Suzhou gardens began in the Spring and Autumn Period and flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. They have been the representatives of poetic Jiangnan since ancient times. After thousands of years of wind and rain, there are still more than 100 classical gardens in Suzhou, among which 9 gardens, such as Humble Administrator's Garden, Lingering Garden and Master Garden, have been rated as world cultural heritage by UNESCO.
Holding the secluded mountain all the way, I was between the city and the city. Being in the garden courtyard in the center of Suzhou feels quiet and leisurely, which makes people "get out of the city, enjoy the mountains and rivers, and get the interest of the nymphs in the downtown area". Stop-and-go, tourists will inevitably be confused: in the bustling city where natural scenery is scarce, how can Suzhou gardens be appreciated, visited and lived?
Thirty thousand hectares of Taihu Lake is cut into a corner, and seventy-two peaks are cut into a garden. This is Suzhou Garden.
"Being Kun at Close Range"
More than 2,500 years ago, during the Spring and Autumn Period, He Lv, the king of Wu, took the lead and ordered Wu Zixu, a doctor, to build a big city in He Lv, and the history of Suzhou's city building began. Since then, the Wu royal family has built a large number of gardens, such as Lake and Gusutai, which started the tradition of building royal gardens in Gusu City. With the war, most of the private courtyards of gentry and officials in Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties remained.
In the early spring, the fragrance is fragrant in Wang Shi Garden in the southeast corner of Suzhou City. This garden, covering an area of about 8 mu, is a model of small and medium-sized gardens in the south of the Yangtze River and is known as "the ultimate principle of small gardens". In front of the cave, under the flower window and beside the rockery, Chimonanthus praecox is in harmony with the garden scenery, which makes people sigh that "it is artificial, but it is so natural."
The elegant landscape of the garden originated from the landscape of Taihu Lake. At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, Hui Zong Emperor Evonne ordered flowers and trees to be collected in Taihu Lake and then transported to Bianjing (now Kaifeng, Henan Province) to build gardens. This matter was done by Zhu CuO, a native of Suzhou. He took the opportunity to extort money and looked for strange stones and flowers everywhere. This is the "Hua Shi Gang" incident in history. It is said that Ruiyunfeng, the former site of Suzhou Weaving Institute, was the remains of Huashigang that was not demolished after the collection.
The exquisiteness of gardens is closely related to craftsmanship. During Yongle period, Kuai Xiang, who presided over the construction of the Forbidden City in Beijing, was from Xiangshan, Suzhou. The craftsmen in Xiangshan are very excellent, and they have the reputation that "the craftsmen in the south of the Yangtze River are all from Xiangshan", while the classical gardens in Suzhou are mostly made by "Xiangshan Gang".
"Rock, flowers and trees, architecture and waterscape are the four core elements of gardening. Gardeners interweave these elements to form countless colorful combinations, which make the garden layers patchy and pleasing to the eye. " Xue Zhijian, director of Suzhou Garden Museum, introduced.
As the writer Ye Shengtao said in the article "Suzhou Gardens", "On the edge of ponds or rivers, neat stone embankments are rarely built, and they are always high and low, and let nature take its course. There are some exquisite stones, or some flowers and plants. This is also to achieve the effect that all angles are paintings. "
Humble Administrator's Garden, built in Ming Dynasty, is the largest garden in Suzhou today. After the imperial envoy Wang abandoned his post and returned to his hometown, he was built on the base of Luguimeng House in Tang Dynasty and the former site of Dahong Temple in Yuan Dynasty. The birth of the famous Dream of Red Mansions is related to the Humble Administrator's Garden. According to legend, Cao Xueqin was born in the garden during the Kangxi period, and teenagers often wandered in the garden. Many scenery descriptions of the Grand View Garden in the book are based on Humble Administrator's Garden.
