Sir William Temple and ‘sharawadgi’: Poetics of Variety and Pleasure Talk by Dr Yue Zhuang

Sir William Temple (1628-1699) was a diplomat and essayist who, among other achievements, negotiated the marriage of William of Orange and Mary, the daughter of James II, who were to succeed James to the English crown in 1689. It was in one of his essays, ‘Upon the Gardens of Epicurus’(1685), that he introduced the word ‘sharawadgi’ and described his interpretation of the Chinese garden although he had never been to China. This is seen as the turning point from the formal garden to the naturalistic. It was Sir William's comment on the Chinese irregular garden layout that has fuelled the controversy about whether the English landscape garden was influenced by the Chinese. Instead of focusing on the apparent difference between these two garden traditions (i.e. the formal and the informal), this talk investigates how Temple's reception of the Chinese was shaped by their parallels, namely how both English and Chinese  gardens, like poetry, evoke and balance the passions and help to attain true pleasure. Dr Yue Zhuang teaches Chinese studies, art history and visual culture at the University of Exeter. She is the co-editor of Entangled Landscapes: Early Modern China and Europe (2017). Image: Sir William Temple’s garden at Moor Park near Farnham in Surrey. Watercolour painting c. 1690, attributed to  Johannes Kip. Surrey County Council.