Palace and domestic gardens were made in Ancient China and Ancient Japan but no archaeological or visual remains of these gardens have been discovered. The history of gardens in East Asia is therefore the history of gardens made under the influence of the Asian religious ideas associated with Confucius, Shinto, Lao Tzu and Buddha. These ideas about sacred space affected the design of both temple gardens and domestic gardens - these garden types cannot be disentangled because emperors were regarded as gods and religious scholars made domestic gardens.
See also: Book on Asian garden history
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Chinese temple garden
Japanese temple garden
Japanese palace garden