As a world famous historical and cultural city, Suzhou has accumulated the charm of Wu culture for more than 2500 years. Around 1 1 century BC, the local tribe called itself "Wu Gou" and Suzhou called it "Wu". In 5 14 BC, He Lv, the king of Wu, established his capital here, and its scale and status have not changed so far, which is rare in the world.
There are not only magnificent lakes and mountains here, but also picturesque scenery in the south of the Yangtze River with small bridges and flowing water-Suzhou, known as the "land of plenty in the south of the Yangtze River", is rich and beautiful, and is one of the first 24 historical and cultural cities announced in China. Suzhou has been the economic and cultural center of Jiangnan since ancient times, with complete urban pattern, beautiful scenery and unique natural landscape. This is a famous tourist attraction. Suzhou gardens, which are world-renowned, adopt the method of shrinking the landscape, giving people the artistic effect of seeing the big from the small, and winning the reputation of "garden city" for Suzhou.
The history of Suzhou classical gardens can be traced back to the gardens of King Wu in the Spring and Autumn Period in the 6th century BC. Private gardens were first recorded in Dongjiang Garden in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (4th century). Gardens flourished in past dynasties, with more and more famous gardens. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Suzhou became the most prosperous area in China, with private gardens all over the ancient city. 16 ~ 18 At the peak of the century, there were more than 200 gardens in Suzhou, and now dozens of them are well preserved, making Suzhou known as a paradise on earth.
As typical classical gardens in Suzhou, Humble Administrator's Garden, Lingering Garden, Master's Garden and Huanxiu Mountain Villa were all born in the heyday of private gardens in Suzhou. They have become models and representatives of many classical gardens in Suzhou with their profound artistic conception, exquisite construction, elegant art and rich cultural connotation. Suzhou is famous for its gardens, which makes people lament the exquisite gardening. Classical gardens represented by Humble Administrator's Garden, Lingering Garden, Netlion Garden and Huanxiu Mountain Villa were listed in the World Cultural and Natural Heritage List on199765438+February. Canglang Pavilion was added in 2000.
Lion Forest, Lovers Garden, Art Garden and Retreat Garden are world cultural heritages. Canglang Pavilion, Lion Forest, Humble Administrator's Garden and Lingering Garden represent Song (960 ~ 1276), Yuan (127 1 ~ 1368) and Ming (1368 ~/kloc) respectively. The artistic style of Qing Dynasty (A.D.1644 ~191) is called "Four Famous Gardens" in Suzhou. An important feature of Suzhou Garden is that it is not only the product of history and culture, but also the carrier of China's traditional ideology and culture. Suzhou gardens are manifested in the naming, plaques, couplets, stone carving, decoration, as well as the meaning of flowers and trees and the feeling of overlapping stones. They are not only exquisite works of art to decorate gardens, but also store a lot of historical, cultural, ideological and scientific information, and their material and spiritual contents are extremely profound. Some reflect and spread various philosophical concepts and schools of thought such as Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism; Some preach the philosophy of life and cultivate noble sentiments; With the help of classical poems and literary works, the landscape is embellished, germinated and rendered, so that people can turn the landscape into feelings, produce artistic beauty and obtain spiritual satisfaction in the process of living and sightseeing. The park has a well-preserved collection of calligraphy works by famous calligraphers in China, which is a precious work of art with high cultural value. In addition, Suzhou Classical Garden, as the first house garden in China, reflects the life style and etiquette of folk living and leaving their relatives in the south of the Yangtze River in ancient China, and is the material for understanding and studying the folk customs in the south of the Yangtze River in ancient China.
Suzhou classical gardens have always been called "literati gardens". Bai Juyi said in the Collection of Caotang: "Building the land is a platform, gathering boxing stones is a mountain, and fighting around the water is a pool", which is the paradigm of literati gardens. Suzhou gardens fully embody the theme of "natural beauty". In the design and construction, various methods are used to organize the space according to local conditions, such as borrowing scenery, comparing scenery, dividing scenery, isolating scenery, etc., resulting in the artistic effect of twists and turns, seeing the big from the small, and alternating reality with reality. Through overlapping mountains to control water, planting flowers and trees, and configuring garden buildings, a poetic landscape garden is formed, and an "urban mountain forest" where man and nature live in harmony is created in the city.
Suzhou gardens are the art of time and history. A large number of plaques, couplets, paintings, sculptures, stone tablets, furniture, ornaments and so on. The garden is full of exquisite works of art that decorate the garden, and all of them contain China's ancient philosophy, cultural awareness and aesthetic taste.
"Rain surprises poetry and dreams of banana leaves", which is a vivid portrayal of Suzhou gardens; "Lotus leaves a book in the wind", which is the best description of garden artistic conception. Classical windows of time have brought us into Suzhou Gardens.