The unnamed lake, which records the glory and dreams of generations of Peking University people, is the most striking "relic" of Shuchun Garden so far-this lake, which can be regarded as a symbol of Peking University, once belonged to He Shen, a disgraced figure in history.
Hejia Garden, the highest in the capital
When Shuchun Garden was first opened, there is no clear record in history. The Qing Dynasty's "Hui Dian Example" mentioned: "In the twenty-eight years of Qianlong, Shuchun Garden and paddy fields outside the North Building of Yuanmingyuan were played correctly ..." It can be seen that this garden had existed before the middle of Qianlong at the latest. However, Shuchun Garden at this time is basically not a "garden", but a big paddy field. The beautiful moment of Shuchun Garden didn't really begin until He Shen became its new owner. He Shen's mansion is the predecessor of Gongwangfu today, and Shuchunyuan is his villa. In the forty-ninth year of Qianlong, after He Shen became a university student, Qianlong gave He Shen the Shuchun Garden near Yuanmingyuan. Because Emperor Qianlong often attended the Imperial Palace, in order to cope with the emperor's summons at any time, He Shen often lived in Shuchun Garden, and built this garden, which used to be a paddy field, into a private garden that was the highest in Beijing at that time. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, someone wrote lyrics to review the scene of its prosperity in that year:
"One path with four mountains, the old garden, and twelve miles around the mountains, for whom is tobacco green?" In the past, the flowers were splendid, but today, the niche is full of incense, and the confession is paid to the gardener. With a snap of the green field, the guests fell for a long time. Under the bad wall is a pavilion, a cloud screen, and the Zhu building is half unloaded. Xiaozhong can't afford to rush the graceful demeanour. Who gets a boat and a flute, fights for more than 3 years, and dreams always wake up. When you understand the world, the fishermen sing and listen together. "
From this poem, we can roughly understand the scale and layout of the garden at that time: Shuchun Garden surrounded by four hills, with a circumference of twelve or three miles. The garden is full of fragrant grass and swaying willow branches, which is a scenery of the north and the south of the Yangtze River. There is a big lake in the garden, and the lakeside is a bell that can be regarded as a rare treasure at that time. According to the list of He Shen's property, there are 64 towers, 12 watchtowers and 12 bellmen in Shuchun Garden. There are also orders to check the memorials of He Shen's family, saying that there are 1,3 houses in the whole park and 357 verandahs and pavilions. It can be seen that the scale of Shuchun Garden is large.
He Shen manages Shuchun Garden not only for scale, but also for grandeur. As a pet, he was bold enough to decorate Shuchun Garden by imitating the architecture of Yuanmingyuan. Later generations Bin Liang wrote two sentences in the poem "Feeling about the Garden in the Past", saying: "Colorful pavilions are forbidden in the middle, and magnificent terraces are planned to climb the forest". The poem notes: "The pavilions in the garden are all built in imitation of the scale in Yuanmingyuan." This obvious behavior of exceeding the system laid the groundwork for He Shen's sudden conviction.
imitation of a stone boat on a lonely island
The stone boat Zheng Zujun wrote in Linhuxuan on September 4th, 1986.
It is a touching scene that the stone boat sees off the graduates in the Yan Garden every summer. This unsinkable stone boat, commonly known as "not a boat", lies silently on the east side of the central island of Weiming Lake, becoming a scene of Peking University campus. If Shi Fang can talk, it will not only tell the happy or sad stories of the graduates, but also tell us the rise and fall of Shuchunyuan, a garden that has experienced many vicissitudes.
"The painting boat is flat on the shore and wide, and the flying building overlooks Liu Yin. The mirror is clear and windy, and it hangs in the center of Hong Ying boundary water. " -This poem carved on the stone screen on the north bank of the unnamed lake always reminds people of the beauty of the stone boat and the area around the unnamed lake. In fact, these four stone screens were moved from the nearby deserted Yuanmingyuan, and the four poems in the screen were not specially written for the unnamed lake and the stone boat. Being able to describe the unnamed lake scene so aptly seems to be a match made in heaven, but it also has historical inevitability.
