There are a few questions about the "Three Mountains and Five Gardens" in old Beijing that most people don't know much about

Hello everyone, I am the master of the Beijing Master, mentioning the Three Mountains and Five Gardens in Beijing, it is really no one knows, no one knows. At present, they are defined as the collective name of a number of historical and cultural heritage in the northwest suburbs of Beijing, represented by the royal gardens of the Qing Dynasty. But today, the focus of what I want to tell you is not these, but to talk to you about some of the little-known, and even some of the little-known, and even some people don't know much about them.

Do you know that the "Three Mountains and Five Gardens" of old Beijing have had many different divisions in history? When did the words "Three Mountains and Five Gardens" first appear? Where is the earliest source? What views were they referring to at the time? What is the difference with what it is now? What is the predecessor of the so-called "three mountains and five gardens" at present? What is the process of their development and evolution? When the "Five Gardens" were established, where was the first one built? What is the order and provenance of their construction? During the Qing Dynasty, there were only "three mountains" and "three gardens", when did "three mountains and five gardens" appear later? In old Beijing, the "real name" for them (the late Qing Dynasty) should be "five gardens and three mountains", why is this? Also, have you heard of the "Nine Courtyards of The Western Mountains"? And so on, you can find the answers to these questions in my following articles.

Regarding the origin of the combined name of "Three Mountains and Five Gardens", some scholars believe that "Three Mountains" and "Five Gardens" were originally two independent titles, the former being an "official name" recorded in official history, and the latter being a "common name" used by the people. These two words were only used together later, that is, at the end of the Qing Dynasty. First of all, let's first talk about the word "Three Mountains", which is recorded in the history of Beijing as early as the Ming Dynasty, and during the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, the official position set up the "Admiral Sanshan Yuanwailang", and it was the affairs of the "Three Mountains" that were managed. However, we should pay attention to it here that the "three mountains" at this time are not the "three mountains" of the later "three mountains and five gardens", but refer to the three mountains of Fangshan Ma'anshan, Shunyi NiulanShan, and Huairou Stone Trail Mountain. The "Three Mountains" in the current sense refer to: Xiangshan Mountain, Yuquan Mountain and Wanshou Mountain. This combination only appeared during the Qianlong period. In the poem "Phoenix Pier Puts a Boat into the Palace from the Long River" written by Qianlong in the eighteenth year, that is, in the poem "Four Sides of the Fluttering Sleeves, Three Mountains Smoke Mist Protecting the Kettle State", the "Three Mountains" described are these three.

Let's talk about the term "Five Gardens" next. In fact, "Five Gardens" in the Qing Dynasty, never became a fixed official name, but there is a saying of "Three Gardens" in the historical records. These "three gardens" are the Jingming Garden, which was renamed in the thirty-first year of Kangxi; the Jingyi Garden, named after the eleventh year of Qianlong; and the Qingyi Garden, named after the fifteenth year of Qianlong. After that, the words "Three Mountains" and "Three Gardens" appeared very frequently, becoming official titles and official positions under the administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and often appeared in official books and official records. In short, in the Qing Dynasty, among the official titles, there were only "three mountains" and "three gardens", no "five gardens", and there was no fixed title of "three mountains and five gardens". They should be just folk, generic names for these royal gardens in western Beijing.

