中国园林·刊首语(2023-05) | 王向荣：行走的意义

《中国园林》

Vol. 39  2023-05｜329

本期主题：行走中的景观

行走的意义

The Meaning of Walking

行走是人类生存的基础，尽管我们每天都在不停地走动，却未必思考过行走的意义和价值。

我在卡塞尔大学读书时曾听过瑞士社会学家布尔克哈特(Lucius Burckhardt)教授的漫步学(Spaziergangswissenschaft)课程，他经常带领学生在城市和乡间漫步，通过行走让学生们体验对景观的不同感知。后来每当有德国的风景园林师知道我曾经于20世纪90年代在卡塞尔大学读博，便会向我提起漫步学课程，可见布尔克哈特的漫步学研究对德语区的风景园林有着深远影响。

图1 布尔克哈特带领学生在卡塞尔郊外行走(引自

Burckhardt L. Strollological Observations on Perception of the Environment and the Tasks Facing Our Generation)

我们之所以行走，并不仅仅是为了生存，行走之于人类的意义，在于它是最基本的认知方法。行走的过程就如同书籍阅读，因为我们周围的环境都具有可读性和可体验性，它们真实地记录着自然演变与人类社会发展的历史。行走还会带来馈赠，让我们收获在书本上看不到和体会不到的内容，让我们了解自然的法则和人类的生活经验与智慧。17~19世纪，英国贵族阶层的青年普遍到欧洲大陆，特别是意大利旅行，通过游历来学习文化和艺术、增长见识并追寻西方文明的源头，这就是著名的“大旅行”(The Grand Tour)。这一传统不仅是贵族青年教育的一部分，对当时英国园林风格的转变也产生了直接的影响。

图2 18世纪从英格兰穿越法国到意大利的大旅行线路(引自

https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/gallery/the-grand-tour) 

行走是深度思考的契机。伴随着行走的是观察和思考，边走、边看、边思、边想是人类行走过程中的常态。达尔文在工作之余，每天都会到树林里散步，这是他最好的思考时间，他将这条散步路径称为思考之径。许多哲学家都非常健行，老子漫游西行，孔子周游列国，希腊的先哲们习惯于边走边谈，人类许多伟大的思想都是在散步中获得的。伴随着行走中的沉思，哲学家们试图让他们的思维直抵事物的本源。卢梭就将自己描绘成一位行者，他说只有在行走的时候，他才能思考，停下脚步也就停止了思考，他的思维是跟随着双腿活动的。欧洲有不少“哲学家之路”，在柯尼斯堡有康德漫步的小路，在海德堡有黑格尔漫步的山径。丹麦哲学家克尔凯郭尔曾说，“散步能让我进入最佳的思想状态”。对于许多思想家而言，每日有规律的散步不可或缺，因为行走不仅是在活动身体，同时也在运动大脑。

图3 海德堡的哲学家之路(引自

https://reisefunken.de/deutschland-heidelberg/)

行走是激发灵感、发现瑰宝的过程。行走是直接的经历和亲身的体验，是视觉、听觉、触觉、嗅觉和味觉的综合感知。流动的空间、清脆的鸟鸣、拂过的微风、弥漫的花香都有可能诱发出行者新奇的想法和灵感，唤醒沉积在内心之中的记忆片段，建构起思维碎片之间的逻辑联系。

古代诗人都是行走的诗人，李白总是在漫游的途中，杜甫也曾壮游天下，苏轼一生似乎都在贬谪的路上，诗人李贺和梅尧臣每日漫步于山水之间，希冀在行走时获取创作灵感并觅得佳句。行走还可以发现隐藏的艺术瑰宝。沿着一条约600km长的路径，格林兄弟收集、记录、整理和加工了大约200个民间传说，汇集成格林童话，成为世界童话的经典之作，他们当年行走的路径今天已经成为德国一条重要的旅游线路——童话之路。音乐家王洛宾常年行走于甘肃、青海和新疆，采撷西部的民间音乐，谱写出一首首动听的歌曲。

图4 德国童话之路(引自

https://urlaubaer.ferienwohnungen.de/reiseziele/deutschland/deutsche-maerchenstrasse/)

行走影响了中国人看待风景的视角。无论是“山水”“风景”“风土”，还是“形胜”，中国对于地表状态的描述都带有独特的时空观念和人文色彩，与西语中landscape的含义存在着明显的差别，这体现出中国人对待环境与众不同的观点。与静止在一个个视点描绘风景的方式不同，中国人表达的风景都是行走中的流动风景。与山水诗人类似，中国历史上的山水画家也是行走中的画家。他们将自己的全部身心融入自然之中，将行走中的体验记忆于心，通过笔墨将一个地区的山水以概括、抽象和重组的方式呈现于纸上。这种“散点透视”的绘画方式表达的是游历中的风景，是不仅能“身之所容、目之所瞩”，更能“意之所游”的辽阔山水。

