Introduction 1
1．Significance of Research 1
2．Content,Research Questions and Methodology 2
3．The Metamorphosis of Freedom as a Concept 4
4．Evaluation of French Enlightenment in the 20th Century 11
5．Désert de Retz:A Garden of All Times and Places 16
Chapter Ⅰ Désert de Retz 26
1．Where Did the Name Come From 27
2．The Garden:Construction and Features 30
3．The Owner:Personality and His Circles 34
4．History of Garden after the French Revolution 43
Chapter Ⅱ Changing Tides of Aesthetics 46
Chapter Ⅲ Garden of Resurrected Nature and Reconstructed Freedom 84
1．Désert de Retz:A Garden of Nature 84
2．Sentimental Representation of Nature as Social Ethos 99
3．French Philosophical Ideas on Nature and Natural Law 105
4．The Concept of Freedom in French Enlightenment 111
Chapter Ⅳ Garden of All Times and Places and Useful Freedom 130
1．Fabriques of All Times and Places 130
2．Embracing All Times and Places since Mid-18th Century 147
3．Implication of Changed World View for Freedom 159
Chapter Ⅴ Garden of Imagined Otherness and Self-Centered Freedom 169
1．Historical Other:the Broken Column 170
2．Geographical Other:the Chinese House 177
3．Implication of the"Other"for Freedom 195
Conclusion 199
Bibliography 203