A Primary Textual Research about RUAN Da-cheng's Garden Expanded by JI Cheng

The literature record shows that JI Cheng had interacted with RUAN Da-cheng for a period, and expanded a garden for RUAN. But the name, the position, the designer, the building time, and the expanding time of the garden have been inconsistent by different scholars because of lack of the literature. Here authors carried out literature searching and relevant studies, and the results show that RUAN Da-cheng built Ji Garden, Baizi Mountain Villa, Shichao Garden, and Chu Garden in Huai ning of his hometown. The location of Chu Garden was in the municipal area of Huai ning, and the owner of Chu Garden was RUAN Da-cheng's father. The designer of early repairing Chu Garden was ZHANG Ming-yu from Nanjing, and the time was before the 1st year of Chongzhen period (BC 1628). Yonghuai Hall was the main building in Chu Garden. Conclusively, the expanding designer was JI Cheng, and the expanding time of Chu Garden was the 6th year of Chongzhen period (BC 1633).