图5 黄公望《富春山居图》，中国山水画表达出中国人看待风景的视角和对待风景的态度(引自

https://image.baidu.com/search/detail)

对于设计师来说，行走是最好的修行。只有经历才会成为阅历，走过的路、看过的风景最终都会影响设计师的格局。柯布西耶的东方之旅，记录了自己成为建筑师的灵感来源；巴拉甘的欧洲之行，发现了自己从事建筑和景观设计的才能；克利的北非之旅，发现了色彩；踱步于意大利园林之中，杰里科找到了一条直达潜意识的通道；漫步在法国巴洛克园林，沃克看到了勒·诺特的园林与极简艺术的联系……

图6 摩洛哥城市Chefchaouen，克利经过了北非之旅后绘画的色彩有了很大的改变(王向荣摄)

对于风景园林师来说，在行走中，我们不仅仅在观察周围的环境，更是在与之交流，从而形成对景观优劣的评价。行走也会丰富我们自身记忆中的景观储备，它们有可能在未来创作的某一瞬间被调动出来并融入设计。“读万卷书，行万里路”，要设计出底蕴深邃的作品，需要有深厚的知识储备和艺术修养，以及对土地的认知经验和对景观的敏锐感悟，这依赖于良好的悟性和长期的积累。

行走是设计的开始。我们的每个设计都始于行走，许多年后，设计过程中的多数经历都有淡忘，而对设计之初的行走却总是记忆深刻。尽管各种现代技术为设计师带来了观察、记录、分析、评价现场的便捷途径、视角和方法，但是这些都无法取代设计师通过行走，用眼睛去观察、用心灵去感悟场地的过程，因为整体认识和感悟场地最好的办法还是行走。设计师需要直面场地，用敏锐的观察力捕捉场地可能存在的特殊潜质，激发设计的直觉与灵感，建立起设计与场地的关联，创造场所特征。在场地中的行走是开启设计思路的钥匙，是通往高水准设计不可或缺的途径。

图7 行走是设计的开始(林箐摄)

行走也是设计的内容。景观的意义在于被人来阅读和感知，如同美国风景园林师西蒙兹所言：“人们规划的不是场所，不是空间，也不是物体；人们规划的是体验——首先是确定的用途或体验，其次才是对形式和质量的有意识的设计”。景观通过感知来体验，而感知需要在行走中获得。对于风景园林师来说，设计一片景观，也是在设计感知和行走的路径，让观赏者通过行走于一定的景观序列，在时间的推进中不断实现自身与景观之间的精神沟通，感悟这片景观，从而获得最优的景观感受。

图8 南京园博园未来花园，行走是设计的内容之一(河狸-景观摄影提供)

虽然自书籍普及以来，阅读已成为人们获取知识的主要来源，但行走、观察并思考，仍然是我们了解外部世界的最直接和最有效的方式，行走能直面真实的大千世界，行走能弥补阅读不够直观和不够生动的缺憾，行走能拓展人们认知及思想的广度和深度，正所谓“所见者真，所知者深也”。

Walking is the basis of human existence. Although we are walking ceaselessly every day, we may not have thought about the meaning and value of walking.

When I was studying at the University of Kassel, I listened to the Walking (Spaziergangswissenschaft) course taught by Swiss sociologist Lucius Burckhardt. He often led students to walk in the city and the countryside, allowing students to experience the different perceptions of landscape through walking. Later, whenever a German landscape architect knew that I was a doctoral student at the University of Kassel in the 1990s, they would mention the course of walking to me. It can be seen that Burckhardt's research on walking has a profound impact on landscape architecture in German-speaking regions.

The reason why we walk is not just for survival. The significance of walking to human beings is that it is the most basic cognitive method. The process of walking is like reading a book, because the environment around us is readable and experiential, and they truly record the history of natural evolution and human social development. Walking will also bring gifts, allowing us to harvest contents that we cannot see or experience in books, and allowing us to understand the laws of nature and the experience and wisdom of human life. From the 17^th to the 19th centuries, the young people of the British aristocratic class generally traveled to the European continent, especially Italy, to learn culture and art, increase their knowledge and trace the source of Western civilization through travel. It was the famous "The Grand Tour". This tradition was not only part of the education of noble youth, but also had a direct impact on the transformation of the British garden style at that time.

Walking is an opportunity for deep thinking. Walking is accompanied by observation and thinking. Walking, watching, thinking, and imaging are the normal state of human beings in the process of walking. Charles Robert Darwin took a walk in the woods every day after work. It was the best time for him to think. He called the walking path the thinking path. Many philosophers are very good at walking. Lao Tzu wandered westward, Confucius traveled around the world, and the Greek sages used to talk while walking. Many great ideas of human beings have been obtained through walking. With contemplation on the move, philosophers have tried to get their minds right to the root of things. Jean-Jacques Rousseau described himself as a walker. He said that he could only think when he was walking, and he stopped thinking when he stopped walking. His thinking followed the movement of his legs. There are many "philosopher's roads" in Europe. In Königsberg, there is Immanuel Kant's stroll path, and in Heidelberg, there is Hegel's (Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel) stroll trail. The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once said, "Walking puts me in the best state of mind." For many thinkers, regular daily walks are essential, because walking not only exercises the body, but also the brain.

