Abstract

An early encounter of Western and Chinese labyrinths took place during the late eighteenth century in the Qing imperial garden Yuanming Yuan, where the Western Jesuits built a labyrinth for Emperor Qianlong.1 Beginning with Daedalus’s legendary design, the labyrinth was the basis throughout Western history of a primary meaning of the built environment.2 With a rigorously geometrical layout, the labyrinth in the Yuanming Yuan appeared exotic to the Chinese eye but was specifically named by the Chinese as a “garden” because of its meandering movement similar to Chinese gardens.3 The comparability between the Western labyrinth and Chinese gardens triggers this research on the idea of labyrinth in Chinese building ..