1. There are so many West Lakes in the world
According to online surveys, many cities across the country, such as Hangzhou, Huizhou, Yingzhou, Chaozhou, Fuzhou, Yangzhou (Slender West Lake), Guangzhou, Leizhou, Lanzhou, Xining, Guilin, Xuchang, Shouchang, Meicheng, Nanchang, Duchang, Shenyang, Fushun, Jinshi, Hengyang, Shangqiu, Tianmen, etc. all have West Lakes, or they all had West Lakes. They are known as "the thirty-six West Lakes in the world" ". If the extension of the West Lake is expanded and the similar West Lake, Pan West Lake, and Guangdong West Lake are added, the number will be even greater. The so-called West Lake-like lakes refer to urban scenic lakes that blend with the city, such as Xiyuan and Xihai in Beijing, and the beautiful Xinghu Lake in Zhaoqing. The so-called Panxi Lake refers to the scenic lakes that are slightly far away from the city and located in the west corner of the urban area, such as Kunming Lake in Kunming, Beijing, and ancient Chang'an. In a broad sense, West Lake is closely related to the city, and its location is not necessarily westward, such as East Lake and South Lake in Wuhan, North Xuanwu Lake in Nanjing, Haizi Lake in the northeast of Jingzhou, etc.
Why are so many urban lakes in the world called "West Lake"? It is actually a "West Lake cultural phenomenon". This is a whole process in which literati discovered the beauty of urban lakes, wetlands and gardens, local officials promoted the advantages and disadvantages to improve the environment, people with lofty ideals in the past generations protected the scenery (preventing it from being lost), ordinary people spread the beauty of public gardens and West Lake, and generations of word-of-mouth commemorated the humanistic beauty of West Lake. Human life and human civilization all originated by the waterside. Nowadays, due to pollution or landfill, many cities have lost the outstanding beauty of "West Lake Culture". In order to ensure the sustainable development of urban lake landscape gardens like West Lake, city managers, policymakers, and developers must first understand their aesthetic value and artistic characteristics, protect their natural vitality, and inherit their cultural essence; and strictly prevent urban expansion and encroachment The park's green spaces and water bodies will put an end to the phenomenon that famous mountains in the world have been occupied by more officials than troops since ancient times. The people love the West Lake and should ensure that the West Lake belongs to the people.
It is of great significance to study the "West Lake Cultural Phenomenon", carry forward the spirit of "West Lake Culture", and build more and more beautiful urban lakes, parks and gardens, or West Lake landscape gardens, for the people.
2. The aesthetic complex of the "West Lake Phenomenon"
There is paradise above, and Suzhou and Hangzhou below. For thousands of years, people have often compared Suzhou and Hangzhou to paradise, because the West Lake is surrounded by Comfortable and beautiful environment. Suzhou and Hangzhou are relatively ideal cities to live in, or even a poetic enough place to live. The environment of lakes is often better than that of rivers; a good living environment by rivers still requires strict Feng Shui inspection, selection, and transformation.
It is better when the water is clear and clear, and the mountains are also strange when they are empty and rainy. If you want to compare the West Lake to the West, it is always suitable to put on light makeup and heavy makeup. Xizi, also known as Xishi, is a native of Zhuluoshan Village in Yuedi. She is a representative figure of a kind, beautiful, simple and hard-working woman. Xi Tzu has won the love of the people for thousands of years, which is naturally an expression of the true feelings of the people. Similarly, for thousands of years, people have regarded the West Lake as the embodiment of beauty and the concentrated expression of beauty. No matter what season, what weather, no matter which direction or angle you view it from, West Lake looks like a lovely beauty.
The scenery of West Lake is unparalleled in the world, half lake and half garden. The beauty of West Lake is half in the landscape and half in the artificial. It is rich in form and profound in connotation. Skilled craftsmen, poets, painters, and eminent monks have made the garden even more charming. The earliest gardens beside the West Lake were temple gardens, which were highly favored by the Buddhist country in the southeast. Any garden within a garden that offers pleasant scenery and is pleasing to the eye is included in the broad category of West Lake garden culture.
