In "Interesting Suzhou Garden "Three Treasures" (Part 1)" (click to view the first part), we have an understanding of the "Three Treasures" of the Gardens of Suzhou Humble Administrator's Garden, lion forest and Master of Nets Garden. Many people did not expect that in the gardens that everyone is familiar with, there are such interesting stories, and we still have many things we don't know about garden stories.
In this article, I see Jun again leading everyone to understand the "Three Treasures" of the Coupling Garden, the Lingering Garden, and the Retreat Garden.
Coupled Garden Three Treasures
Yellowstone rockery
The coupling garden was formerly called "Wading Garden", and the name of the garden was taken from Tao Yuanming's "Return" in "Garden Day Wading into Fun". Among them, the Yellowstone rockery is one of the characteristics of the coupling garden. The ancients had a very vivid description of the Yellowstone rockery in the coupling garden: it should be true and not fake, it should be neat and not broken, highlighting the peaks and highlights, and the stone patterns were carefully matched. The Tao is also that the real mountain is like a false name, the rockery seems to be real, the stacked stones are broken, and the peaks are broken.
The Huangshi rockery in the coupling garden can be said to be the best product in the Suzhou garden rockery. The entire Yellowstone rockery is high in the east and low in the west, forming a valley in the west called "Yao Valley", and the cliffs on both sides of the valley are like cliffs, which is very imposing. There are pavilions and pavilions on the mountain, and there are also plants suitable for the four seasons, and the scenery of the four seasons is different, which has a different taste.
The cliffs, pedals and canyons of the Huangshi false stone are natural and realistic because of their unique stacking stone techniques, and the stone blocks taken are not the same size, concave and convex, and there are horizontal and vertical directions of staggered stacking, just like the texture of the natural peeling of yellowstone, it is said that it is very similar to the Huangshi rockery in The Shanghai Yu Garden stacked by Zhang Nanyang during the Ming Jiajing period, and it is a relic of the early Qing Dynasty.
woodcarving
The pavilion between the mountains and rivers of the Coupling Garden has a large-scale Qing Dynasty carved ziqi wood "Three Friends of the Year Cold" floor cover, the wood carving is the treasure of the town garden of the coupling garden, spanning 4 meters, about 3 meters high, both sides are carved with pine and bamboo plums, the style is rough, thick and atmospheric.
Through exquisite carving skills, the skilled craftsmen have expressed the meaning of the bamboo cultivation, the vigorous style of green pine, and the cold and beautiful taste of the cold plum, all of which are amazing.
I don't know if when you went to the coupling garden, did you pay close attention to the treasure of this town garden?
Brick carved gatehouse
The coupling garden has three carved brick gatehouses, which stand on the outer wall of the front hall. The first side is "Plains Hidden", implicit but not exposed; the second side is 'Houde Zaifu'; the third side is "Poetry and Wine Party", tasting wine and composing poems, enjoying the fun of landscape and water.
Among them, the third brick carved gatehouse is known as one of the "treasures of the town garden" of the coupling garden, and it is carved with many pictures of ancient Chinese stories. Unfortunately, it was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. If you look closely, you can find that most of the heads of the brick carving figures on the first and second floors have been knocked off, which was said to "not let feudalism look up" at that time!
The simple, elegant, beautiful and dignified Suzhou garden gatehouse brick carving art style not only leaves us with a large number of fine brick carving art works, but also provides a physical object with research value for studying the history of carving, residential architecture and folk culture in Suzhou during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The Three Treasures of the Lingering Garden
Crown Cloud Peak
Guanyunfeng is one of the famous courtyard stones in Suzhou gardens, which fully reflects the characteristics of Taihu stone "thin, leaky, transparent and wrinkled".
Guanyun Peak was originally called Guanyin Peak, a giant Taihu Lake stone peak salvaged during the dredging of the river in the Ming Dynasty, and its reputation is not as good as Ruiyun Peak. When Liu Shu used the site of the East Garden to build hanbi villa, this peak was already located outside the wall on the east side of the garden, although Liu Shu admired and loved this peak stone very much, but because of his inability to acquire land to expand the garden, it became a heart disease for him. In order to satisfy his desire to see Guanyun Peak, Liu Shu's grandson Maogong went so far as to be "addicted" to the stone, and even ingeniously built a small building near the east wall of Hanbizhuang, near Guanyun Peak, so that he could oppose Guanyun Peak on the upper floor, and named this small building "Wangyun".
When Shengkang rectified the Hanbi Mountain Villa and established the Lingering Garden, the area around Guanyun Peak was "turned into a desolate smoke and vine grass due to the chaos of the war, but this peak existed alone." Shengkang purchased the east gap of the garden and these pieces of Taihu stone, and found two giant peaks, the west name Xiuyun Peak, the east name Ruiyun Peak (for the new stone along the old name), separated by Guanyun Peak. Form a layout of one main and two pairs, left and right symmetry, and protruding in the middle, around the peak stone, build a pavilion and pavilion, called the East Garden.
