Located in Hujiapaifang Street, Weifang City, Shandong Province, Shiwat Garden integrates the thickness of the northern garden and the exquisite garden of the south of the Jiangnan in one pocket world, and is known as the "Pearl of Ludong". The garden was first built by Hu Bangzuo in the Jiaqing period of the Ming Dynasty, and was successively purchased by Chen Zhaoluan, the prefect of Zhangde during the Shunzhi period, and Guo Xiongfei, a political envoy directly subordinate to the Daoguang period. In the eleventh year of the Qing Dynasty, Ding Shanbao, the richest man in Weixian County, purchased the park and carefully planned and designed it, named "Ten Wat Garden".
Since ancient times, Weixian has been a place where "the industry of industry and commerce is connected, and the profit of fish and salt is profitable". During the Ming and Qing dynasties, in the context of Shandong's economic development, Weixian's economy prospered, becoming the main sales place for tobacco, coating and soybean oil in Shandong, and the local residents were mostly engaged in dyeing mills, oil mills, colored paper, embroidery and other handicrafts, and was an important textile industry center and small commodity center in the country. Zheng Banqiao, one of the famous "Eight Monsters of Yangzhou" and a member of Weixian Zhixian during the Qianlong Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, described Weixian in this way: "The lights of the three more have not been received, and the jade and gold are full of city buildings." Yunwai Qingge Huawai Flute, Weizhou was originally a small Suzhou. "Its economic pomp is evident here.
In the context of Weixian's economic prosperity, the Ding family of the owners of Shiwat Garden is the head of the four major families in Weixian County, and its 12th Generation Ding Yongxing made a fortune in business and accumulated rich capital for the Ding family; By the time of his 14th dynasty, the Ding family had monopolized the economic lifeblood of Weixian County; His fifteenth Ding Shanbao became the richest man in Weixian County. After several generations of hard work, the Ding family has a number of businesses such as qianzhuang, pawnshop, theater, etc., and its business has developed to Jinan and Shanghai. During the most prosperous period of the Ding family, it had more than 50,000 mu of land in Weixian county alone, reaching more than half of the county's land area, and was known as "Ding Bancheng". The prosperity of Weixian's economic life and the strong financial resources of the Ding family have enabled people to shift from the most basic material satisfaction to spiritual enjoyment, which has laid the material foundation for the creation and development of Shiwat Garden.
Gardens flourished in the mid-Ming Dynasty and reached their peak in the Qing Dynasty. In Shandong, taking the economically developed canal city of Jining as an example, the major wealthy merchants and merchants have invested thousands of dollars to build their own multi-functional private gardens. At that time, Weixian also appeared a large number of squires, who built private gardens, or self-cultivation, or flaunted a position of power.
Regarding the flourishing scene of Weixian private gardens, Zheng Banqiao mentioned in his poetry collection "Weixian Bamboo Branches": "Lianyun Jia Di ShangshuFu, with a house garden Too Shou family. It is a pond with wide autumn water, red lotus flowers and white lotus flowers. ”
In addition, the "Weixian Chronicle" records that "when Weixian was in the Shengping era, the gentry of The gentry had a lot of leisure and often had a graceful garden", which shows that at that time, the private residences in Weixian were more common. There are as many as seventeen private gardens including Yan's Villa, South Garden, and Half Mu Garden, seven in the city, and ten outside the city.
Under the influence of the trend of garden building, Ding Shanbaohao spent a lot of money to buy the guo family's old house to build his own private garden. However, he built a garden that was different from the general competitive extravagance and extravagant pleasure. Ding Shanbao said in the "Records of the Ten Wat Garden": "Yu Zhi Zhi Si Yuan also treated this area of recuperation with many middle-aged illnesses, not the beauty of the Tai Xie, and the pleasure of the descendants... If the children and nephews can take the heart of Yu as their heart, and if yu is fortunate enough to reach the house and does not renege on his promise, then it is not difficult for his hometown to have this melon and cow house and retreat in a hurry", indicating that his original intention of building the garden was only for the sake of recuperation and not for self-enjoyment, nor did he expect future generations to live in this luxury, but just left a piece of land to rest and take a souvenir. Therefore, the Ten Wat Garden is not too contaminated with the worldly atmosphere, and still has a pure and high rhyme.
As a small garden that combines the north and the south, Shiwat Garden can be regarded as a model for the private gardens in the north to see the big in the small. In terms of layout, Shiwat Garden has three axes, although it is different from the Jiangnan Garden, but the middle road axis breaks the stereotypical posture of the axis with a jagged building, and the regularity is with a sense of dexterity, which is a meticulous move; In terms of style, the overall building adopts a gentle roof from the north, which continues the dignified thickness of the north, and at the same time adds the common beauty leaning and low railings in Jiangnan, with the femininity of small family jasper.