The most valuable thing about "West Lake Culture" is its openness and fairness. Before the Tang Dynasty, although there were records of the king of the Western Zhou Dynasty having fun with the people in the garden, the people actually went to the garden to cut grass, collect firewood, and hunt pheasants and rabbits. The Shanglin Garden and Taiye Pool of the Qin and Han Dynasties, the "Three Gardens" of the Sui and Tang Dynasties - the East Neiyuan, the West Neiyuan and the largest Forbidden Garden, are not open to the public according to their names. People can only appreciate the natural garden outside the wall. History books record in a praising tone: Qujiang Pool in Chang'an of Tang Dynasty was a public and open landscape garden. Qujiang Pool was originally created by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and was named Yichun Garden. During the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, great efforts were made to create a city wall "park". There was a craze for group garden visits in the Song Dynasty. Although Qionglin Garden and Jinming Pool are public gardens, they can only be viewed by the public for a limited time, which is called "open pool". "It's supreme. When the chariot arrives, it will be closed immediately" (see Wu Zimu's "Meng Liang Lu").
From being enjoyed only by the princes and nobles to being enjoyed by the people, gardens can not but be said to be a great progress. Parks and gardens are naturally appreciated and loved by the people.
In terms of ideology and spirit, gardens first entertained gods, then later entertained kings, and then entertained officials and themselves. Of course, they made people more and more happy and close. Both literati and the public are not good at landscapes. Urban landscapes come from the purposeful art space of literati and officials who "remain hidden in the city". "Parks and gardens" are mostly a combination system of urban natural landscapes and landscape-related humanistic landscapes that are loved by people. West Lake is this kind of excellent collection of urban parks and gardens, which has unknowingly become synonymous with urban forests and parks and gardens. In the large urban landscape garden of West Lake. It hides many cultural landscapes, with dense forests and thousands of clouds, which is really called a "foreign land in the southeast".
Hangcheng local officials were mostly poets and scholars (the Tang Dynasty selected scholars based on poetry, so the poetry style was particularly prosperous). They paid attention to beautifying the environment and liked to carve stones, build towers, plant bamboos, write inscriptions, and compile myths, leaving some legacy. Relics have made great contributions to decorating urban landscapes and accumulating urban history and culture. There are also gardens in the prefectures and government offices. The most typical "Xubai Hall" faces the river and leans on the mountain. You can watch the tidal surge by leaning on the railing and overlook the distant mountains on a clear day. Bai Juyi's poems are carved on the stone in the hall.
The scenery of West Lake is a scenery of real mountains and rivers, a simple, open and bright scenery, a scenery with pleasant scale and close to the public. The landscape of West Lake is closely related to the city. The city is beautiful because of the lake, and the city is strong because of the lake. The daily life of urban residents is closely related to the West Lake. For thousands of years, deep nostalgia and love for the West Lake have naturally accumulated in the aesthetic spirit of the general public. The Qing Dynasty artist Li Yu traveled all over the world and finally settled with his family next to the West Lake in Hangzhou, which is an example of this. Zhang Dai's "Dream Seeking the West Lake" written in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties expresses the sentiment of "dreaming about the West Lake like home and family members". We can read it as a poem about the aesthetics of public gardens.
Outside of Hangzhou, the majority of people in the cities where they live, as long as there is a lake, they certainly hope that it will be as beautiful as the West Lake in Hangzhou, with rich cultural landscapes, pleasant public spaces and tourist routes , with a deep sense of identity and sustenance. Regardless of whether the lake is located in the west of the city, people enthusiastically call it the West Lake.