Standing in the Chinese garden that best represents the characteristics of Humble Administrator's Garden, you can see three small islands made of digging ponds and piling up mountains. The water is gurgling and the trees are layered, giving people the feeling of "winding path leading to a secluded place". Cheng Hongfu, deputy director of the Humble Administrator's Garden Management Office, said that the direction of Humble Administrator's Garden is very long from east to west, while the distance between north and south is only 50 meters. Gardeners divide the whole garden into multiple spaces through stone bridges, water surfaces, islands and other details, so as to achieve the effect of "recreating Gankun in a short distance".
Many courtyards in the Humble Administrator's Garden are inlaid with white walls, dotted with bamboo and stones, leaving more or less blank. Not far from the ancient city garden gathering area, there is a new Suzhou Museum designed by the famous architect I.M. Pei. When you step into it, it seems that you can also feel the fun of watching the garden.
Like Humble Administrator's Garden, the new Suzhou Museum also chooses white as the main color of the building, supplemented by appropriate black and gray, just like the sketch of Chinese painting. The pool is the center of the whole, bounded by the wall of Humble Administrator's Garden in the north. All exhibition halls are surrounded by water, which seems to be built to pursue the artistic conception of classical gardens, and inherit the historical context of garden art in a way of "similar but not similar".
"Harmony between Man and Nature"
At the end of Xianfeng in Qing Dynasty, a soldier suddenly fell into Suzhou. The war lasted more than 10 km, from the canal in the west of the city to the Changmenkou, and the bustling merchant market in the past became a scorched earth. Outside the wall covered with smoke and dust, a beautiful garden is strangely lonely. This garden was acquired by Suzhou people in the Ming Dynasty and was named "Liuyuan". However, due to its miracle of escaping the disaster of war, later generations gradually crowned it as "staying in the garden".
When you walk into the Lingering Garden, you can feel Liu's style. According to historical records, Liu Shu is "good at silent color, but he likes flowers and stones". He wrote his own chapter "Standing proudly at Twelve Peaks" and nicknamed himself "Whispering at Twelve Peaks". Now you can find twelve strange stone peaks collected by Liu Shu in the garden. The shape of the rock is primitive and rough, revealing his natural interest in carving.
In the eyes of scholar Wang, "Gardens are as picturesque as books and need to be read carefully". Li Acheng, a Suzhou resident over 40, has a deep understanding of this. For more than 40 years, he has lived around several gardens in the old city. "The city has a large population and few natural scenery. Suzhou gardens are people's yearning for nature and a creation of pursuing harmony with nature. " Li Acheng said.
Li Acheng's observation reflects the concept of "harmony between man and nature" in China's classical philosophy behind Suzhou gardens, that is, everything is integrated with man, and man and nature coexist harmoniously. Relying on this concept, stacking mountains and managing water and building flowers and trees are not only for people to appreciate, but also can create an environmental atmosphere in the park that can express feelings for things, mobilize the whole body's senses and communicate naturally.
Such as Humble Administrator's Garden, Lingering Garden and other gardens, the round cave doors can be seen everywhere, all of which are built by imitating the full moon in the sky, placing the poetic complex of China people for a complete life in ancient and modern times. For another example, Yu Dafu, a writer, said in "Suzhou Smoky Rainy Season" that misty gardens have both the romance of raindrops and the feeling of being "far away from the hubbub and elegant."
The naming of pavilions in the garden is also intended to be natural and affectionate. There is a "Lan Xue Hall" in the Humble Administrator's Garden, which is taken from Li Bai's "Independent Heaven and Earth, Breeze in Lan Xue"; The "another village" at the entrance of Liuyuan Cave is taken from Lu You's "There is no way for mountains and rivers to be suspicious, and there is another village in the dark"; The "Moon to the Wind Pavilion" in the master's garden is based on the poem "The Moon to the Heavenly Heart, Wind to Water" written by Shao Yong, a poet in the Song Dynasty. If it is a breeze in Xu Lai, enjoying the moon in the breeze is like swimming in a paradise.
Willow and stone benches are lined up along the pond peach, and you can see the uneven revetment and cornices of the ancient pavilion across the water. This is the Canglang Pavilion with the longest history among the existing gardens in Suzhou. Canglang Pavilion was originally a private garden of Su Shunqin, a scholar in Song Dynasty. Su Shunqin is a close friend of Fan Zhongyan and Ouyang Xiu, and belongs to the school that advocates innovation. Because he was impeached by North Korean officials, he went to Suzhou to live in seclusion and spent 40 thousand yuan to buy land to build Canglang Pavilion.
