The natural philosophy and experience that lies behind the Chinese garden can be traced back as far as the Han and Tang dynasties. A specialist book on gardening theory can already be found in the Ming dynasty classic, the Yuan Ye (1634).
問題是，中國人的自然園林經驗，可遠溯先秦漢唐，到十七世紀三○年代，明人計成出版《園冶》，已經是造園的理論專書了。