The stone boat is not unique to Shuchun Garden. In the Yuanmingyuan and Summer Palace, there are such stone boats. Although they are in different places, they have a strikingly similar fate: when the British and French allied forces burned Yuanmingyuan in 186, the Summer Palace and Shuchun Garden also suffered, and the stone boats in the three places were all burned to the base.
Today, we can see a renovated stone boat-Qingyan Boat in Kunming Lake of the Summer Palace. This two-story foreign-style cabin decorated with tiles and stained glass was made by Empress Dowager Cixi when she rebuilt the Summer Palace. Through it, we can roughly imagine the appearance of the stone boat in the unnamed lake before it was burned. The base of this Qing banquet boat is an old thing from the Qianlong period, and it is also the imitation object of the stone boat in the unnamed lake today.
In the 21st year of his reign, Emperor Qianlong chiseled a stone boat in Kunming Lake, and specially wrote a poem:
What's the problem with snow and smoke?
the spring breeze and the autumn moon are calm.
Carrying a boat used to be a metaphor for being cautious,
Panshi is dedicated to Yong 'an because of thinking.
From this poem, we can see that Qianlong built this stone boat to learn from the theory that "water can carry a boat, but it can also overturn it". At the same time, he also hopes that his country will be as stable as this stone boat that can't be blown away by the wind and won't sink by the waves.
He Shen placed the stone boat in Shuchun Garden, perhaps because he hoped that his status as a favorite would be stable forever, or just for ornament. But whatever the reason, things like stone boats were never enjoyed by people outside the royal family in feudal times.
There are more than just stone boats in Shuchun Garden. When Emperor Jiaqing executed He Shen by imperial edict, * * * listed 2 major crimes, the thirteenth of which was: "The property of He Shen was confiscated, and the nanmu house built was over-regulated, and its multi-treasure pavilion and partition style were all modeled after the Ningshou Palace system, and its gardens were decorated, which was no different from the Yaotai on Pengdao in Yuanmingyuan. I don't know what it was, but its major crime was thirteen." This island, which is completely modeled after the "Yaotaipeng Island" in Yuanmingyuan, is the island in the middle of the unnamed lake today. However, after more than 2 years, the buildings on the island in the middle of the lake in He Shen have disappeared. Even the small pavilion "Island Court" with a basement built on this island during yenching university's period no longer exists today. History has left us with the information related to the island in the middle of the lake, only a poem written by Yi Xin, the biological father of Guangxu Emperor, after visiting Shuchun Garden:
Jiege Lingyun is long gone, and Qiuxu is in the middle of the water.
I am still aware of the development of our walls, and I am crazy to cut thorns and cover hazelnuts.
Wan Li, an immortal, has become three chapters.
I've never been angry and frightened, and every time I break my sail, I cross the guest's intestines.
This poem tells us roughly what the island in the middle of the lake looked like in those days. However, at the end of the poem, we can't understand the sad decline and illusory sadness that we are playing in the stone boat and the island in the middle of the lake today.
Facing the wind and waiting for the moon: witnessing the marriage of several generations
On the southern hills of the Weiming Lake, there is a quiet courtyard. There are two Pinus bungeana trees in front of the hospital, with old stems and horizontal branches, swaying in the shadows. The oldest existing building in this Yanyuan Garden is the Linhuxuan, which used to be the residence of Si Tuleideng, the president of Yanda University, and Ma Yinchu, the old president of Peking University.
"Linhuxuan" is the new name of this old building: in 1931, Bing Xin named this courtyard Linhuxuan, and later Hu Shi, then president of Peking University College of Arts, wrote a plaque. For more than 2 years, the name of this small courtyard in Shuchun Garden has always been "Facing the wind and waiting for the moon".
