When it comes to "Suzhou gardens", many people's imagination will naturally come to mind: walking through a pool of green springs, stacking rocks, strolling through pavilions, pavilions, winding corridors, holding a cup in hand With fragrant tea, you can lean on the building to listen to the rain and smell the fragrance of flowers.
Beginning in the Spring and Autumn Period and flourishing in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Suzhou gardens have been representative of the poetic Jiangnan from ancient times to the present. After thousands of years of ups and downs, there are still more than 100 classical gardens in Suzhou. Among them, 9 such as the Humble Administrator's Garden, the Liuyuan Garden, and the Master of the Nets Garden have been rated as World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO.
A path hugs the secluded mountain, actually between the cities. When you are in the garden courtyard located in the center of Suzhou, you will feel quiet and relaxed. You can "get the pleasure of the mountains and rivers without leaving the city, and you can get the pleasure of the woods and springs while living in the bustling city." Stopping and stopping, tourists will inevitably feel confused: How can Suzhou gardens be appreciated, visited and lived in a busy city with little natural scenery?
Cut off a corner of the 30,000-hectare Taihu Lake and cut off a section of the 72 peaks. The mountains, rivers and city walls are gathered into one garden. This is the Suzhou Garden.
(Subtitle) "The Universe is So Close"
During the Spring and Autumn Period more than 2,500 years ago, King Wu Helv was the dominant force and ordered the official Wu Zixu to build the great city of Helv. This is how the history of Suzhou's city construction began. . After that, the Wu royal family built a large number of gardens and annexes such as Xiajia Lake and Gusu Terrace, starting the tradition of building royal gardens in Gusu City. With the wars and disputes, what remains today are mostly the private courtyards of gentry and officials during the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.
In early spring, the Master of the Nets Garden, located in the southeast corner of Suzhou City, is filled with subtle fragrance. This garden, covering an area of ??about 8 acres, is a model of small and medium-sized gardens in the south of the Yangtze River and is known as "the best small garden". In front of the cave door, under the flower windows, and next to the rockery, the winter plum blossoms match the garden scenery. The scenery changes as you move, making people sigh that "although it was made by humans, it seems to have opened from the sky."
The elegant garden scenery originates from the landscape of Taihu Lake. At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, Emperor Huizong Zhao Ji ordered the collection of flowers, trees and rocks from Taihu Lake, and then transported them to Bianjing (now Kaifeng, Henan) to build a garden. The matter was handled by Zhu Meng, a native of Suzhou. He took the opportunity to extort money and searched for strange stones and flowers. This was the "Huashi Gang" incident in history. It is said that Ruiyun Peak, which is now the Zhizaofu site in Suzhou, is the relic of the "Huashi Gang" that was collected but not transported away at that time.
The exquisiteness of the garden is inseparable from the skills of the craftsmen. During the Yongle period, Kuai Xiang, who presided over the construction of the Forbidden City in Beijing, was from Xiangshan, Suzhou. The craftsmen in Xiangshan were excellent in craftsmanship and were known as "all the skilled carpenters in the south of the Yangtze River came from Xiangshan". Suzhou's classical gardens were mostly made by the "Xiangshan Gang".
“Rocks, flowers and trees, buildings, and water features are the four core elements of gardening. Garden designers interweave these elements to form countless colorful combinations, making the garden layered and pleasing to the eye. Effect." said Xue Zhijian, curator of Suzhou Garden Museum.
As the writer Ye Shengtao said in the article "Suzhou Gardens", "The edges of ponds or rivers are rarely built with neat stone banks. They are always bent up and down and left to their own devices. A few blocks are also arranged there. Exquisite stones, or planting some flowers and plants are also to achieve the effect of looking like a painting from all angles."
The Humble Administrator's Garden was built in the Ming Dynasty and is the largest garden in Suzhou today. After the censor Wang Xianchen abandoned his official position and returned to his hometown, it was built on the residence of Lu Guimeng of the Tang Dynasty and the former site of Dahong Temple of the Yuan Dynasty. The birth of the famous "A Dream of Red Mansions" is closely related to the Humble Administrator's Garden. It is said that Cao Xueqin was born in the garden during the Kangxi period and often wandered in the garden as a boy. Many of the descriptions of the Grand View Garden in the book are based on the Humble Administrator's Garden.
