A Stone's Throw Away: Encountering the "Poetry and Faraway" of Suzhou Gardens

This is the Suzhou Master of Nets Garden photographed by drones. Xinhua News Agency expansion film (Photo by reporter Ji Chunpeng)

When it comes to "Suzhou Garden", many people will naturally have imagination in their minds: stepping through a pool of biquan springs, stacking mountain stones, strolling through pavilions and pavilions, winding corridors, holding a lamp of tea, you can lean on the building to listen to the rain and taste the flowers.

Beginning in the Spring and Autumn Period and flourishing in the Ming and Qing dynasties, Suzhou gardens have been representative of the poetic Jiangnan from ancient times to the present. After thousands of years of wind and rain, there are still more than 100 classical gardens in Suzhou, of which 9 are humble administrators, lingering gardens, and master of the nets garden, which have been rated as world cultural heritages by UNESCO.

A trail hugs the mountain, actually between the city. Located in the garden courtyard in the center of Suzhou, it suddenly feels quiet and leisurely, which makes people "get the pleasure of mountains and rivers without leaving the city, and get the fun of forest springs when living in the downtown area". Stop and go, tourists can not avoid confusion: in the downtown area where natural scenery is scarce, how can Suzhou gardens achieve appreciation, tourability and habitability?

Thirty thousand acres of Taihu Lake cut a corner, seventy-two peaks cut a piece, set mountains and rivers in a garden, this is the Suzhou garden.

"A short stay in a great location"

More than 2500 years ago, during the Spring and Autumn Period, King Wu of Wu reigned on the throne and ordered the doctor Wu Zixu to build the great city of Lulu, and the history of the founding of Suzhou began. After that, the Wu royal family built a large number of garden annexes such as Xia Cha Lake and Gusutai, which began the tradition of building royal gardens in Gusu City. With the wars and disputes, most of what remains today is the private family courtyard of the gentry and official Jia during the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.

In early spring, dark incense floats in the Master of Nets Garden, located in the southeast corner of Suzhou City. This garden, which covers an area of about 8 acres, is a model of small and medium-sized gardens in Jiangnan and is known as the "Pole rule of small gardens". In front of the cave, under the flower window, next to the rockery, the plum and the garden scenery are matched into fun, and the scenery is changed step by step, which makes people can't help but sigh "although it is made by people, it is like opening from heaven".

The elegant garden scenery originates from the landscape of Taihu Lake. At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, Emperor Huizong of Zhao ordered the collection of flowers, trees and stones from Taihu Lake, which were later transported to Fenjing (present-day Kaifeng, Henan) to open gardens. This matter was handled by Zhu Xun, a suzhou native, who took the opportunity to extort and extort and search for strange stones and strange flowers everywhere, which is the "Huashi Gang" incident in history. It is rumored that Ruiyunfeng, which is now the site of suzhou weaving house, is the relics of the "Huashi Gang" that were not transported after the collection at that time.

The delicacy of the garden is inseparable from the craftsmanship. During the Yongle years, Ku Xiang, who presided over the construction of the Forbidden City in Beijing, was a Suzhou Xiangshan person, and the Xiangshan craftsmen were exquisite in craftsmanship, with the reputation of "Jiangnan carpentry craftsmen are all from Xiangshan", and the classical gardens in Suzhou are mostly from the hands of the "Xiangshan Gang".

"Mountain stones, flowers and trees, architecture, and water features are the four core elements of gardening, and gardeners intertwine these elements to form countless colorful combinations, so that the garden layers are staggered and achieve pleasing effects." Xue Zhijian, director of Suzhou Garden Museum, introduced.

As the writer Ye Shengtao said in the article "Suzhou Garden", "The edges of ponds or rivers are rarely built into neat stone banks, and they are always bent and left to nature." There are also a few exquisite stones, or some flowers and plants. This is also to achieve the effect of becoming a painting from all angles. ”

Originally built in the Ming Dynasty, the Humble Administrator's Garden is the largest garden in Suzhou today, and was built on the site of the Tang Tortoise Meng's mansion and the former site of the Great Hongsi Temple in the Yuan Dynasty after the Emperor Xianchen abandoned his official post and returned to his hometown. The birth of the famous book "Dream of the Red Chamber" is not unrelated to the Humble Administrator's Garden, according to legend, Cao Xueqin was born in the garden during the Kangxi Dynasty, and the teenager often wandered in the garden, and many of the scenic descriptions of the Grand View Garden in the book were taken from the Humble Administrator's Garden.

