Ji Cheng (Ming dynasty)


Ji Cheng was a Ming dynasty garden designer.
Ji Cheng was born in the 10th year of the reign of the Wanli Emperor in Tongli, Wujiang County, Jiangsu province.
As a youth, Ji Cheng made a name for himself as a landscape painter and private garden designer, he admired two Northern Song painters: Guan Tong and Jing Hao.
During his lifetime, he designed numerous private gardens in Southern China. In his late years, he summarized his lifetime experience into a monograph on landscape design:, Yuanye: The Craft of Gardens, 1631.
Ji Cheng's Yuanye, is the first monograph dedicated to garden architecture in the world. His work has been translated into many languages.
Ji Cheng's thirty-five room former residence at Hueichuan Bridge, Tongli, is now a tourist attraction.

"The garden is created by the human hand, but should appear as if created by heaven."