3. The internal causes of the "West Lake phenomenon"
People all over the world have deep envy and aesthetic complex towards the West Lake. Its social foundation, historical roots, aesthetic theory and mass psychology , ecological effects and other reasons are worth exploring and can be used in modern urban landscape architecture.
Location is only the superficial reason for the formation of West Lake. The internal factor also lies in humanities. Human factors can transcend geographical location. The essential feature of West Lake is beauty, the beauty of humanity. The creation of beauty is her soul.
In ancient times, West Lake was a lagoon formed at the bend of the Qiantang River where it entered the sea. "The land is to the west of Huicheng, so it is commonly known as West Lake." Since the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Sui and Tang Dynasties, Buddhist temples and Taoist temples have been built around the lake one after another. Local officials have continued to dredge and improve it, so that the lake and mountains can be preserved forever (see "West Lake Chronicles").
Li Mi of the Tang Dynasty dug six wells when he was the governor of Hangzhou. Bai Juyi once presided over the construction of embankments to protect lakes, water storage and irrigation projects, a large number of afforestation, building pavilions and embellishing the scenery.
During the Wuyue Kingdom, the West Lake was dredged and connected to the South Canal. In the fourth year of Yuanyou (1089) of the Northern Song Dynasty, Su Shi sent out 200,000 migrant workers to build a three-mile-long "Su Embankment" by pulling up Fuchsia grass and building three stone pagodas in the lake, which completely changed the phenomenon of Fake siltation.
In the Southern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou was named "Xingzai" and was renamed Lin'an. The west of the city is adjacent to the West Lake Scenic Area with beautiful mountains and clear waters. "The scenery of the lake and mountains is endless in four seasons. Although there are painters, no one can copy it" (see Wu Zimu's "Meng Liang Lu"). The "Ten Scenes of the West Lake" were completed in the Southern Song Dynasty.
It is worth mentioning that there are officials everywhere, and the number of officials who can discover and develop the beauty of cities, lakes and mountains is limited. In ancient times, they jointly built water conservancy projects and built urban landscape gardens, which have been famous for generations. Officials who are eager for quick success often fail to achieve this level; sometimes instead of creating scenery for the world, they go around killing scenery, leaving eternal regrets for their descendants.
The beauty of Slender West Lake in Yangzhou is that more than ten gardens and pavilions merge into one: they are connected to the mountain and have a coherent momentum (Six Chapters of a Floating Life, 1763), with pavilions and painted boats for ten miles. It has become a public scenic spot for water tourism. The Slender West Lake project was mainly developed because of the emperor's southern tour. The rich and powerful officials rushed to invite the emperor to favor him, and presented the scenery to the lake where the emperor was patrolling, so that the lake had an excellent public view. Although the motive is not for the public, objectively it has the effect of "the West Lake is a beautiful scenery, and no one who travels is foolish or wise".
City public lake and mountain gardens are inseparable from the management and dredging of administrative authorities. Without protection, there is no beauty and no inheritance of beauty. Guangzhou Nanhan West Lake is an artificial lake dug at the lower reaches of the west branch of Ganxi River. It is the Royal Nangong Garden District. West Lake plus Yaozhou, the mist is vast, like the Penglai fairyland. It makes people feel the Lingnan atmosphere of "the blue sea comes out of the Chen Pavilion, and the blue sky rises with summer clouds". Later, it was destroyed by war, but under the management of Chen Xian, the economic envoy of the Song Dynasty, the scene of "anthers on the sea and islands, cloud shadows and sand flow in the water" appeared, which was loved by literati. Later generations underwent small-scale repairs and renovations, and in the Ming Dynasty it was still one of the eight scenic spots in Yangcheng. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the number of residences around the lake increased, and it gradually became silted up and degraded. After road construction in 1932, Guangzhou West Lake was completely destroyed. The final destruction of this royal palace with a history of nearly a thousand years is not very far away from us today. Is Liwan Lake the second West Lake in Guangzhou?
