Among the many gardens in Suzhou, Master of the Nets Garden is the first one open to visitors at night. At the beginning of the lanterns, wonderful performances such as Kun Opera, Pingtan, Guqin, and folk music are performed that are very representative of Suzhou. It has undoubtedly become the most elegant place in the ancient city at night.
Although the night view of the Master of the Nets Garden is beautiful, I don’t like night tours. It was late spring when I went to the Master of the Nets Garden. In the late spring afternoon, with a bit of laziness and nostalgia for spring, the peonies in the Master of the Nets Garden are in full bloom.
Master of the Nets Garden is hidden deep in a narrow alley, covering an area of ??about eight acres. Its predecessor was the residence of Shi Zhengzhi, a Yangzhou scholar who rose to be a minister during the Chunxi period of the Southern Song Dynasty, after he retired from office and retired. Because he had thousands of books, it was named Wanjuan Hall. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Song Zongyuan, a Suzhou native who was frustrated in officialdom, retired to his hometown of Suzhou and purchased this land to build a garden. It was first named "Nets Master Xiaozhu" and later "Nets Master Garden".
Net Master means fisherman or fisherman, and it means living in seclusion in rivers and lakes. Net Master Garden means "the garden of fishermen and old men", which is quite charming if you think about it carefully.
Master of the Nets Garden is still adjacent to ordinary people’s homes to this day, giving it a “feeling of being hidden away from the city.” Stepping into the inconspicuous carved gatehouse of Master of the Nets Garden and passing through the main hall, the elegance of Jiangnan in the Song Dynasty comes to your face, like a long ink landscape scroll slowly unfolding before your eyes.
The Master of the Nets Garden is a typical mansion garden, with the east house and the west garden centered around water, with terraces and pavilions built near the water. The layout is exquisite, the structure is compact, fresh and charming, and it is a well-deserved Jiangnan garden. It is a representative work of small and medium-sized classical gardens. Some of the current antique gardens are based on it. The first "Mingxuan" in China that was copied overseas came from the Master of the Nets Garden.
The main garden in the middle, with Caixia Pool as the center, is surrounded by corridors, pavilions, and pavilions. There are stacked stones and curved bridges on the banks, which are dense and dense, complementing each other. Ancient trees, flowers, buildings, and mountains The pools complement each other beautifully.
The beauty of the Master of the Nets Garden lies in every inch. Standing in the Yuezhi Fenglai Pavilion, the bank of the pool is low. The rockeries, flowers and trees, and pavilions all around the pool are not tall. The rocks, flowers and trees are not tall, making the water surface appear open, and the mountains and rivers are scattered against each other. It is sparse and elegant, adding to the atmosphere. Beautiful scenery in the garden.
The water in Caixia Pool is as calm as a mirror. The buildings around the pool are of different shapes and beautifully decorated. Their reflections are reflected in the blue waves with the skylight and floating clouds. The breathtakingly beautiful Guanyin Dou gable is here. The reflection in the pond is the most beautiful scene in the Master of the Nets Garden. I was deeply intoxicated by this beautiful scenery.
From the Southern Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, and then to modern times, the Master of the Nets Garden changed hands several times, but each generation cherished the idea of ??being hidden in the city and enjoyed it more, allowing the Master of the Nets Garden to be spread. The scenery in the garden is named after famous poems. It seems that you can smell the fragrance of ink in the garden, and you can also feel the knowledge and magnanimity of the owner of the garden.
Stepping into the Zhuoying Water Pavilion, you can feel the cool breeze and rippling water. "Zhuoying Water Pavilion" is taken from "The Songs of Chu: Fisherman", "The water in the Canglang is clear, and I can wash my tassel; the water in the Canglang is turbid, and I can wash my feet." The owner of the garden used this to describe himself as noble and noble. Unaffected by worldly affairs, he has a pure and noble character.
"A branch outside the bamboo" is taken from the poetic meaning of Su Shi's "Thousands of red-headed trees are about to darken in spring, but a leaning branch outside the bamboo is better". The Xuan is like a light boat, and the tall two-story Jixuzhai, one in front of the other, is scattered and full of changes.
A climbing corridor with undulating heights from south to north is called "Qiaohua Path", which is taken from the Song Dynasty poem "It's not too late to return to the boat, there is a woodcutter wind at dusk." Walking meanderingly in the corridor, you will be surrounded by ripples of clouds and shadows. There are old trees on the north bank and yellow stone hills on the south bank, which is very wild and interesting.
The "Moon Comes to the Wind Pavilion" in the west of the pool is named after Han Yu's poem in the Tang Dynasty, "Autumn is approaching in the evening, and the long wind brings the moon." and Shao Yong in the Song Dynasty, "The moon reaches the center of the sky, and the wind comes." When on the water."
