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Reconstruction of the Masterplan of Jinmingchi Garden Shevchenko

Journal of Chinese Architecture and Urbanism

2022 Volume 4 Issue 1: 1-15 Secondary Publication

Reconstruction of the Masterplan of Jinmingchi Garden in
Northern-Song Bianjing (Modern Kaifeng) – A Secondary

Publication

Marianna Shevchenko

Moscow Institute of Architecture, Rozhdestvenka street 11, 107031 Moscow, Russia

Corresponding author: Marianna Shevchenko, Moscow Institute of Architecture, Rozhdestvenka
street 11, 107031 Moscow, Russia. Email: marianna-sh@yandex.ru

Citation: Shevchenko M, 2022, Reconstruction of the Masterplan of Jinmingchi Garden in Northern-
Song Bianjing (Modern Kaifeng) – A Secondary Publication. Journal of Chinese Architecture and
Urbanism, 4(1): 139. http://dx.doi.org/10.36922/jcau.v4i1.139

ABSTRACT

Jinmingchi (Golden Clear Pond) was a famous imperial garden of the Northern Song dynasty located
outside the city walls to the west of the former capital of Bianjing (modern Kaifeng). The majority of
the structures were built along the water. A historical scroll painting, Jinmingchi Zhengbiao Tu
(Tournament on Jinming Pond), has survived until the present day that depicts the garden and its
masterplan. Additionally, Jinmingchi is described in detail, including the dimensions of several
buildings, in the Southern-Song’s literature Dongjing MengHuaLu (The Eastern Capital: A Dream of
Splendor). Furthermore, in the 1980s and 1990s, when Chinese archaeologists undertook an excavation
on the Jinmingchi site, they were able to determine the exact locations of the garden and the main
structures within it. The materials above provide a good foundation to research and reconstruct the
masterplan of Jinmingchi.

Keywords: Northern Song dynasty, Jinmingchi garden, Chinese Imperial Garden, garden layout,
reconstruction

This article belongs to Secondary Publication Section, and is translated by Yinian Zhu from an article published
in Journal of Architectural History 《建筑史学刊》. Citation of primary version: Shevchenko M, 2020,
Reconstruction of the Masterplan of Jinmingchi Park in Northern-Song Bianjing (Modern Kaifeng). Journal of
Architectural History, 1(1):31-39. http://dx.doi.org/10.12329/20969368.2020.01006

Copyright: © 2022 Journal of Architectural History. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of
the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits all
non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction, in any medium provided the original work is properly cited.

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