The origin of the "Three Mountains and Five Gardens" can be traced back to more than a thousand years ago. As early as the Tang Dynasty, there were already Ji'an and Xiangshan Temples here. According to the "Miscellaneous Records of Wanju", "Myoko Hall, on the right side of the Xiangshan Temple in the west of Wanping County, has existed since the Tang Dynasty. "However, due to the age is too old, the specific matters are difficult to verify for a while." By the Liao and Jin dynasties, the western suburbs of Beijing had gradually become a place of good fortune for emperors and generals, and a large number of gardens and buildings were built here. During the reign of Emperor Taizong of Liao, Zhongcheng (official name) Alji built a mansion here and donated it to the Xiangshan Temple, thus forming the prototype of the current Xiangshan Temple. In the twenty-sixth year of Jin Dading (1186), Kim Sejong merged Xiangshan Temple and Ji'an Temple into one, expanded it, gave it the name Ofong an Temple, and built the Xiangshan Palace. When Jin Zhangzong built the Spring Water Temple on Yuquan Mountain, as a summer retreat, it was called one of Zhangzong's "Eight Courtyards of Xishan", which refers to: 1 Holy Water Temple: it is located in Fenghuangling, now known as HuangpuYuan. 2 Perfume Temple: Located on the mt. Myogao peak, it is now The Fayun Temple, which contains the tomb of Prince YiXuan of The Sage. 3 Jinshui Temple: Located on Balcony Mountain, now known as Jinshan Temple. 4 Shimizu-in Temple: Located at the southern foot of Balcony Mountain, it is now called Dajue Temple. 5 Tan Shui Yuan: Located on the slope of Xiangshan Mountain, it is the location of the current Shuangqing Villa. 6 Spring Water Temple: Located on Yuquan Mountain, it is now called Furong Hall. 7 Shuangshuiyuan: Located in the north of Shuangquan Village, Shijingshan. 8 Lingshui Temple: Located in the north of Cherry Valley Village, it is now called Qiyin Temple. The "Jade Spring Weeping Rainbow" under the Yuquan Mountain Spring Water Courtyard is one of the Eight Scenic Spots of Yanjing in the Jin Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, many dignitaries built a number of private gardens in the western suburbs of Beijing, the most famous of which were Tsinghua Garden and Spoon Garden. It can be seen from this that the "Five Gardens" of the later Qing Dynasty were not built in "one day", but evolved on the basis of many imperial gardens of the previous dynasties.

After the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty ascended the throne, he added and built the Changchun Garden and the Qichun Garden on the basis of the Yuanmingyuan built during the Yongzheng period, and they jointly built the Yuanming Three Gardens. At the same time, Qianlong Ye also rebuilt and expanded, the Jingming Garden on Yuquan Mountain, the Jingyi Garden in Xiangshan Mountain, and the Qingyi Garden, so far, it can be said that the "Three Mountains and Five Gardens" have reached its heyday. In addition to the "five gardens" that we are familiar with, in the heyday, from Haidian Town to Xiangshan, there were also more than 90 places such as West Garden, Xichun Garden, Jingchun Garden, Shuchun Garden, Minghe Garden, Langrun Garden, Hongya Garden, Chenghuai Garden, Zide Garden, Hanfang Garden, Morgen Garden, Prince Cheng's Garden, Prince Kang's Garden, Shou'en Princess Garden, Liwang Garden, Quanzong Temple Garden, Shenghua Temple Garden, etc., the Royal Palace, the Imperial Garden and the Garden of The Imperial Garden. These gardens and the "five gardens" together are each other's scenery, mutual borrowing, stretching for more than 20 miles, magnificent.

Speaking of the "Three Mountains and Five Gardens" of old Beijing, to be precise, they were "nouns" that appeared in the middle and late Qing Dynasty. In the folk, there have been three different divisions of them, and the currently recognized divisions for them are: the three mountains refer to Wanshou Mountain, Xiangshan Mountain, and Yuquan Mountain; the Five Gardens refer to Jingyi Garden, Qingyi Garden (now the Summer Palace), Jingmingyuan, and there are also the nearby Changchun Garden and Yuanmingyuan. The second division holds that the scope of the five gardens does not include the three gardens of Jingyi Garden, Jingming Garden, and Qingyi Garden. Instead, it refers to the five gardens of the Yuanmingyuan, Changchun Garden, Qichun Garden (the three were later collectively known as the Yuanmingyuan), Changchun Garden and West Garden (both of which were later collectively called Changchun Garden). The third sub-rule is to exclude Changchun Garden, believing that the Yuanmingyuan, Changchun Garden, Qichun Garden, and Chunheyuan (also known as Chunxiyuan, from the late Qianlong dynasty to the Jiaqing Dynasty, successively divided into Shuchun Garden (Shuchun Garden), Minghe Garden, Langrun Garden, Jingchun Garden, now on the campus of Peking University) and Xichun Garden (Xianfeng Dynasty split into Xichun Garden and Near Spring Garden, in the campus of present-day Tsinghua University) are the "Five Gardens", the reason for this statement is that the Five Gardens and the Three Mountains are for the Emperor to visit, and the Changchun Garden is the garden where the Empress Dowager lives. Should not be included.

