Yuyin Shanfang during the festival

When the long-awaited "Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day" double festival holidays are approaching, we, like other people who love traveling, set off happily. Of course, a family of three generations and four people did not dare to go on the "October 10" holiday. On this day, it was too far to meet the traffic flow, so I chose to travel around Foshan, heading to Yuyin Shanfang in Nancun Town, Panyu District, Guangzhou.

Yuyinshanfang, also called Yuyinyuan, together with Qinghui Garden in Shunde, Keyuan in Dongguan, and Liangyuan in Chancheng, Foshan, are collectively known as the four famous gardens in Guangdong in the Qing Dynasty, and Yuyinshanfang It is the best preserved classical garden among the four famous gardens. It is a typical Lingnan garden architecture and is also a national key cultural relic protection unit.

The four famous gardens in Guangdong were all built in the Qing Dynasty and are all private gardens. Yuyin Shanfang was built in the third year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1864 AD), lasted for 5 years, and was completed in the eighth year of Tongzhi (1869). The former owner of Shanfang, Wu Bin, whose courtesy name was Yantian, was a member of the Qing Dynasty. His official position was the head of the Ministry of Punishment, and he was appointed as a seventh-rank Yuanwai Lang. His two sons were also candidates for examination, so there is a saying that "one subject has three candidates for examination, and father and son are admitted together".

Wu Yantian retired to his fields, lived in seclusion in the countryside, hired famous craftsmen, absorbed the essence of Suzhou and Hangzhou garden architectural art, combined with the style of Fujian and Guangdong garden architectural art, and built this famous garden with distinctive characteristics and eternal fame. In order to commemorate the blessings of our ancestors, we chose the word "Yu Yin" as the name of the garden. Because the garden is located under a remote hillside, it was called "Mountain House" to show humility.

It was 9:30 in the morning when we arrived. It was relatively early for sightseeing in the scenic spot, so there were relatively few tourists in the park. The park is not large, covering an area of ??less than 2,000 square meters, but it has pavilions, bridges, pavilions, winding paths and railings, lotus ponds, rocks, and famous flowers.

We entered the park from the main archway. On the right side are the buildings in the park. Side by side are the Qianju Wugong Temple and Shanyan Wugong Temple. On the left side is the Linggui Pond.

Entering the Shanyan Wugong Ancestral Hall, there are three entrances to the ancestral hall, namely the foyer, the enjoyment hall, and the sleeping hall. But now there are tables, chairs and orchids in the foyer, and an orchid exhibition is going on in the huge patio on the second floor. The winning grades are hung. All kinds of orchids are competing for beauty, and the fragrance is overflowing.

On the inner wall, there are words related to "Benevolence, Righteousness, Courtesy, Wisdom and Trust" posted on it. There are many long tables and chairs in front of it, with paper, pens and other items on them for the opening ceremony. The pen-opening ceremony is one of the four ancient rituals in life. The traditional pen-opening ceremony has been restored here and has become a very distinctive activity in the park.

The most unique thing is that there are two private bookstores, which are elegant and quiet, and full of books. Visitors can browse at will or read carefully here.

Pass the hall and walk through the bamboo path to the garden door of the mountain house. There is a couplet next to the door: it and the two characters "Yu Yin" are the first characters of the upper and lower couplets respectively. The first couplet is "Three bows of room and enough red rain". The ancients used the space of one arrow to describe the distance of a hundred steps. "Bow" means arrows, and three bows means the distance of three hundred steps, which means the garden is very small. "Red Rain" alludes to the continuous flowers and fruits in the entire Yuyin Garden all year round. The second line of the second line, "A corner of the shady sky with deep green clouds," vividly expresses the tree-lined environment in the garden. The characters "zu" and "deep" in the upper and lower couplets deeply express the garden owner's intention to retire and return to his fields.

The layout of Yuyin Shanfang is exquisite. It adopts the techniques of "hiding but not showing" and "shrinking into an inch" to fit the gallery balcony and the stone pavilion bridge of Xuanxie Mountain into three acres of land. The close proximity of mountains and forests creates a wonderful and beautiful environment with gardens within gardens, scenery within scenery, deep and vast.

The garden can be divided into east and west parts: in the center of the east is an octagonal pool, with an octagonal pavilion in the pool, named "Linglong Water Pavilion", which was originally used to compose poems to drink wine and chant the wind and the moon. The place has exquisite octagonal features such as "osmanthus welcomes the rising sun, willow towers are green, wintersweet blossoms are in full bloom, stone forest is close at hand, Hongqiao is reflecting the clear light, lying on a ladle listening to the sound of the piano, orchids in the fruit altar are secluded paths, and peacocks are in full bloom". What is described in this poem is the scenery of the four seasons in Yuyinshanfang.

The northeast corner of the waterside pavilion is dotted with the tall and elegant Peacock Pavilion and Banbian Pavilion (Laixun Pavilion). There are two peacocks in the Peacock Pavilion. They stay inside and there are not many people applauding. It is probably rare to see the peacocks opening their tails. What’s interesting is that there is a ditch under the Peacock Pavilion that surrounds the entire park. Koi carps roam in the water. Maybe the peacock excrement can be fed to the fish? That's probably it.

?The "Laixun Pavilion" next to it is built half-length against the wall, which is very unique.

It's just that these three seal characters are difficult to identify. Two men also guessed here. I said it was "Lai Le Pavilion" and an old man said it was "Lai Meng Pavilion". In short, no one guessed correctly until they got the park's publicity card. Only then did the book have the correct answer, which turned out to be "Lai Xun Pavilion".

In the west, there is a rectangular stone lotus pond as the center. In the south of the pond, there is a simple Linchi annex; in the north of the pond, the main hall is Shenliu Hall. There are two vigorous firecracker flower ancient vines on both sides of the courtyard in front of the hall. Unfortunately, it is not the season for them to bloom, so there is no gorgeous scene of red rain.

Shenliu Hall is a theme building in the garden. It was the place where the former owner of the garden received guests, and it is also the essence of decorative arts and cultural relics. The Manchurian windows on the two walls in front of the hall are antique, the two paintings of birds and flowers in the hall are lifelike, the thirty-two mahogany fan paintings on the side chambers, and the several red sandalwood screens in the Bisha cabinet are all famous wood carving treasures, which contain the poems, paintings and calligraphy of celebrities at that time. Facing each other across the lotus pond, there is a "Linchi Villa" echoing it.

In addition, there is a smaller Yuyuan adjacent to the south of Yuyinshanfang, which is the residential courtyard of Yuyinshanfang. It was built in 1922 by Wu Zhongyu, the fourth-generation grandson of the owner of the garden. It was used to entertain relatives and friends from afar. However, it is said that his eldest daughter and second daughter lived there on the eve of their wedding, so it was also called " Miss Building". There is a boat hall on the ground floor, and a small square pool outside the hall. There is a glass hall on the second floor, which overlooks the mountain courtyard.

In the Wenchang Scenic Area, it is based on Chinese Wenchang culture and inherits the traditional Lingnan gardening techniques. There are two main landscapes: Wenchang Feige and Guabang Qingshan.

Wenchang Pavilion is octagonal in appearance. It looks like four floors, but is actually three floors. The wings are raised and it is majestic. The green hills, rockeries, waterfalls and green trees form an integrated whole. The key is that they use water as the center and build gardens with water to form reflections, which are most beautiful. If you stand at the "Xianqu" pavilion opposite, you can have a clear view of these scenery.

Yuyin Shanfang is truly a treasure of the garden. If you want to find the roots of history and culture, Yuyin Shanfang is a must-visit Lingnan courtyard!