Source: Taihai Net
Togetsutei
Shuzhuang Garden
Twelve cave days
Forty-four bridges
Lin Erjia, formerly known as Chen Shizi, was the eldest son of Chen Zongmei, the fifth son of the famous Xiamen anti-British general Chen Shengyuan, and passed to the famous Banqiao Lin family in Taiwan at the age of 6. As a result, Lin Erjia lived in the Itabashi Lin family garden from the age of 6 to 20. At the age of 21, Lin Erjia followed his father Lin Weiyuan and settled in Xiamen. During his stay in Xiamen, although Lin Erjia held many official positions, he was indifferent to fame and wealth, did not tend to be inflamed, and devoted himself to industrial salvation. As a well-known and wealthy businessman, he not only gave charity and served the villagers, but also attached importance to education and established schools.
Since ancient times, Chinese gardens have been the spiritual sustenance of literati and inkers, and there is an endless stream of words and lyricism. When the owner of the garden builds the garden, he often personally participates in the design and places his spiritual ideals in the garden through the landscape sketches of the garden. And Lin Erjia's way of pinning on homesickness after entering the year of confusion is to imitate Taiwan's Banqiao Lin Family Garden and open up a private garden - Shuzhuang Garden.
Shuzhuang Garden is located at No. 7 Gangzai Hou Road, Gulangyu Island, Xiamen, and is the only private garden in the world that integrates mountains, sea and lake. Its garden name "Shuzhuang" is taken from the homonym of the owner of the garden "Shu Zang", and also contains the meaning of "Dao Shu Master Manor", which is Lin Erjia's nostalgia for the early experience of his ancestors in Taiwan by reclamation to make a living and make a family. In 1913, the Shuzhuang Garden was completed, and Lin Erjia wrote in the "Records of the Shu Manor": "The former residence of the Yu family in Taipei, the Banqiao Villa... Looking east at the old garden, dreaming of dreams... Self-operated, heavy nine completed, known as Shuzhuang..." reveals endless bitterness, this is the longing for the hometown and homeland, but also the sentimentality of the division of the family and country.
So, how did Lin Erjia connect with Taipei's Banqiao Lin Family Garden through Gulangyu Shuzhuang Garden? And how to place nostalgia through Shuzhuang Garden?
Shuzhuang Garden is connected to the Banqiao Lin Family Garden by imitating its gardening style, building function, landscape sketch setting and naming, which are all scene reproductions of Lin Erjia's life memories in the Banqiao Lin Family Garden. Just as both gardens have the traditional Jiangnan private garden style, on this basis, they incorporate the local characteristics of Fujian and Taiwan, and at the same time combine Nanyang architecture and Western-style gardens. Both gardens are presented by technical means with regional characteristics under the filter of the owner's personal emotions, through the interpretation of the gardener. Shuzhuang Garden and Lin Family Garden accompany the Lin family's life trajectory of several generations between the two sides of the strait, and an inseparable blood kinship also pulls the friendship of the people on both sides of the strait.
In terms of spatial layout, Shuzhuang Garden can be divided into two parts: Zanghai Garden and Replenishing Mountain Garden, and "Zanghai" implies that the mountains and rivers are brought into the embrace of the motherland, and must not be separated by others; "Replenishing mountains" artificially embellishes the lack of natural scenery, implying that mountains and rivers are broken and in urgent need of repair. In the old days, five scenes were built, the five scenery of the Tibetan Sea were Meishoutang, Nonqiu Pavilion, Zhenbao Pavilion, Forty-Four Bridge, and Zhaoxiang Pavilion, and the five scenery of the Replenishing Mountain were Stubborn Stone Mountain House, Twelve Cave Heavens, Yiai Wulu, Tingchao Tower, and Xiaolan Pavilion. Later, Xiaobanqiao, Duyue Pavilion, Qianbo Pavilion, Xichun Pavilion, Mao Pavilion, Umbrella Pavilion and other landscapes were successively built in the park.
Judging from the name of the landscape sketch, Meishoutang is also known as "Tanying Xuan", Taiwan's ancient name Yingzhou, which contains the meaning of homesickness and talking about Ying, and the small banqiao and listening tide building also have a sense of overlooking the sea and listening to the tide and caring for their hometown.
From the perspective of landscape sketch characteristics, the twelve caves are integrated into the twelve zodiac signs of traditional Chinese elements, and the caves are connected, symbolizing the unity and heart-to-heart connection of the people of the motherland, and also means that every inch of the motherland is an inseparable part and is closely connected, and by building rockeries, trying to fill the broken mountains and rivers of the motherland.
From the point of view of the function of the building, there is a gate under the forty-fourth bridge, when the sea tide rises, open the gate to let the sea water pour into the garden, and when the sea water is about to recede, close the gate and leave the sea water in the garden, as if the entire coastline is the back garden of the owner of the garden. Hiding the sea in your own garden is like trying to protect the mountains and rivers of your motherland in your arms.
Judging from the inscription of the poem union, there is a yang lian in the Duyue Pavilion: "The long bridge supports the sea three thousand zhang, and the bright moon floats in the twelve columns." The moral is: This long bridge is 3,000 zhang, can it lead to my hometown of Taiwan? Can the bright moon of the twelve columns shine on my hometown of Taiwan?
This couplet describes the homesickness of the gardener. Lin Erjia often stands on the edge of the fence and looks at his hometown in the distance, hoping to return to his hometown as soon as possible, and "looking at the sea" has also become an important keyword in his series of homesick poems.
As a material carrier for Lin Erjia to place nostalgia, Shuzhuang Garden contains rich historical information and humanistic connotations. Through landscaping and borrowing, the garden reflects the owner's expectation of the unification of rivers and mountains in the social background at that time, as well as the longing for the Banqiao Ancient Garden. (Fujian Daily)