Who knows that the scenery in the south of the Yangtze River is so beautiful that it can move heaven and earth in your arms. Because the natural environment conditions of northern gardens are inferior to those in the south of the Yangtze River, most of the gardens imitate the scenery of the West Lake. Wang Kaidao's "Old Summer Palace Ci" records: Qianlong went to the south of the Yangtze River, traveled along the route, wrote about the scenery, and returned to work. For example, the West Lake Su Di, the West Courtyard, etc. are all imitated. In particular, the Old Summer Palace also prominently reproduces Hangzhou West Lake as a park landscape with remaining snow on the broken bridge, watching fish in Huagang, twin peaks in the clouds, Nanping Evening Bell, Pinghu Autumn Moon, Leifeng Sunset, and Three Pools Reflecting the Moon.
The power of role models is endless. The beautiful scenery of West Lake in Hangzhou has been imitated and loved by various places. It is natural that West Lake is everywhere in the world. The exchanges between the North and the South and the East and the West in urban gardens should be like this.
4. The contemporary loss of "West Lake culture"
In ancient times when productivity was underdeveloped, people used their hands to control floods, build water conservancy projects, and build cities, investing in ideals of beauty and artistic techniques. . From an aesthetic point of view, the urban forest is a purposeful space, a new development of the artistic space of garden beauty, and another popular realization of the ideal beauty of the palace and garden system.
For example, Guilin’s scenery has more than enough mountains but not enough water. In the Song Dynasty, there was a West Lake with an area of ??more than 700 acres in front of Yinshan Mountain. It is bounded by the Lijiang River in the east, the Yangjiang River (Taohua River) in the south, and there are some lakes in the middle, each of which is isolated. The water conservancy project Chaozong Canal is connected in series into a whole, the waterway leads to the river, the mountain city turns into a water city, and the mountains and rivers complement each other. It is a pity that the wealthy gentry named Zhou colluded with the government, occupied the West Lake, changed the land and sold it at a high price, causing the waterway to be blocked, the West Lake to disappear, and the mountain city to lose its vitality. There are many people today like Zhou Youshen (ancient real estate developers) who destroy the city's landscape. The lost cause of the city's "West Lake Culture" stems from this, and its behavior that harms the public scenery is even worse than that of the ancients.
Looking down from the plane, the traditional ancient villages and towns show obvious planning. In the past, our ancestors used a variety of soft and hard methods to maintain public landscape gardens in villages and towns. For example, we use the charisma of clan culture, the influence of enlightened gentlemen, Feng Shui concepts, village rules and folk customs, folk stories, etc. to unify and regulate people's thoughts and behaviors, and protect the mountains, forests, lakes and rivers of cities (villages) and towns. Today, after the above-mentioned ideological concepts have been completely negated, new, good, and democratic public concepts have never been established. Construction has resulted in a large number of unhealthy urban areas and towns. The aerial view from the airplane shows that the new village is obviously messier, worse and uglier than the old village.
Contemporary urban construction activities are truly shocking. During the city-building movement, few people paid attention to building lakes, especially the West Lake. It is also appropriate to call this phenomenon the loss of "West Lake culture".
1. Disrespecting scientific planning The biggest mistake is the mistake of urban planning. As a scenic spot, the city's "West Lake" cannot be surrounded and suppressed by the city without restrictions, and modern high-rise buildings cannot be allowed to approach the lakeside water.
We cannot demolish and build upon the city’s historic districts. Whenever someone does this, both the city and the lake will suffer. The West Lake in Hangzhou was once built into the "Hong Kong of Zhejiang", which caused great constructive damage. The historical and cultural "rich mine" that once made them proud is becoming increasingly depleted. Huizhou West Lake once adopted the "city surrounding the lake" planning model. Facts have proved that not only the scenery was damaged, but the city was also constrained. Guilin wants to build a pharmaceutical factory among the mountains and rivers. The gains outweigh the losses, which is equivalent to asking people to dig out their own hearts (according to Chen Congzhou's saying). There are other West Lakes that suffered the fate of destruction due to wrong planning.