Walking is the process of triggering inspiration and discovering treasures. Walking is a direct and personal experience, a comprehensive perception of sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. The flowing space, the crisp birdsong, the blowing breeze, and the pervasive fragrance of flowers may all induce novel ideas and inspirations of the traveler, awaken the memory fragments deposited in the heart, and construct the logical connection between the thinking fragments.

Ancient poets are all walking poets, Li Bai was always on the way of roaming, Du Fu also traveled the world, Su Shi seemed to be on the road of relegation in all his life, and poets Li He and Mei Yaochen walked between mountains and rivers every day, hoping to get creative inspirations and find good sentences when walking. Walking also uncovers hidden artistic treasures. Along a path about 600km long, the Brothers Grimm (Brüder Grimm) collected, recorded, sorted out and processed about 200 folklores, and gathered them into Grimm's fairy tales, which have become classics of fairy tales in the world. The path they walked has become an important tourist route in Germany - Fairy Tale Road (Deutsche Märchenstraße). Musician Wang Luobin traveled in Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang all year round, collecting folk music from the west of China, and composing beautiful songs one after another.

Walking has influenced the Chinese people's perspective on landscape. Whether it is "landscape", "scenery", "terroir", or "terrain", Chinese descriptions of the surface state have a unique concept of time and space and humanistic color, which is obviously different from the meaning of landscape in Western languages. It shows that the Chinese people have different views on the environment. Different from the static way of depicting scenery from one viewpoint to another, the scenery expressed by the Chinese is a flowing scenery while walking. Similar to landscape poets, landscape painters in Chinese history were also walking painters. They integrated their whole body and mind into nature, remembered the experience of walking in their hearts, and presented the landscape of a region on paper in a generalized, abstract and reorganized way through pen and ink. This "cavalier perspective" painting method expresses the scenery in the travel, the vast landscape that can be not only "contained by the body and focused by the eyes", but also "traveled by the mind".

For designers, walking is the best practice. Only experience can become experience, and the road traveled and the scenery seen will eventually affect the designer's pattern. Le Corbusier's trip to the East recorded his inspiration for becoming an architect; Luis Barragãn's trip to Europe discovered his talent for architecture and landscape design; Paul Klee's trip to North Africa discovered colors; walking in Italian gardens, Geoffrey Jellicoe found a direct passage to the subconscious; walking in French Baroque gardens, Walker (Peter Walker) saw the connection between Andre Le Nôtre's garden and minimal art…

For landscape architects, when walking, we are not only observing the surrounding environment, but also communicating with it, thus forming an evaluation of the landscape quality. Walking will also enrich the landscape reserves in our own memory, which may be mobilized and integrated into the design at a certain moment of future creation. "Reading thousands of books and traveling thousands of miles", to design works with profound connotations, we need to have profound knowledge reserves and artistic accomplishments, as well as the cognitive experience of the land and the keen perception of the landscape, which requires good comprehension and long-term accumulation.

Walking is the beginning of design. Each of our designs begins with walking. After many years, most of the experiences in the design process will be forgotten, but the walking at the beginning of the design is always deeply remembered. Although various modern technologies have brought convenient ways, perspectives, and methods for designers to observe, record, analyze and evaluate the site, none of these can replace the process of walking, observing the site with the eyes and feeling the site with the heart, because the best way to understand and feel the site as a whole is walking. Designers need to face the site directly, capture the special potential of the site with keen observation, stimulate the intuition and inspiration of the design, establish the connection between the design and the site, and create the characteristics of the site. Walking in the site is the key to open design ideas and an indispensable way to high-level design.

Walking is also part of the design. The meaning of landscape is to be read and perceived by people, as the American landscape architect John Ormsbee Simonds said, "What people plan is not place, space, or object; what people plan is experience - first of all, to determine purpose or experience, followed by conscious design of form and quality." The landscape is experienced through perception, and perception needs to be obtained through walking. For landscape architects, designing a landscape is also designing a path of perception and walking, allowing viewers to walk in a certain sequence of landscapes, and continuously realize the spiritual communication between themselves and the landscape as time progresses, and feel the landscape and get the best landscape feeling.

Although reading has become the main source of knowledge for people since the popularity of books, walking, observing, and thinking are still the most direct and effective ways for us to understand the outside world. Walking can face the real world, and walking can make up for reading the shortcomings of not being intuitive and vivid enough, and walking can expand the breadth and depth of people's cognition and thinking, as the saying goes, "what you see is true, and what you know is deep".

本刊主编：王向荣 教授

Prof. Dr.-Ing. WANG Xiangrong

Chief Editor

引文格式

王向荣.行走的意义[J].中国园林，2023，39(5)：2-3.

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