In 1772, Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), then just turning 60, had reason to be joyful after finally securing his dream place for retirement in the Forbidden City, the royal palace in the heart of Beijing.

Known as Qianlong Garden, the site in the Ningshou Gong ("palace of tranquility and longevity") compound was designed in a breathtakingly exquisite way.

Pavilions, corridors, rockeries, a belvedere, a teahouse, a Buddhist hall and more subtle settings provided a retreat amid mountains and forests within the merely 6,000-square-meter space, all with a touch of splendor.

Nevertheless, the emperor had little time to appreciate his surroundings as he gave the throne to his son when he was 85. He merely enjoyed three years of "retirement" before he died.

We may hardly know whether Qianlong had enough time to fully savor the retreat from everyday cacophony, but the garden has left us a poetic legacy: a coming together of aesthetics and nature. This is undoubtedly an inspiration for visitors to a new exhibition in the Forbidden City, now known as the Palace Museum.

For the occasion, Rejoicing in Woods and Springs: A Journey through Garden Cultures in China and the Wider World, which will run through to June 29, more than 200 exhibits from home and abroad, including landscape paintings, sculptures, furniture and indoor decorations, are on show at the Meridian Gate Galleries.

In this exhibition, visitors can appreciate various artworks related to gardens, not only those famous throughout Chinese history that reveal Zen and literati's refined taste, but also different styles across the world, including the villa garden of Pompeii in Italy, medieval monastery gardens, the Palace of Versailles in France and gardens from the Edo period in Japan.

Qianlong Garden is where to start the journey.

"It almost encompasses all the aesthetic interests of ancient Chinese garden-making," says Li Yue, the chief researcher on the Qianlong Garden project from the Palace Museum's department of architectural heritage.

"As we review the Qianlong Garden, it is not merely out of curiosity about an emperor's aesthetic taste, but also because it provides us with a thought-provoking perspective that is still inspiring: Is there another, more delicate, more serene, and more poetic way for humans to interact with nature and space?"

Resonance in space

The wooden gate carved with lotus patterns from the Building of Luminous Clouds (Yunguang Lou), the Buddhist hall in the Qianlong Garden, is a highlighted setting in the exhibition.

Through the gate, visitors may peep into a group of wooden screens depicting Buddhist deities, also from that hall, and nurture a contemplative moment like the retired emperor.

A pair of jade censers further create an atmosphere of tranquility. They are from the Hall of Imperial Peace (Qin'an Dian), a Taoist temple in the Imperial Garden in the north of Forbidden City.

Cloisters in a Nunnery, a German watercolor on loan from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, will also catch the eye. The artist, Simon Quaglio, used light and shadow to highlight the elegant arches and exquisite columns within the garden of nunnery that also represents the strength of belief.

"When we designed this exhibition to put Chinese and overseas gardens together, it would be too abstract if we just display their typical elements and thus theoretically analyze their respective features," explains Zhu Yufan, a professor at Tsinghua University and a co-curator of the exhibition.

"Everybody would have certain activities in the gardens," he says.

"It would be easier for visitors to feel emotionally connected if we tell them what happen in the gardens and thus reflect the garden owners' thinking."

Recreation, antique collection, mental cultivation, celebrities gathering and other activities in the garden thus compose different themes of the exhibition.

Chemistry may naturally be created in this arrangement.

Walking along the zigzag lane in the gallery, which mimics the shape of bridge in a traditional Chinese garden, visitors can find Claude Monet's Water Lilies on one side.

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