Sheng Xuanhuai, the son of Sheng Kang, once gave the names of these three Taihu stones to the three granddaughters of the family as nicknames, of which Ruiyun unfortunately died when he was a child, and later the next person told Sheng Xuanhuai that Ruiyun Peak was spliced together, and in anger, he knocked off the stone peak, and the broken stone still exists, while Guanyun (Sheng Yuqing, nicknamed Guanyun) was "very healthy because of the auspicious name."
ichthyolite
In the middle of the lower floor of the Lingering Garden Guanyun Building, the inscription "Xianyuan Stops the Clouds", underneath which is inlaid with a gray-black ancient fish fossil with a rectangular glass frame, preserved in hard sedimentary shale.
According to expert research, the ash of this rocky volcanic eruption was deposited in the lake and formed as a Jurassic fish fossil, which has been 150 million years ago. On the fossils, there are more than 20 small fish about 15 centimeters long, these small fish are vivid in shape, some are swimming freely, some are focused on chasing and frolicking together, some are silent and harmonious, the scene is vivid, and it is a warm fish music picture.
The fish fossils in the Lingering Garden are rare ornamental treasures, which not only add color to the classical garden, but also show people the history of vicissitudes and changes as a reliable record hundreds of millions of years ago. Unfortunately, through Baidu search now, you will find that most search results will regard the circular marble seat screen on the west side of the wall in the northwest corner of the Wufeng Immortal Hall as a "fish fossil".
Marble seat screen
The marble seat is screened in the northwest corner of the Wufeng Immortal Hall, which is an extremely rare giant round marble, with a diameter of more than one meter, and is placed vertically under the care of the wooden base.
Its rarity lies in the fact that, first, the volume is large and it is really difficult to find; second, this stone is mined in the Cangshan Mountains in Yunnan, and the stone quality is delicate and can be superior. What is even more amazing is that the stone surface is composed of stone patterns to form a natural landscape painting, on which you can see the rapid decline of waterfalls, trees and green cages, the bright moon in front of the mountain, and so on. Under the viewing, you can taste the taste of "watching the mountain after the rain, and watching the moon before the wind".
The Three Treasures of retreat
Lingbi Stone
It is said that during the construction of the garden, some strange things happened. At that time, when the construction of the lotus pond was almost completed, it was suddenly found that there was a hole with a diameter of about one meter on the side of the pond, and there was a "whirring" sound inside, and everyone did not dare to dig again. At night, there was a "clucking" sound in the cave, and the family and workers immediately prepared to deal with it, but they did not expect to crawl out of the cave with a huge turtle, and also carried a piece of gold and silver treasure to flow out. Ren Lansheng immediately invited Liu Daochang, who was on Mount Jurongmao, to survey things. Liu Daochang exclaimed that it was "treasure land".
However, after two years, the garden was completed. One day, when Ren Lansheng and his wife were visiting the garden, they found that the turtle was facing the sky, motionless, and had died of exhaustion. Ren Lansheng's wife fell ill at this time. Ren Lansheng was anxious, and sent people to quickly increase the whip to ask Liu Daochang. Liu Daochang said that he must find a spirit stone that naturally resembles a turtle and put it in the garden to suppress evil spirits.
At first, I wanted to find Taihu stone, but the governor said that the Taihu stone was too wet. Later, in Lingbi County, where he had served, he found a lingbi stone that resembled a god turtle, and looked at the moon and glowed with golden light. After being brought back to the Garden of Retreat, it was placed by the lotus pond and named "Golden Turtle Looking at the Moon". At this time, the wife's illness was also healed, and the whole family was safe.
Up to now, this Lingbi Stone has stood in the Retreat Garden for more than a hundred years and has become a treasure of the Retreat Garden.
Stone drum text leaks out of the window
In the nine-curved cloister of the Retreat Garden, there are nine leaking windows with different decorative patterns, and the center of each leaky window is inlaid with a stone drum text about one foot square, the words are black, and the connection is: Qingfeng Mingyue does not need to buy a dollar. Taken from the Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai's "Xiangyang Song", it reflects the owner's mentality of advocating nature and pursuing the unity of heaven and man.
Shigu wen belongs to the pre-Qin carved stone script, because of its carved stone shape slightly convex like a drum and named, also known as the great seal, has a history of nearly three thousand years.
"Return to the Word" stele Tuotuo
After the screen in the Retreat Grass Hall, here you can see the inscription of the famous calligrapher and painter Zhao Mengfu of the Yuan Dynasty, "Return to Xi Ci".
"Return to Xi Ci" is a famous lexicography work by Tao Yuanming, a writer, essayist and lexicographer of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The famous books and texts were destroyed for some reason, and they became more and more rare and abnormal.
Suzhou gardens, each with its own charming colors. Next time you are in the garden, why not say goodbye to the form of visiting the flowers. Calm down and look closely at every tree, every window, every carving in the garden... You'll have unexpected surprises.
*The graphic materials are from Suzhou Coupling Garden, Zhang Ming's Silly Blog, Gujian China, Colorful Suzhou Network, Suzhou Lingering Garden, Suzhou Radio and Television News.