Ouyang Xiu wrote a long poem "Canglang Pavilion", entitled "The breeze and bright moon are priceless, but it's a pity that they only sell for 40 thousand." Then, take a sentence from Canglang Pavilion and a sentence from Su Shunqin's A Trip to Suzhou that "Qingyang Egrets are complacent, and there are feelings near the water and green mountains", and integrate a pair of couplets that "the breeze and bright moon are priceless, and there are feelings near the water and green mountains" to show the people who are indifferent and carefree.
Poetry and the distance
In the 12th year of Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty, Shengkang, a native of Changzhou, bought Liuyuan, which had escaped, and officially changed its name to Liuyuan, and published the news of its name change in Shenbao. A few years later, the Sheng family reported in the newspaper: "The garden has been renovated. Let people go sightseeing on the second day of this month, and they won't receive money for three days. Starting from the fifth day, everyone will receive 70 items from the garden to pay for future maintenance. " This income-generating marketing strategy has led to an endless stream of visitors.
Looking at peony in spring, lotus in summer, osmanthus in autumn and cold plum in winter, the opening of private gardens has completely liberated the poetry of the world, and tasting gardens has become a portrayal of the beautiful life of contemporary Suzhou people. "Except for the four o'clock scene, you can experience one scene at a time in Suzhou Gardens." Xue Zhijian said, for example, standing in Netscape Garden, as long as you walk into a door, you can see three completely different beautiful scenery.
In the evening, I came to the Canglang Pavilion on the blue masonry board, and the live version of Kunqu Opera Six Chapters of a Floating Life was being staged. The actors performed a poetic Soviet-style life in a different way. The audience followed closely, listening to Wu Nong's soft words. "High and few" is not "harmony". As soon as there is a performance at Canglang Pavilion, almost every performance is bursting with popularity.
From the "poetic" space of spirit, we can see the externalization of gardening wisdom. For example, Suzhou advocates moving from "Suzhou Gardens" to "Garden Suzhou". In the ancient city, citizens can enter the green space within 500 meters. "Urban construction should emphasize respecting nature, adapting to nature and protecting nature," said Shao Lei, deputy director of Suzhou Landscaping Administration.
Western gardens emphasize human will and order, and you can see a large area of artificial lawns, trimmed hedges, fountains and symmetrical layout. Gardens in China pay more attention to the texture and form of nature, such as Taihu Stone, which pays attention to "leaking thin and wrinkling", flowing water and winding nature, and ancient trees are planted with intertwined roots.
From 65438 to 0899, British botanist Wilson set foot in China to collect and introduce flowers and plants. After years of searching and traveling, he indulged in unique flowers and gardens all over the country, and wrote a book "China-Mother of Gardens", which made China gardens world-famous.
From June 5, 20438 to October 2020/KLOC-0, the Liu Fang Garden of Huntington Library was opened to the public after its expansion. Suzhou garden, the largest and most comprehensive overseas, covers an area of 72 mu, with pavilions, bridges and couplets. Known as the "sister garden" of the Humble Administrator's Garden. "If you are attractive, you will be attractive in the world." Suzhou gardens have long abandoned narcissism. Replicas similar to Liu Fang Gardens have "crossed the ocean" again and again, making this splendid China culture appreciated by the world.
There is a "Temple of Spring" in Master Wang Garden, which is a unique scenery. Bananas, bamboos and wintersweet are planted outside the three back windows, symbolizing summer, autumn and winter. The "Dianchun" on the door plaque refers to peony flowers blooming in late spring. Together, the four seasons are a wonderful combination of nature and humanity.
As early as more than 40 years ago, Xuan Ming, based on the prototype of the erotic palace, went abroad and was completed at the Metropolitan Museum, becoming the first China garden to be exported overseas. So far, more than 50 Suzhou gardens and models have taken root and sprouted all over the world.