Essay Assignment 1 (taoist garden )

TAOIST GARDEN

            Taoism is an ancient philosophy from Asia that places great importance on the natural world. Taoists believe that spirit can be found in every person or thing, living or non-living. For the Taoist, even a mountain or a stone contains spirit. Lao Tsu, a Taoist writer and philosopher, said, ’people follow earth. Earth follows heaven. Heaven follows the Tao. The Tao follows what is natural’. For thousands of years in China and other Asian countries, gardens have been an important way to create a place where people can feel the spirit of the natural world. Creating a Taoist garden is an art. No two Taoist gardens are exactly alike, but all Taoist gardens include four essential elements: water, mountains, buildings and bridges.

            Water is the first essential element that should be in a Taoist garden. Element of water in a Taoist garden can be in the pool type, or small synthetic river. We can add some fish in the pool or small synthetic river so that the people will feel the natural feeling from them. The second element is mountains. The mountains element can we feel from building in the Taoist garden that same as real mountains. The last element is buildings and bridges. We can make some buildings in the Taoist garden that it will make Taoist garden more natural. The buildings are like lamp places, small house, etc. And then, we can build bridge on the pool or river that it will across the pool or that river.

            Every elements in the Taoist garden like water, mountains, buildings and bridges contain spirit. People can feel the spirit of natural world from all of the elements in the Taoist garden because all of the elements give the spirit of natural world.