.