"A yuan [園,] is no longer a place of trees but a place of rockery and pavilions. It was in the sixteen century above all that this transition took place
Craig Clunas, Fruitful Sites
This book continues to be very interesting
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@Forestofglory oh neat! i wonder if this change was driven by real life yuan shifting from the one type of place to the other?
@Forestofglory yeah etymology can be kind of mysterious so maybe no one knows for sure? words are neat haha
@Satsuma hmm .. I don't know. The book has mostly been empathizing other reasons but the gardens do seem to get smaller and more urban over the 16th century