Regarding the term "three mountains and five gardens", the first appearance in the document was in the qing xianfeng decade, that is, in 1860, the year when the British and French coalition forces burned the Yuanmingyuan. In the "Manuscript of Supplementary Bamboo Xuan Poems" written by a scholar named Bao Yuanshen, it records the scene of the burning of the imperial garden in western Beijing by the British and French forces in 1860, that is, " In early September, yiren burned five gardens and three mountains, and the beautiful scenery inside and outside the Yuanmingyuan was simmered. This sentence is the earliest record we have seen about the "five gardens and three mountains". It can be seen that at that time, these scenery was collectively called "five gardens and three mountains", rather than "three mountains and five gardens". In 1900, the "Three Mountains and Five Gardens" were looted by the Eight-Nation Alliance, so that the former brilliant royal gardens such as the Yuanmingyuan could no longer reproduce the grand scenery of that year.

Changchun Garden, one of the Three Mountains and Five Gardens, was first built in the 29th year of the Kangxi Dynasty, and the original site was formerly the grandfather of the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Li Wei, the Marquis of Wuqing in the Ming Dynasty, who built a private garden garden, which was also known as the "First Garden of the Beijing Division" by people at that time. It was also the first summer palace built by the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty on the northwestern outskirts of Beijing. The name is "Changchun Garden", which means "spring at four o'clock", "eight winds coming to the dynasty" and "six qi access".

The Jingmingyuan garden of Yuquan Mountain, the earliest building, is the Yuquan Mountain Palace built during the Jin Zhangzong period of the Jin Dynasty, also known as the Furong Hall. In the 31st year of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty, the original Yuquan Mountain Palace was renovated and expanded, and the original "Chengxin Garden" was renamed "Jingming Garden". It is an annex to the Summer Palace. After the founding of New China, the Jingmingyuan was used by the organs.

The Yuanmingyuan was founded in the 46th year of the Qing Dynasty. Later, he gave it to the fourth prince Yongzheng. After the continuous expansion and improvement of the emperors of the Five Dynasties from Yongzheng to Xianfeng, a large-scale imperial garden known as the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens" was built. It is the largest of the Three Mountains and Five Gardens. It was once known as "a model of all gardening art".

Xiangshan Jingyi Garden, which began as the palace of the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, was expanded in the Qianlong Decade. The main peak of the incense burner peak, commonly known as "ghostly sorrow". Now it has been opened into Xiangshan Park, which has become a famous tourist attraction in western Beijing.

Wanshou Mountain Qingyi Garden is the predecessor of the Summer Palace. In the fifteenth year of the Qianlong Dynasty, it was built to celebrate the sixtieth birthday of the Empress Dowager. In the fourteenth year of Guangxu (1888), it was renamed "Summer Palace". The whole garden is based on Kunming Lake and Wanshou Mountain, based on Hangzhou West Lake, and built by absorbing the design techniques of Jiangnan Gardens. Although it was built the latest among the five gardens, the royal style embodied in the Summer Palace was the most outstanding.

Since the Qing Dynasty, the Three Mountains and Five Gardens, in the order after the final expansion, are: first there is the Changchun Garden in the twenty-ninth year of Kangxi (1690), then the JingmingYuan in the thirty-first year of the Qing Kangxi (1692), followed by the Yuanmingyuan in the forty-sixth year of Kangxi (1707 AD), the Jingyi Garden in the eleventh year of Qianlong (1746), and the Qingyi Garden in the fifteenth year of Qianlong (1750).

The Three Mountains and Five Gardens are the shining pearls in China's historical and cultural heritage, they are the masters in the history of The Development of Chinese Gardens, and they are masterpieces in the history of world gardening. Each of these gardens, not only because of the unique gardening techniques, but also because it condenses the concepts, memories and traditions of traditional Chinese culture, carries the spiritual pursuit of the Chinese nation for thousands of years, and witnesses the glory and disgrace and rise and fall of the Chinese nation in the past hundred years.

Well, I'll talk to you about how much today, and we'll see you later.