Standing in the middle garden that best represents the characteristics of the Humble Administrator's Garden, you can see three small islands built by digging ponds and piling mountains, with babbling water and cascading trees, giving people a sense of "winding paths". Cheng Hongfu, deputy director of the Humble Administrator's Garden Management Office, said that the Humble Administrator's Garden is long from east to west, while the north-south straight-line distance is only 50 meters, and the gardeners divide the entire garden into multiple spaces through stone bridges, water surfaces, small islands and other details, thus achieving the effect of "rebuilding within a few feet".

Many of the courtyards in the Humble Administrator's Garden are decorated with white walls, dotted with a little bamboo and stone, leaving more or less blank spaces. In the ancient city garden agglomeration area not far away, the new Suzhou Museum designed by the well-known architect I.M. Pei is located, and when you walk into it, you can feel the fun of viewing the garden.

Like the Humble Administrator's Garden, the new Suzhou Museum also chooses white as the main color of the building, supplemented by appropriate black and gray, like the white depiction of Chinese painting. The whole is centered on the pond, the northern part is bounded by the wall of the Humble Administrator's Garden, and all the exhibition halls are set up around the water, as if they were built for the pursuit of classical garden artistic conception, and inherit the historical context of garden art in a way that is "similar to god rather than similar".

"The Unity of Heaven and Man"

In the last year of the Xianfeng Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, a sudden attack of soldiers landed in Suzhou. The war lasted for more than 10 kilometers, burning from the west canal bank of the city to the bottom of The Gate City, and the once bustling merchant market was reduced to a scorched earth. Outside the smoke-shrouded city walls, a beautiful garden is amazing. This garden was acquired by Liu Shu, a Suzhou native in the Ming Dynasty, and was called "Liu Garden", but later generations gradually called it "Lingering Garden" because of its miracle of escaping military disasters.

Stepping into the Lingering Garden, you can feel the style of Liu's family. According to historical records, Liu Shu was "silent and good, only lusting for flowers and stones", and he carved a self-carved idle chapter "between the twelve peaks", and called himself "Twelve Peaks Whistler". Nowadays, in the garden, you can find the twelve peaks of the strange stone that Liu Shu painstakingly searched, and the original and rough form of the mountain stone reveals the natural interest that he does not like to carve.

In the eyes of the scholar Wang Jiaju, "the garden is picturesque and like a book, and it needs to be read well." Li Acheng, a resident of Suzhou who is more than a year old, has a lot of experience in this regard, and he has lived around several gardens in the old city for more than 40 years. "The city has a large population and few natural scenery, and suzhou gardens are people's yearning for nature and a creation for pursuing harmonious coexistence with nature." Li Acheng said.

Li Acheng's observation reflects the concept of "the unity of heaven and man" in classical Chinese philosophy behind the Suzhou garden, that is, all things and man are one, and man and nature coexist in harmony. Relying on this concept, the mountains and rivers, building flowers and trees are not only for people to appreciate, but also to create an environmental atmosphere in the park that can be placed on objects and mobilize the senses of the whole body and natural communication.

For example, the circular cave doors that can be seen everywhere in gardens such as the Humble Administrator's Garden and the Lingering Garden are built to imitate the full moon in the sky, and pinned on the poetic complex of ancient and modern Chinese people for a perfect life. For example, the writer Yu Dafu said in "Suzhou Smoke and Rain Season", the garden with smoke and rain not only has the romance of the raindrops, but also makes people feel that "far away from the hustle and bustle, elegant and self-satisfied".

The name of the pavilion in the garden also means natural affection. The Humble Administrator's Garden has "Lan Xue Tang", taken from Li Bai's "Independent Heaven and Earth, the Breeze Sprinkles Lan Xue"; the Lingering Garden Cave Gate "Another Village", taken from Lu You's "Mountains and Heavy Waters Doubtless Road, Willow Dark Flowers and Bright Village"; the Master of Nets Garden "Moon to Wind Pavilion" is taken from the Song Dynasty Shao Yong's poem "The moon reaches the heart of heaven, when the wind comes to the water", if the breeze is gentle, the wind appreciates the moon, it is like swimming in the paradise.

Along the pond of peach weeping willows, stone benches in rows, across the water can see the barge rugged, ancient pavilion cornices, this is the oldest Canglang Pavilion in Suzhou's existing gardens. Canglang Pavilion was originally the private garden of the Song Dynasty scholar Su Shunqin, who was a close friend of Fan Zhongyan and Ouyang Xiu, and belonged to the faction advocating innovation, because he was impeached by the officials of the DPRK and China, he was deposed from his official position and lived in Suzhou, and spent 40,000 yuan to buy land to build the Canglang Pavilion.

