The view that landscape poetry and idyll tended to confluence till the Tang Dynasty makes the classification of poetry troublesome. The situation overlooks the fact that the industry of garden building flourished in the Tang Dynasty and covered large quantities of poetic works describing garden life. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce the concept of garden poetry. As an independent form of landscape poetry and idyll, garden poetry has characteristics of its own but is interrelated with the two forms. Garden poetry in the Tang Dynasty not only expands subjectmatters of poetry writing and promoted the flourishing of the Tang poetry, but also helps us deeply understand the life and mood of scholars and garden civilization in the Tang Dynasty.

literature in the Tang Dynasty; garden poetry; landscape poetry; idyll