Cultural confidence is regarded as a crucial foundation for national development and prosperity, with its essence lying in the respect for and inheritance of one’s traditional culture. As an integral part of Chinese culture, Chinese traditional gardens do not only exhibit unique design philosophies and architectural forms in art, but also more importantly, they have penetrated various aspects of daily life—from the selection of tourism destinations to the packaging of lifestyle products. Chinese traditional gardens and their derivative products influence people’s lifestyles and choices. However, the transmission of Chinese traditional gardens faces significant challenges. These arise from the inherent complexity of traditional gardens themselves, the theoretical and practical dilemmas faced by scholars in interpreting them, and the public’s limited and often ambiguous understanding of these cultural spaces. The central issue lies in the restricted perception of traditional gardens, which limits their ability to be appreciated, preserved, and passed on to future generations. Chinese traditional gardens, as experiential entities, comprise elements such as architecture, plants, and water, all of which serve as objects for human perception and engagement. Phenomenology advocates “Zu den Sachen selbst!” emphasizing that the understanding of the world should start from existence itself. It provides a way to examine the philosophical meaning of traditional gardens from the perspective of the “other” in order to grasp the essence of the thing. The introduction of a phenomenological perspective means that the interpretation of gardens is no longer limited to existing cultural frameworks, but instead focuses on understanding their true nature from the perspectives of perception and experience. This way of cognition frees itself from abstract cultural symbol interpretations and returns to the most basic human perceptions, experiences, and reactions, allowing for a deeper understanding of the true essence of garden spaces. This paper, based on phenomenology, employs the concepts of authenticity and intentionality as entry points to reconstruct the cognitive process between humans and Chinese traditional gardens. The authenticity of traditional gardens refers to their actual existence, which makes cognitive activity both possible and meaningful. The authenticity of gardens manifests in three dimensions: existential authenticity, constructive authenticity, and objective authenticity. Existential authenticity reflects the physical reality of gardens as entities and their close connection to history and tradition. Constructive authenticity emphasizes the dynamic process through which the subject, through embodied experience, actively ascribes meaning to the garden, highlighting both the subject’s role in perceiving and understanding the garden, and the meaning the garden acquires through personal engagement. Objective authenticity refers to the validity of cognitive activities; regarding traditional gardens, it is only through the subject’s perspective that the meaning of their existence can be understood. The intentionality of gardens explores the relationship between humans and traditional gardens, examining how people interact with gardens through thought, perception, and practice. Intentionality is composed of two dimensions: subjectivity and intersubjectivity. From the subjectivity perspective, after phenomenological suspension, pure consciousness constructs an individualized understanding of gardens through: 1) embodied cognition derived from perception; 2)intentional shifts triggered by self-displacement; 3) interpretation of interpretive intentionality; 4) categorical intentionality achieved through grammatical structures, linking natural attributes with humanistic traits. This enables a transition from sensuous intuition to essential intuition. From the intersubjectivity perspective, individuals, based on shared needs, perceptions, and methods, turn traditional gardens into an emotional outlet for both themselves and others through a cyclical process of “spatial translation—perceptual differentiation—symbolic dialogue”, thus generating a collective understanding and shared vision of traditional gardens in the process of communication and interaction. As the cognitive process progresses, the connection between humans and traditional gardens undergoes a three-level transformation: sensory enjoyment, emotional connection, and self-exploration. Throughout this cognitive journey, the essence of Chinese traditional gardens continually reveals itself, specifically reflected in: 1) a dynamic multimodal field—the co-construction of humangarden interactions; 2) a progressively layered collective consensus—a dialogue between individual perception and collective resonance; 3) the nonequilibrium evolution of informational dimensions—cognitive collapse and compensation by natural anchoring. Its cognitive mechanism reveals that the generation of spatial meaning is a symphony of embodied experience, intersubjectivity, as well as natural and material production practices. Only through a methodological cycle that returns to the natural dimension (material production practices), activates bodily experience, and reconstructs intersubjectivity can the contemporary reinterpretation of traditional gardens be realized. Building on this, this paper proposes: 1) reconstructing the dynamic cognition of gardens within the context of civilization; 2) regenerating the symbiotic relationship between the real and the virtual in the garden life domain; 3) constructing a collaborative garden identity within a globalized context. This paper, rooted in phenomenology, aims to restore the cognitive process between humans and traditional gardens, stepping beyond traditional cultural frameworks to examine the value and significance of traditional gardens from an external perspective, thus injecting new vitality and energy into our cultural inheritance.