Later, Zhu Yuanzhang expanded the western half as the later adopted son Xiping House. After Mu Ying's death, he was made king of Qian Ning, which was once called Qian Ning Palace.
1403, after Ming Taizu ascended the throne, his second son Zhu was good at fighting. According to relevant data, "it is high to be fearless in times of crisis"
Therefore, Zhu won his heart, so in 1404, Ming Taizu made Zhu the king of Han Dynasty, and the east of the former Han Palace was the "New Han Palace", and named the West Garden of the New Han Palace after Zhu's "Xu", which was called "Xu Garden".
The garden gate of Xuyuan Garden is round, with a brick carving of Xu Yuan on the front, and an inscription of "Yin Lun" on the Youlong wall on the back of the garden gate, which is a typical landscape garden in the south of the Yangtze River.
Entering the garden, rockery is one of the main elements of ancient garden architecture in China. Royal gardens in the north of China reflect the true mountains and waters, while private gardens in the south often use rockeries and fake waters to reflect the natural charm of gardens.
This big rockery, in the landscape construction, has played a role in restraining the landscape and created a better and better interest.
There are evergreen trees such as Pinus massoniana, Cedar, Sabina vulgaris, Longbai, Osmanthus fragrans, Coral Tree, Podocarpus, Magnolia grandiflora, Loquat Tree, Palm Tree, Ligustrum lucidum and Cinnamomum camphora.
Deciduous trees include ginkgo, paulownia, magnolia, cherry blossom, red maple, papaya, elm, purple plum, locust tree, crape myrtle and so on. Shrubs include begonia, wisteria, cypress, Michelia, Yingchun, Boxwood, Snow Willow, Admiralty, Hydrangea, Mahonia, Chimonanthus praecox and so on.
Bamboo includes Phyllostachys pubescens, Phyllostachys pubescens, Phyllostachys pubescens, etc., and ground cover plants include Ophiopogon japonicus, Lycoris radiata, Manila, Wabas, etc. Among the ancient trees, there are two ancient ginkgo trees on both sides of Taiping Lake. These trees and flowers make the four seasons in the garden changeable and beautiful.
The landscape construction in Xu Yuan is dominated by water. The water body shows a north-south trend. In gardening techniques, in order to break through a single narrow water body, the water surface is naturally divided into three independent and interrelated parts by skillfully using painted boats and pavilions.
The whole Xu Yuan is centered on Taiping Lake, with a length of155m and a width of 52m. It is shaped like a lying bottle with its mouth facing north. The lakeshore is made of bricks and bluestones of Ming city, and there is koi fish in the water. According to Li Boyuan's Notes on Nanting in the late Qing Dynasty, Xiyuan Road:
Enter the park along a winding path, with dozens of acres of square ponds, glass houses, water injection from top to bottom, lively goldfish and vertical and horizontal algae, making it the king of summer vacation.
There are cobblestone paths around the lake, with a length of 3 10 m and a width of 1.5 m.
Wang Ting Pavilion is located in the southwest of Xuyuanyuan, with a square two-story masonry structure. A stone tablet stands on the lower floor of the pavilion, engraved with 1835 "Landscape of Stone Houses in Zijiang, Hunan Province" written by Tao Shu, Governor of Liangjiang, and the words of Xie En, Emperor Daoguang. Therefore, the pavilion is also called the stone pavilion of initiation.
The inscription on the stone tablet is correct and beautiful, and the lines are smooth. There are dragon beads on the back of the stone tablet. The upper floor of the exhibition hall is a platform overlooking the whole park. According to legend, it is a place to watch the palace.
From the bottom of Taiping Lake bottle to Xuyuanmen, Wangting has pebbles 82 meters long and 1 meter wide. There is a rockery with lake stones by the pool in the north of the building, which is a rockery made of stones of the zodiac, and a rockery in the south.
During the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty transformed the Han Palace into the Governor's Office of Liangjiang. During the Kangxi period, the eastern part of the original Han Palace was changed to Jiangning Weaving Department. Cao Yin, the grandfather of Cao Xueqin, the author of A Dream of Red Mansions, once worked as a weaver in Jiangning and was in charge of the weaving industry in Jiangnan.
Because Cao Yin's mother was Kangxi's nanny, the Cao Shi family was very rich at that time, and Cao Yin won the trust and appreciation of Kangxi. Emperor Kangxi went to Jiangnan six times and lived in Jiangning Weaving Department five times.
Until 1727 Cao Jia was copied, Jiangning weaving department lost its former prosperity and began to decline. During the Qianlong period, the weaving department was expanded into a palace, and a magnificent palace was built on the basis of the West Garden.
I forgot that Feiting Pavilion was built in this period. Forgetting to fly pavilion is located on the east bank of Taiping Lake. There are three trees in the pavilion, with a waterside pavilion in the middle, which extends into the lake and faces the water on three sides. At the top of the Forgetting Flying Pavilion is a shed-like red paint pillar, surrounded by railings and seats for people to rest. The waterside pavilion has independent walls and cloisters. Osmanthus fragrans, banana and bamboo are planted in the courtyard, and rockeries are dotted among them, which is quite elegant.
There is a plum blossom in the corner of the eaves, and a happy magpie is parked on the plum blossom, as if the magpie really stopped there, watching its beautiful reflection in the water and forgetting to fly.
Legend has it that after the completion of the Forgetting Flying Pavilion, the plum blossom birds carved on the roof were lifelike, which attracted birds to perch beside them, see the beautiful scenery in the garden and appreciate their reflection in the water, so they forgot to fly, hence the name Forgetting Flying Pavilion.
Pavilions and pavilions in Xu Yuan Gardens are also very cleverly arranged. All kinds of buildings emphasize that east and west buildings face each other across the bank, and there are points and gatherings. Although separated, the scenery is natural and harmonious. Jia Xi Building faces Wang Feige across the lake. This building is a two-story rolling shed, which is located on the top of the mountain and surrounded by water on three sides.
There is a very famous stone tablet on the right side of the entrance to Xu Garden. This is a poem tablet of a night-mooring near maple bridge written by Yu Yue, which is said to have been moved by Hanshan Temple in Suzhou.
Yu Yue, a famous scholar in the late Qing Dynasty, was called Ziqu Garden. In Poem Monument, Yu Yue told us that Jiang Feng in the poem Jiang Feng in a night-mooring near maple bridge, written by Tang Dynasty poet Zhang Ji, was actually "Jiang Chun" and later generations mistook it for "Jiang Feng".
Of course, Yu Yue is only telling people this fact here, instead of emphasizing the transformation from Jiangfeng to Jiang Chun. This can be seen in the more rigorous academic attitude.
Nanjing Xu Yuan Garden Gate