He Shen is a romantic person, and this small building bearing the romantic memories of He Shen also witnessed He Shen's punishment for his "romance". He Shen is not only handsome but also talented, personable and smart. The British messenger Magalny described him as "heavy in appearance, longer than words, and quick and skillful in conversation". It is impossible for such a talent not to attract women's love. He Shen himself loves beauty. With the support of his wife Feng, she has taken several concubines and doted on them in every way. The romantic He Shen finally paid the price for the woman who lived in the house facing the wind and waiting for the moon. Among the 2 imperial edicts of Emperor Jiaqing to punish He Shen, the fourth one is: "Marry a woman who has left the palace as a second wife, and it is shameful to lose her reason." This small building, after the sudden fall of He Shen, is particularly easy to cause people's sadness because of its once brilliant romance-"It's unbearable to touch the wall, and prejudice is waiting for the moon." (Journal of Peking University: Zheng Zujun wrote it in Linhuxuan on September 4th, 1986)
Time flies. When yenching university bought the land of Shuchun Garden from Chen Shufan, this beautiful garden, once the capital of Beijing, was already a decadent scene. With the donation of American George Kerry and his wife, the "Moon-facing Building" was renovated and became the residence of Si Tuleideng, the president of yenching university in the 192s, and the place where guests were received.
Perhaps it's because the name "the building facing the wind and waiting for the moon" is too romantic. This building full of classical flavor, more than 1 years after He Shen's death, witnessed two good marriages handed down from generation to generation. In June 1929, Wu Wenzao and Bing Xin, who had been in love for many years, got married here. Six years later, Gao Zu Fei Xiaotong and Wang Tonghui of Wu Wenzao got married here again.
Linhuxuan written by Zheng Zujun on September 4th, 1986 in Linhuxuan
Today, Linhuxuan, as a VIP reception room of Peking University, receives thousands of foreign guests including heads of state and famous scholars from dozens of countries every year. Outside the porch, a pair of white pines planted at the beginning of the Linhu porch still quietly watched what happened in the porch. But in the antique Linhuxuan, we can never see the former owner and the people who got married here.
Although whether He Shen really embezzled 8 million taels of silver is still debated in the history circle, and although no one can confirm whether He Shen is really talented and has made many contributions to the Qing Dynasty, no one can deny his dramatic life of "rushing like a mansion". Perhaps the best portrayal of his life is "talent is enough to help traitors and clever misuse".
Zheng Zujun, a stone fish, wrote it in Linhuxuan on September 4th, 1986.
Qian Mu, a master of Chinese studies, named this lake as "unnamed", which is in sharp contrast with He Shen's life. The word "unnamed" reflects the state of mind that intellectuals have been pursuing all their lives: indifferent to fame and fortune, tolerant and uncontested. If He Shen had realized this truth as early as possible, he wouldn't have written such a bitter and helpless quatrain as "a hundred years ago was a dream, but it was a waste of effort" in the night of the Lantern Festival. (Journal of Peking University: written by Zheng Zujun in Linhuxuan on September 4th, 1986)
Postscript: In 1919, Si Tuleideng became the president of yenching university. At that time, Yanda implemented the system of separate schools for boys and girls: the boys' school was in the armor factory in Chongwenmen, and the girls' school was in Tongjiadao, dengshikou. Worried that the narrow school building would hinder the development of the school, Si Tuleideng decided to find another school site. The American, who was born in China and grew up in China, walked, pedaled a bicycle or rode a donkey all over the suburbs of Beijing, saw countless barren graves and mountains, and finally chose a piece of land opposite Tsinghua University Hall. In order to buy this place, Si Tuleideng took pains to take a two-day train first, and then he was escorted by the overseers' guards. He rode for a week and went to Xi 'an to negotiate the land transaction face to face with the owner of this land, Shaanxi overseers Chen Shufan. With superb eloquence, he successfully persuaded the old feudal warlord to "sell and give away" this treasure trove of geomantic omen to Yanda at a price of 6, yuan. Yenching university was built on the land that the old headmaster had worked so hard to buy. This piece of land, covering an area of 38 mu, is actually the site of two ancient gardens: one is the spoon garden of the famous Ming painter Mi Wanzhong; The other is the villa Shuchun Garden in He Shen, the main building of Yanda University, which was built on the site of this garden. (Journal of Peking University: Zheng Zujun wrote in Linhuxuan on September 4, 1986)