Les Palais européens du Yuanmingyuan : essai sur la végétation dans les jardins

In the middle of the 18th century, Jesuit missionaries built, on the order of the Emperor of China, a series of palaces and gardens. Combining Chinese and Western rules of arrangement, the gardens were planted with a variety of species. During the second half of the 19th century, the site was abandoned; it was ultimately cultivated, and nothing remains of the original plantations. Various sources were used in our essay at rediscovering and identifying them. The missionaries' letters testify to the introduction of plants from Europe into China and their enhancing the imperial gardens. Several of these species would even have been used in the European part of the Yuanmingyuan. However, a suite of engravings of the site made at the end of the 18th century show mostly Chinese plants. Photographs made between 1873 and 1877 confirm the presence on the site of some of them.Genest Gilles. Les Palais européens du Yuanmingyuan : essai sur la végétation dans les jardins. In: Arts asiatiques, tome 49, 1994. pp. 82-90