Tea–Chan culture in shaping garden spaces: Intermedial strategies for engaging literati in Buddhist temples of the Tang and Song dynasties

Abstract

During the Tang and Song dynasties, Buddhism adapted to indigenous culture and adopted differentiated strategies of communication for social groups, especially the literati shaped by the civil service examinations. Through these strategies, it gradually secured a position within the tripartite cultural structure of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. Among cultural strategies, the complex known as “Tea–Chan” functioned as a material, social, and spiritual nexus linking Buddhist communities with the literati, while also reshaping the production and stabilization of temple garden spaces. This article investigates the mediating role of Tea–Chan culture and explains how literati-oriented practices helped transform the forms and production of temple gardens, thereby supporting the spatial dissemination of Buddhism across China. As literati took part in tea gatherings and Chan meditation, they projected their aesthetic preferences and lifestyles into Buddhist settings and encouraged temples to evolve into garden-like environments. In this process, tea rituals, literary writing, visual representation, and garden-making worked together as media through which Buddhist values and literati aesthetics were translated into spatial form. Focusing on this culture–space interaction, the study identifies the pathways through which Tea–Chan, as a cultural intermediary, attracted literati participants, fostered modes of spiritual communication, and ultimately guided material transformations in temple compounds.