Hangzhou’s West Lake is moving westward, preserving the old city and building a new city, moving towards the Qiantang era (that is, developing along the river), and the West Lake has been “beautified”, liberated, and renewed. The city of Huizhou develops to the north of the Yangtze River, and the threat of great destruction is relieved from the West Lake. Facts have proved that urbanization construction around the lake, such as Kunming moving towards Dianchi Lake, and Zhaoqing urban area moving towards Xinghu Scenic Area... Such measures will seriously infringe on the West Lake landscape, and must attract the attention or improvement of the parents of these cities. .
2. Developers wantonly enclose land and build without restrictions, encroaching on good mountains and rivers, which is when the water surface of urban lakes accelerates to death. For example, the development of Australian Villa, Shanshui Haoting and other residential communities in Guangzhou caused great damage to the natural landscape; some villas were built in the core areas of Luhu Scenic Area, and public landscape gardens became private property. It is a very unfair manifestation of society. There is no need to build commercial housing to build good mountains and rivers. The real point is to improve the poor landscape by building commercial housing.
3. Modern municipal engineering is violent. Due to the large land use, large volume, and deep turning of the land, it is often easy to completely change the landscape elements of a natural and ecological historical location (region). Not only are the historical topography and landforms gone, but the humanistic elements contained in them have also been completely destroyed. The scale of the project is larger than that of lakes and mountains. Without protection planning and careful design, even the geographical scale environment can be easily destroyed.
4. Lack of protection of water conservancy facilities. Water bodies are weak and can easily be invaded and destroyed. "West Lake culture" or the West Lake landscape contains the accumulation of numerous humanistic and historical contents. Even if the water surface of the West Lake and the lakeshore are still there, eradicating the inherent cultural landscape and replacing a few simple squares and hard slope protection cannot make up for the spiritual emptiness. Xuchang's Little West Lake, "Although it is small, it is also Western" (Su Shi), first flourished in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and is related to Ouyang Xiu, Fan Zhongyan, Sima Guang and others. When Cao Cao "held the emperor hostage to order the princes", he trapped Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty here. Unfortunately, it has now declined into a small ditch on the side of the road.
5. The government is unwilling to relocate. "There are many monks on famous mountains in the world" is not a derogatory statement. Religious activities have developed scenic spots. Mr. Guo Moruo later deduced: "The most famous mountains in the world are occupied by bandits" and "the most famous mountains in the world are occupied by soldiers". Finally, "the most famous mountains in the world are occupied by officials" and "the most occupied by merchants" are really not complimentary. In order to renovate the scenery of Hangzhou West Lake and restore the original appearance of West Lake, it took eight years to persuade certain agencies to relocate. It can't help but make people feel sad!
5. The return of the soul of "West Lake Culture"
The human settlement environment needs "West Lake Culture". In history, the reputation effect, location effect, landscape effect, celebrity effect, literary effect, and scenic effect of Hangzhou, Huizhou, Yingzhou and other West Lakes have attracted everyone's yearning and praise all over the world. Today's urban scenery contains very little "West Lake culture". How to create a new era of "West Lake Culture" requires hard thinking.
1. Formulate scientific and reasonable urban development plans and protect wetland parks and gardens. The plan first reflects the ideological pursuit and preferences of local leaders. The correction of any wrong decision can only wait for the decision-maker (department) to correct it himself, and others have no ability to correct it. A good plan depends on a wise leader. The "Hangzhou Historical and Cultural City Protection Plan (Draft for Review)" passed expert review in 2004. One of the reviewers, Professor Mao Zhaoxi, was filled with emotion. He said: "We have been waiting for this plan for 21 years!" After 21 years, which is equal to 1/5 of a century, Hangzhou's planning took the right path, and West Lake was liberated and reborn.
