Why do ancient gardens in China generally require both water and stone?
The ancient gardens in China began with the construction of Penglai, Abbot and Yingzhou Islands in Taiye Pool of Zhangjian Palace by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and rockeries, flowers and trees and various buildings were arranged along the bank of the pool in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, forming a beautiful scenery. Since then, it has become a consistent traditional method to treat the landscape with the pool as the center. Since the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the scholar-bureaucrat class has enjoyed a high reputation in appreciating strange stones. Since then, rockery has created many lofty, profound and endless artistic conceptions. Therefore, only with the two basic conditions of water and stone can we start gardening, while the north lacks water and good stones and cannot add exotic colors, so many famous gardens are located in the south of the Yangtze River.