Standing on the small arch bridge and looking at Caixia Pond, why did I fall in love with Master of the Nets Garden at first sight, and even became a little obsessed with it? The garden is only artificially created, and it is not heroic enough. In fact, I think that if you can't see the whole world's scenery, it would be best if you could shrink them into a circle and spread them around so that you can enjoy them in all four seasons.
Follow the promenade to the "Xiaoshan Conggui Xuan". Standing inside the Xuan, you can see the Zhuoying Water Pavilion and the Zhuwai Yizhi Xuan across the water. The pavilions face each other far away. "Hills Cong Guixuan" is inspired by "A hill is full of osmanthus trees" in "Chu Ci" and "A hill is full of osmanthus trees" and "A hill is full of osmanthus trees" in "Ode to a Dead Tree" written by Yu Xin, a prose writer from the Northern Dynasties. Autumn foliage plants such as maples, osmanthus and nandina are planted on the rockery, which is quiet and elegant, creating the artistic conception of "a mountain with clusters of osmanthus trees".
Going west from the flat curved bridge northwest of Caixia Pond, you can see the small gate with the inscription "Tanxi Fishing Hidden" written on it. "Shi's Chrysanthemum Book" published in the second year of Chunxi period reflects Shi Zhengzhi's interest in planting flowers, chrysanthemums, reading and writing in his garden life during the Song Dynasty. Today, chrysanthemums are not planted in the Master of Nets Garden. Peonies and peonies are the featured flowers, but the image of chrysanthemums exists in the garden in another form. On the forehead of the thin brick door of the Chunyi Cave, there are two words "True Meaning", "There is a true meaning in this, but I have forgotten to tell it." Isn't this the inheritance of a literati spirit with noble character like a chrysanthemum.
Dian Chunyi’s small courtyard is exquisite and quaint. It is full of famous peony species, has graceful flowers, flower streets pave the ground, and strange stones for every household. It is a world of its own. "烃" originally means a hut made of bamboo next to a tall house. "Dian Chun" refers to the end of spring. In spring, peony blooms the latest. Su Dongpo of the Song Dynasty wrote a poem: "Thank you to the chemical industry for your pity on loneliness, but the spring breeze of peony palace remains." Dian Chunyan uses poetry to establish the scenery and uses the scenery to understand the meaning. It has the characteristics of neatness, softness, elegance and brightness, simplicity and neatness.
Among the existing Suzhou gardens, the complete Song Garden is almost extinct, but the aesthetic taste of the Song people is not difficult to find in the Master of the Nets Garden. There are three relics of the Song Dynasty in the Master of the Nets Garden, so as I walked along, I deliberately looked for the relics of the Southern Song Dynasty.
I was deeply shocked by the exquisiteness of the Zaoyao Gaoxiang carved gate tower in Master of the Nets Garden. The South Fang of the Zaoyao Gaoxiang brick-carved gatehouse is embedded with a brick-carved family hall, enshrining the tablet of "Heaven and Earth, Lord, Prince, Master". This is the place where the owner worships. Many Suzhou people used to have this arrangement. Today, among all the gardens in Suzhou, only the Garden of the Master of the Nets remains, a relic of the Song Dynasty.
The Yinjing Bridge across the inlet in the southeast of Caixia Pond looks like a crescent moon, small and graceful. Although it is only 2.4 meters in length, it is equipped with stone railings, stone steps and arch holes. It is the smallest arch bridge in Suzhou gardens and can be crossed in three steps, so it is commonly known as the "three-step small arch bridge". Against the background of the small arch bridge, the pond looks even more spacious and vast. The two characters "Panjian" carved in seal script on the wall of the stream on the side of the bridge are also relics of the Song Dynasty. Panjian is taken from the poetic meaning of "The book of songs. Wei Feng. Kaopan", "Kaopan is in the stream, the master's breadth" refers to a place of seclusion in the mountains and forests. There is a book in the garden that records the two "Panjian" The characters are carved from the Song Dynasty.
There are two ancient cypress trees in front of the painting pavilion. One is a white pine with a history of more than 200 years, with intoxicating beauty; the other is said to have been planted by Shi Zhengzhi, the owner of Wanjuan Hall in the Southern Song Dynasty. This juniper tree planted in the northeast corner of the garden is 930 years old and is the oldest existing tree in Suzhou gardens. The ancient cypress is more than ten meters high and is the tallest scenery in the whole garden. Although the top is withered, its three side branches are still alive, like a flying dragon soaring in the sky.
Through the vicissitudes of time, those deceased people and things have long since disappeared in the wind. Being in the Master of the Nets Garden, accompanied by the light breeze, watching the beautiful scenery in the garden, savoring the poetry and painting integrated into the landscape, what you feel is that you are traveling through time and space, approaching your own heart, and then discovering the endless of beauty.