It is a historical progress to transition from "three sides are cloudy mountains and one side is a city" to "Hangzhou is becoming less and less like Hangzhou", to "freeing up the old city and amassing wealth for the country" and "moving towards the Fuchunjiang era".
Huizhou West Lake corrected the city’s fate of chewing on the West Lake only after the urban planning was promulgated in 1989. The lake and the city each have their own development directions and goals. After years of management, West Lake was finally awarded the title of National Scenic Area, and the city has also achieved considerable development towards the north of the Yangtze River.
Once upon a time, we often heard calls to “save the Li River” and “save the Royal City”. In the final analysis, it is the contradictions in the planning that trouble people, mountains, and water. The problem was alleviated only when a mayor who liked to focus on industry in Guilin's landscape was promoted or relegated.
Guangzhou’s planning has undergone new development after some demonstrations. By widening the distance, the large group plan alleviated many conflicts. Guangzhou can also clearly learn from Hangzhou: preserve the old city, build a new city, expand the West Lake (similar to the West Lake), and "free up space in the old city to make money." "The new will be replaced by the new, and the old will have its own flavor." It's a pity that the ancient city of Mingcheng is still undergoing demolition and construction. This dangerous approach will completely wipe out the historical district, and it has not yet aroused enough awareness among the authorities.
2. Let more people, first of all leaders, be good at discovering the beauty of the West Lake. It's not that there's no beauty around people, it's that they lack the eyes to discover beauty. Many of the beauties of the West Lake that became world-famous back then were mostly discovered and created by intellectuals who were exiled or demoted. These people are in trouble, calm-minded, anxious about people's needs, and less utilitarian. Their profound artistic planning literacy enables them to make wise decisions.
The old rule of Yacheng was to expand the fence and expand the fields, leaving the West Lake with green waves. Su Shi was good at dealing with the relationship between cities and mountains and rivers, and he was also very concerned about the development and utilization of water resources when he was in Qiongzhou. Jiang Fengchen, a native of the Qing Dynasty, said: "Once Po Gong was relegated to Nanhai, the world would not dare to ignore Huizhou." Huizhou, which the rulers regarded as "the home of barbarians and the land of miasma" where officials were demoted and punished, became a scenic state because of Su Dongpo.
Bai Juyi was also a poet who was close to the people and nature. He left poems about managing mountains and rivers and creating the beauty of lakes and mountains in Suzhou, Hangzhou, Lushan and other places. Liu Zongyuan, Han Yu, Ge Hong, Niu Shuiru, Li Deyu, Tang Geng, Chen Zhirou, Chen Pengfei, Su Che and other literati all left their aesthetic concerns for the West Lake because of their demotion.
3. Carry out a nationwide movement to build a landscape ecological city and carry forward the cultural spirit of West Lake. Building a landscape ecological city and a garden city is to carry forward the "West Lake cultural spirit". Protect lakes and build wetland parks. The ecological functions, temperature and humidity regulation functions, flood and drought prevention functions, plant protection and animal protection functions, and aesthetic functions of the lake can be fully brought into play. Municipal projects should become scenery that decorates rivers and mountains. The beauty of the West Lake is the beauty of the people, the beauty of nature, and the beauty of human kindness and scale. The obligatory responsibility of the citizens of the city is to create, protect and inherit the beauty of West Lake culture.
4. Let all the West Lake scenic spots in the world become the carrier of folk culture, national culture and art. China's lake scenery, especially the West Lake scenery around big cities, should become the carrier of local ethnic culture and art, folk culture and art. Whether it is material or non-material, whether it is static or dynamic, the urban West Lake should be a big stage, a big cultural and art museum, and a historical relic museum. There should be fewer Roman columns and less hard squares. Let foreign friends feel that this is China's lake and the Chinese nation's lake as soon as they see the West Lake. "West Lake Culture" is the most beautiful water culture of the Chinese people