Standing in the central garden that best represents the characteristics of the Humble Administrator's Garden, you can see three small islands built by digging pools and mountains. The water flows and the trees overlap, giving people a "winding path leading to seclusion" "Feeling. Cheng Hongfu, deputy director of the Humble Administrator's Garden Management Office, said that the Humble Administrator's Garden is long from east to west, and the straight line distance from north to south is only 50 meters. The garden designers divided the entire garden into multiple spaces through details such as stone bridges, water surfaces, and small islands. This achieves the effect of “recreating the world within a short distance”.
Many courtyards in the Humble Administrator's Garden are set against white walls, embellished with a few bamboos and stones, leaving more or less blank spaces. In the garden gathering area of ??the ancient city not far away, there is the new Suzhou Museum designed by the famous architect I.M. Pei. When you step inside, you can feel the joy of garden viewing.
Like the Humble Administrator’s Garden, the new Suzhou Museum also chooses white as the main color of the building, supplemented by appropriate amounts of black and gray, just like the line drawings of Chinese paintings.
The whole building is centered on the pool, and is bounded by the wall of the Humble Administrator's Garden in the north. All exhibition hall circulation lines are set around the water. It seems to be built to pursue the artistic conception of classical gardens, and inherits the tradition of garden art in a way of "similarity in spirit but not in form". Historical context.
(Subtitle) "Heaven and Man are One"
In the late Xianfeng years of the Qing Dynasty, a war suddenly descended on Suzhou. The flames of war lasted for more than 10 kilometers, from the canal bank in the west of the city to the foot of Changmen City, and all the bustling merchant markets in the past were reduced to scorched earth. And outside the city wall shrouded in smoke and dust, a beautiful garden stands alone, which is amazing. This garden was acquired by Liu Shu, a native of Suzhou in the Ming Dynasty, and was called "Liu Garden". However, because of its miracle of escaping from the war, later generations gradually named it "Liu Garden".
When you step into the Liuyuan Garden, you can feel Liu’s style. According to historical records, Liu Shu was "silently good-looking, but he was fond of flowers and rocks." He carved a self-portrait inscription "Proud among the Twelve Peaks" and called himself "Xiao Ke from the Twelve Peaks". Nowadays, in the park, you can find the twelve peaks of strange rocks that Liu Shu painstakingly collected. The rocks are primitive and rough in shape, revealing his natural taste that he did not like to carve.
In the eyes of scholar Wang Jiaju, "Gardens are like paintings and books, and they need to be read carefully." Li Acheng, a seventeen-year-old Suzhou resident, knows this very well. He has lived around several gardens in the old city for more than 40 years. "The city has a large population but little natural scenery. Suzhou gardens are people's yearning for nature and a creation that pursues harmonious coexistence with nature." Li Acheng said.
Li Acheng’s observation reflects the concept of “harmony between nature and man” in classical Chinese philosophy behind Suzhou gardens, that is, all things and man are one, and man and nature exist in harmony. Relying on this concept, the mountains, rivers, buildings and flowers are not only for people to appreciate, but also create an environment in the garden that can place feelings on objects and mobilize the whole body's senses to communicate with nature.
For example, the circular gates that can be seen everywhere in gardens such as the Humble Administrator’s Garden and the Lingering Garden are built to imitate the full moon in the sky, embodying the poetic complex of ancient and modern Chinese people towards a perfect life. For another example, the writer Yu Dafu said in "Suzhou Rainy Season" that the hazy garden in the misty rain not only has the romance of raindrops on the empty steps, but also makes people feel "away from the hustle and bustle, elegant and contented".
The names of the pavilions and pavilions in the garden are also intended to express deep feelings of nature. The Humble Administrator's Garden has the "Orchid Snow Hall", which is taken from Li Bai's "Independent heaven and earth, the breeze scatters orchid snow"; the Liuyuan Cave Gate "Another Village" is taken from Lu You's "Mountains and rivers are full of doubts and there is no way, and there are dark willows and flowers. Village"; the "Moon to Wind Pavilion" in Master of Nets Garden refers to a poem by Shao Yong of the Song Dynasty: "When the moon reaches the center of the sky and the wind blows over the water," if the breeze blows slowly, admiring the moon in the wind will feel like swimming in a paradise.
Along the pond are rows of weeping peach willows and stone benches. Across the water, you can see the rugged revetment and the cornices of ancient pavilions. This is the Canglang Pavilion with the longest history among existing gardens in Suzhou. Canglang Pavilion was originally the private garden of Su Shunqin, a scholar in the Song Dynasty. Su Shunqin was a close friend of Fan Zhongyan and Ouyang Xiu. He belonged to a group that advocated reform. He was impeached by officials in the court and resigned from his official position and lived in seclusion in Suzhou. He spent 40,000 yuan to buy land and built Canglang Pavilion. .