The close relationship between the garden and the literati began to take shape during the Wei and Jin dynasties, which made the garden have a higher artistic standard and rich feelings. Shandong has always been a place where people are brilliant and talented, and famous literati in history include Wang Xizhi, Li Qingzhao, Xin Zhiyi, and Pu Songling. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Weixian gathered many literati and sages. The "Chronicle of Weixian County" written by Zhang Yaobi in the Qing Dynasty records: "(Weixian County) The spirit of the mountains and rivers is beautiful, supporting the public opinion, and often zhong Yu renjie to make its brilliance ... The tail of the Erdu does not cross the beihai counties, which are hundreds of miles close, and they come from far away, so their hair is also large, and the sages are also in Shandong. ”
According to the "Weixian Chronicle", there were 111 lifters and jinshi in Weixian County in the Ming Dynasty, and a total of 376 juren and jinshi in Weixian County in the Qing Dynasty, which was the first of the seven counties in Laizhou. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were many famous ministers in the local area, such as Huang Fu, Yang Yingkui, Huang Qing, Cao Hongxun, etc.; There are also many people with specialization and great reputation in the art industry, such as the scribe Song Shusheng, the theologian Han Mengzhou, and the epigrapher Chen Jieqi. The Weixian Ding clan who built the Shiwat Garden has always had a good cultural accomplishment.
The gardener Ding Shanbao was both a merchant and a scribe, and he made a wide range of literary friends and often gathered in yaji. The construction of the Ten Wat Garden was not his own effort, but a fusion of the power of the literati, and the "Records of the Ten Wat Garden" records that the garden was planned and designed by the well-known local literati Such as Ku Juqi, Liu Zixiu and Yu Jingzhai.
There is a saying in the "Garden Ye": "The creation of the world, the master of the dove, do not hear the proverb of the three-point craftsman and the seven-point master?" It is in such a strong cultural atmosphere that Shiwat Garden skillfully integrates gardens, paintings, poetry, and calligraphy to form a literati garden with far-reaching artistic conception, which is mainly manifested in the names of Shiwat Garden, scenery names, stone inscriptions, and Joint Scenery titles.
The name of the garden is "Ten Wat", not only because the garden covers a small area, the area is only more than 2,000 square meters, if the ten wats above the court, but also because Ding Shanbao was influenced by Zheng Yuanxun's "Bu Zhu Chengnan, Luting Liu Bank, only Guang Shi Wat, after no slight area painting, don't out of the spirit" Of the inscription, self-proclaimed to be the true meaning of the garden - Shi Wat Garden in a limited space, can present the beauty of natural landscapes, subtle twists and turns, fascinating. There are 34 buildings in the park, such as rockery ponds, curved bridge cloisters, pavilions and study rooms, 67 rooms, compact and not crowded, immersive, such as in the painting, giving people a sense of strict layout, step by step.
The names of the scenes in the Ten Wat Garden are also quite exquisite, mostly derived from classic literati poems, elegant and subtle. For example: Wei Xiu Ting got its name from Ouyang Xiu's sentence "Looking at Wei but deep showman, Lang Yan Also"; The main building YanxiangLou originates from Li He's sentence meaning of "Yarn curtain warm ink flower spring in the day, lightly drifting foam pine musk". The inscriptions in the garden are all written by everyone and have profound meanings, such as the plaque of the Sizhao Pavilion written by Cao Hongxun, the second year of Guangxu, and the two sides of "The Bright Moon Breeze is Priceless, near the water and distant mountains are all affectionate" is written by the calligrapher Gui Fu, and so on. In addition, many calligraphy and painting carvings in the park are not bad, among which the Wutong Zhulan calligraphy and painting carving of Zheng Banqiao is the most famous, fresh and elegant, high wind and bright festival, highlighting the characteristics of the park.
Confucian culture deeply affects people's daily lives, and gardens as an important space for people's daily activities are also influenced by Confucian culture. The construction of the Ten Wat Garden was infiltrated by the Confucian ideas of "the unity of heaven and man", "Xiu Qi Zhiping" and "Gentleman Bede". Confucianism pays attention to "the time of heaven and man, unity becomes one", which is embodied in the garden, which is to seek the realm of gardening that "although it is made by man, it is like opening from heaven", and strives to pursue the natural beauty that conforms to nature, and strives to break the harmony and unity of form.
Shiwat Garden Model Mountain Fan Shui method is eclectic, the use of Taihu Stone to create cliffs, mountain streams and other natural forms of landscape, landscape and water blending, coupled with imitation of nature and scattered, isolated plants, natural, creating a suitable space and artistic conception like nature.
"Repairing Qi Zhiping" comes from the "Liji University", which refers to self-cultivation, Qi family, governance of the country, and peace in the world. Shiwat Garden is divided into three roads, the middle road has a garden, the middle road garden and the house are separated by the main building YanxiangLou, the overall layout is orderly and orderly, dense and orderly, the axis and the central building control is obvious, and even as small as the door and window structure and size of the building on the central axis, the structure and size are more complicated than the two sides.
"Gentleman's Bede" refers to the use of natural beauty to symbolize the virtue of a gentleman. In the garden, shanshui Bede's technique originally originated from Confucius's proposition that the garden is not simply to create beautiful scenery, but also to cultivate sentiments. This is reflected in the selection of plants in Shiwat Garden, which uses bamboo, plum, pine, Yingchun, persimmons, pomegranates and other traditional Chinese garden plants that contain various metaphors for excellent quality, in order to self-metaphor, this Bede-style aesthetic is full of romantic atmosphere and infinite reverie.