Taoran Pavilion is a famous pavilion in Qing Dynasty, and now it is one of the four famous historical pavilions in China.
In the thirty-fourth year of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1695), Jiang Zao, a doctor from the Ministry of Industry, was ordered to supervise the Black Kiln Factory. He built a small pavilion in the west of Cibei Nunnery, and named it after the word "Tao Ran" in Bai Juyi's poem "Let's wait for the chrysanthemum family to ripen, and get drunk with you." Taoranting Park and Taoranting area are named after this. This small pavilion is very popular with literati, and it is known as "the place where Zhou Hou borrowed flowers and the right army repaired the grass", and it is also regarded as a must-see place by literati from all over the country who came to Beijing. During more than 2 years in the Qing Dynasty, this pavilion enjoyed a long-lasting reputation and became one of the best in the capital. Taoranting is three rooms wide and one and a half rooms deep, covering an area of 9 square meters. There are Soviet-style paintings on the pavilion, and the beams in the house are decorated with landscape flowers and birds. On the two girders, there are painted "Colorful Chrysanthemum", "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea", "Taibai Drunk" and "Liu Hai Playing Golden Toad". There are three plaques on the pavilion, one is written by Jiang Zao, a pavilion builder, the other is the words "Xijiang Moon, Looking at the West Mountain in Taoranting" written by Qi Baishi, and the other is the Chinese character of Guo Moruo's title "Taoranting Park", which hangs on the east post. This couplet was written by Lin Zexu. There are no old couplets, but now the couplets are re-written by contemporary calligrapher Huang Miaozi. The pavilions are hung with "a bright eye, half an acre of red-violet marsh, fireworks and a cool breeze in Bai Yue". Now couplets are written by Kang Yong, a modern calligrapher. "No one came to the ancient temple where the smoke was hidden, and the moon came to the couch." This couplet was written by Weng Fanggang. During the Guangxu period, Jingming, the host of Cibei Nunnery, asked Weng Tonghe, the teacher of Guangxu Emperor, to rewrite it.
There are four stone carvings on the north and south walls of the pavilion, one is the quotation and postscript of Tao Ran Yin written by Jiang Zao, the other is the Story of Tao Ran Pavilion written by Jiang Gao, the third is the preface of Tan Sitong's Thinking of Old Inscriptions in the South of the City, and the fourth is the Small Collection of Tao Ran Pavilion, which was written by Wang Chang. The bamboo gentleman in the poem is Zhu Yun. This poem was written by Wang Chang in Qianlong for about forty years. After the completion of Taoranting, Jiang Zao often invited some literati, colleagues and friends to Taoranting to have a banquet and compose poems, which turned it into a "clean world in the world of mortals". Therefore, Taoranting is a place where literati gather elegantly, so there are many poems left, such as those left by Qiu Jin and Gong Zizhen.
Taoranting and Cibei Nunnery face the lake on three sides, facing Lancui Pavilion on the central island in the east, facing Yaotai across the lake in the north, and facing Yunhua Building and Qingyin Pavilion in the west. Boats are rippling on the lake, lotus flowers are blooming, and the breeze is blowing on the face, which makes people look Tao Ran.
There are many famous historical sites around Taoranting. There is Ryujuji in the northwest, and there are some buildings in the temple, such as Jianpan, Tianni Pavilion, Kanshan Building and Baobing Hall. Celebrities often relax here, and their popularity is comparable to that of Taoran Pavilion after the Daoguang period. In the southeast, there are Black Dragon Pool, Longwang Pavilion, Nayi Temple, Cimei Garden and Zuyuan. There is Fengshi Garden in the southwest; There is a kiln platform due north; There are incense tombs and parrot tombs in the northeast, as well as the tombs of drunken Guo and Saijinhua in modern times. Most of these historical sites were produced earlier than Taoranting, and some even earlier than Cibei Nunnery. They all have a history of literati chanting, and they have had their own glorious periods.
The modern Taoranting has a glorious historical chapter. Before and after the May 4th Movement, Li Dazhao, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, the founders and leaders of China's * * * production party, came to Taoranting successively for revolutionary activities. On January 18th, 192, Mao Zedong and the members of the "Auxiliary Society" gathered in Beijing to discuss the struggle to expel Zhang Jingyao, a warlord in Hunan. After the meeting, they took a group photo in front of the pagoda tree outside the mountain gate of Cibei Nunnery. On August 16th, 192, progressive groups such as Tianjin "Enlightenment Society" and Beijing "young chinese Society" discussed the direction of revolutionary struggle after May 4th and the joint struggle of various groups in the North Hall. In July and August, 1921, Li Dazhao rented two south rooms in Cibei Nunnery through Chen Yusheng, a member of young chinese Society, under the name that his wife Jin Qixin was buried in the tomb of Mrs. Shou beside Taoranting, and conducted secret activities here. By 1923, Deng Zhongxia, Yun Daiying and Gao Junyu often attended the meeting. Tao Ranting was once a witness to the love between Gao Junyu and Shi Pingmei, and they were buried here later, and the "ice-snow friendship" has been passed down to this day!