Ouyang Xiu then wrote a long poem "Canglang Pavilion", in which he wrote about this incident with the words "The breeze and the bright moon are priceless, but it is only sold for 40,000 yuan." Then we took this sentence from Canglang Pavilion and Su Shunqin's poem "Passing Suzhou", "The green poplars and egrets are all contented, and the near water and the distant mountains are all sentimental." They were combined into "The clear breeze and the bright moon are priceless, and the near water and the distant mountains are all sentimental." A couplet shows to future generations a state of mind that is indifferent, clear-minded, and leisurely.
(Subtitle) "Poetry and Distance"
In the twelfth year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty, Sheng Kang from Changzhou bought the "Liu Garden" that had escaped the disaster and officially changed its name to "Liu Yuan". "Living Garden", the news of the garden's name change was published in Shenbao. A few years later, the Sheng family published another report in the newspaper: "The Liuyuan Garden has been renovated. On the second day of this month, the gates will be opened for people to visit. No penny will be charged within three days. From the fifth day of the month, each person will be charged 70 pence for visiting the garden, which can be used to pay for the garden in the future. This revenue-generating marketing strategy has attracted visitors to the park.
Enjoying peonies in spring, lotuses in summer, smelling cinnamon in autumn, and tasting plum blossoms in winter, the opening of private gardens to the outside world has completely liberated the world's poetic will and interest, and tasting gardens has become the key to a better life for contemporary Suzhou people. Portrait. "In addition to the different scenery in the four seasons, you can experience one scene at a time when viewing Suzhou gardens." Xue Zhijian said, for example, standing in the Master of the Nets Garden, you can see three completely different views as long as you walk through a door.
At nightfall, walk on the blue bricks and stone slabs to Canglang Pavilion, where a live version of Kunqu Opera "Six Chapters of a Floating Life" is being performed.
The actors moved from scene to scene, interpreting the poetic Soviet-style life. The audience followed closely and listened to Wu Nong's soft words. The music is high-quality but not low-key. Whenever there is a performance in Canglang Pavilion, almost every performance is extremely popular.
From the spiritual level, the filling of "poetic" space can be seen as the externalization of gardening wisdom. For example, Suzhou advocates moving from "Suzhou Gardens" to "Garden Suzhou" by inserting greenery into the ancient city so that citizens can enter green spaces within 500 meters of travel. "Urban construction should emphasize respecting nature, complying with nature, and protecting nature." said Shao Lei, deputy director of the Suzhou Garden and Greening Administration Bureau.
Western gardens emphasize human will and order in gardening, which can be seen in large areas of artificial lawns, trimmed hedges, fountains, and symmetrical layouts. Chinese gardens, on the other hand, place more emphasis on natural texture and form. For example, the Taihu stone is "thin and wrinkled", the falling water is winding and natural, and the ancient trees are intertwined and planted relying on the situation.
In 1899, British botanist Wilson went to China to collect and introduce flowers and plants. After years of exploration and travel, he became immersed in the unique flowers and gardens of various places, and wrote the book "China - the Mother of Gardens", making Chinese gardens famous all over the world.
In October 2020, Liufang Garden in the Huntington Library in Los Angeles, USA, was expanded and opened to the public. This Suzhou garden, the largest and most complete overseas, covers an area of ??72 acres, with pavilions, bridges, flowing water, couplets and columns. It is called the "sister garden" of the Humble Administrator's Garden. “The charm of one’s own heart leads to the charm of the world.” Suzhou gardens have long abandoned self-admiration, and replicas of Liufang Garden have repeatedly traveled across the ocean, allowing this splendid Chinese culture to be shared with the world.
There is a "Dian Chunyi" in the Master of Nets Garden, which is a unique scene. Plantains, bamboos and wintersweets are planted outside the three rear windows respectively, symbolizing the three seasons of summer, autumn and winter. The "Dian Chun" on the door plaque refers to the peony flowers that bloom in late spring. Together, they are the four seasons, which can be described as a wonderful combination of nature and humanity.
As early as 40 years ago, the "Mingxuan" based on the "Dian Chunyi" went abroad and was completed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the United States, becoming the first Chinese garden to be exported overseas. To date, more than 50 Suzhou gardens and models have taken root around the world.