Ouyang Xiu wrote a long poem "Canglang Pavilion", with the inscription "Qingfeng Mingyue is priceless, but unfortunately it only sells for 40,000 yuan". Later, in the Canglang Pavilion, this sentence and Su Shunqin's poem "Passing through Suzhou" are taken from each sentence, "The green poplar egret is self-satisfied, and the near water and distant mountains have feelings", and integrates a couplet of "the breeze and the bright moon are priceless, and the near water and distant mountains are sentient", showing future generations a state of mind of indifference and leisure.

"Poetry and Distance"

In the twelfth year of qing tongzhi, Sheng Kang, a native of Changzhou, bought the "Liu Garden" that had escaped the robbery wave, and officially changed its name to "Lingering Garden", and published the news of the change of the name of the garden in the "Declaration". A few years later, the Sheng family published a newspaper saying: "The lingering garden is renovated, the second gate of the first month of this month is opened to let people visit, no penny is taken within three days, and each person who visits the garden from the first five days will collect seventy yuan to cover the cost of repairing the garden in the future." "This revenue-generating marketing strategy has made the garden visitors flock ever since.

Spring peony appreciation, summer lotus viewing, autumn smell of cinnamon, winter taste of cold plums, the opening of private gardens to the outside world, completely liberated the world's poetic interest, taste of the garden has become a portrayal of the beautiful life of contemporary Suzhou people. "In addition to the difference between the four seasons, you can experience one step at a time in the Suzhou garden." Xue Zhijian said that for example, standing in the Master of Nets Garden, as long as you walk through a door, you can see three completely different beautiful views.

At night, stepping on the green brick and stone slab to the Canglang Pavilion, the live-action version of the Kunqu opera "Six Memories of Floating Life" is being staged. The actors changed scenery step by step, interpreting the poetic Su-style life, and the audience followed closely and listened to Wu Nong's soft language. "Qu Gao" is not "harmonious", and once there is a performance in the Canglang Pavilion, almost every scene is popular.

From the abundance of "poetic" space on the spiritual level, we can see the externalization of gardening wisdom. For example, Suzhou advocates moving from "Suzhou Garden" to "Garden Suzhou", through seeing the seams in the ancient city and inserting green, allowing citizens to travel within 500 meters to enter the green space. "Urban construction should emphasize respect for nature, conform to nature, and protect nature." Shao Lei, deputy director of the Suzhou Municipal Landscaping and Greening Administration, said.

Western gardens emphasize the will and order of people in gardening, and large areas of artificial lawns, manicured hedges, fountains and symmetrical layouts can be seen. The Chinese garden emphasizes the natural texture and form, such as the "leakage and thinness" of taihu stone, the meandering nature of falling water, and the entanglement of ancient trees.

In 1899, the British botanist Wilson stepped into China to collect and introduce flowers and plants. After years of searching and traveling, he indulged in the unique flowers and gardens in various places, and wrote the book "China - The Mother of Gardens", which made Chinese gardens famous all over the world.

In October 2020, Liufangyuan in the Huntington Library in Los Angeles, USA, was expanded and opened to the public. The largest and most complete Suzhou garden overseas covers an area of 72 acres, with pavilions, small bridges and flowing water, and yanglian pillars, and is known as the "sister garden" of the Humble Administrator's Garden. "If you are charming in your heart, you are feminine in the world." Suzhou Gardens have long abandoned the lonely fang and self-appreciation, similar to the replica of Liufang Garden, which has repeatedly "drifted across the ocean", so that this brilliant Chinese culture can be shared with the world.

There is a "Temple Spring Temple" in the Master of Nets Garden, which is a unique scenery. Plantains, bamboo and plums are planted outside the three back windows, symbolizing the three seasons of summer, autumn and winter, while the "Dian Chun" on the door plaque refers to the peony flowers that bloom in late spring, which together are the four seasons, which can be described as a wonderful combination of nature and humanity.

As early as 40 years ago, the "Ming Xuan", which was built based on the "Temple Spring Temple", went abroad and was inaugurated at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA, becoming the first Chinese garden to be exported overseas. Today, more than 50 Suzhou gardens and models have taken root in various parts of the world.

"We can't just look at classical gardens as objects on display, but we must protect them in use and inherit them in openness." Zhou Qilin, a researcher at the Suzhou Municipal Landscaping and Greening Administration, said. (Reporter He Leijing)

Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph