The Classical Garden of Suzhou
Location: Suzhou, Jiangsu province, China
Synopsis:
Suzhou is located in the southeastern part of Jiangsu Province. The city was established as the capital of the state of Wu during the Warring States Period of the Eastern Zhou dynasty (B.C.476- B.C.221).
When the Grand Canal linking many older canals in China was constructed during the Sui dynasty, Suzhou prospered, becoming a center of the silk trade. During the Song dynasty, nearby Hangzhou became the imperial capital and Suzhou grew as well, a convenient retreat for scholars, officials and merchants.
Marco Polo visited "Su-chau" and remarked on the large size of the city, its prosperity, the silk trade and its "6,000 stone bridges". He said that the name of the city meant "Earth", and that there was another nearby city designated as "Heaven". Other early sources referred to Suzhou as "Earthly Paradise".
Gardening in Suzhou reached its height during the Ming and Qing dynasties. There were over 280 private gardens then in Suzhou and landscaping became an art with established masters. The mild climate, along with 230 frost-free days and around 43 inches of rain annually the area is perfect for gardening endeavors.
Sixty-nine gardens in and around Suzhou are still in good condition. In 1997, UNESCO added four of the private gardens of Suzhou to the World Heritage list, extending this in 2000 to include the historic section of the city and five other gardens in the area.
Synopsis:
Suzhou is located in the southeastern part of Jiangsu Province. The city was established as the capital of the state of Wu during the Warring States Period of the Eastern Zhou dynasty (B.C.476- B.C.221).
When the Grand Canal linking many older canals in China was constructed during the Sui dynasty, Suzhou prospered, becoming a center of the silk trade. During the Song dynasty, nearby Hangzhou became the imperial capital and Suzhou grew as well, a convenient retreat for scholars, officials and merchants.
Marco Polo visited "Su-chau" and remarked on the large size of the city, its prosperity, the silk trade and its "6,000 stone bridges". He said that the name of the city meant "Earth", and that there was another nearby city designated as "Heaven". Other early sources referred to Suzhou as "Earthly Paradise".
Gardening in Suzhou reached its height during the Ming and Qing dynasties. There were over 280 private gardens then in Suzhou and landscaping became an art with established masters. The mild climate, along with 230 frost-free days and around 43 inches of rain annually the area is perfect for gardening endeavors.
Sixty-nine gardens in and around Suzhou are still in good condition. In 1997, UNESCO added four of the private gardens of Suzhou to the World Heritage list, extending this in 2000 to include the historic section of the city and five other gardens in the area.
Offical website:
Scenic spot：
The Canglang Pavilion (Northern Song Dynasty)
The Blue Waves Pavilion, The Surging Waves Pavilion, Cang Lang Ting
The Blue Waves Pavilion is the oldest of the existing private gardens of Suzhou. It began as an imperial flower garden in the Five Dynasties period. Su Shunqin, a poet and a judge in the high courts of the Northern Song dynasty, bought the property and built a pavilion beside the water. When he left office he lived there and wrote articles which were later collected in a book called Scholar Su's Writings. During the Southern Song dynasty Han Shizhong, a famous general who fought the Nuzhen Tartars, lived on the property. During the Ming dynasty the garden became a temple and later fell into disrepair. The garden was reconstructed in the Qing dynasty, at which time it was expanded into the nearby fields and more buildings and other features were added.
While most of the gardens of Suzhou are surrounded by walls, this one is centered on a large lake and its streams which wind through the grounds. The focal point is the Facing the Water Pavilion which sits at the edge of the water. There is a miniature mountain at the center of the garden and a smaller mountain at the southern end. There are twenty buildings, and a number of steles and tablets throughout the garden, along with very old trees and eighteen kinds of bamboo.
The Lion Grove Garden (Yuan Dynasty)
The Lion Forest Garden, Shi Zi Lin
The Lion Grove Garden was begun in 1342 as a temple garden, part of the Puti Zhengzong Temple. During the Ming Dynasty, it drew Buddhist scholars, painters and poets. The Qing emperor Qian Long was so impressed with the garden that he inscribed three characters on a tablet, called the True Delight tablet, which can still be seen today.
This garden takes its name from the numerous lion-shaped stones there, though erosion has altered many of them past recognition. Enclosed by high walls are rockeries which cover half of the garden with a shallow lake at the center, along with many very old pines and cypress trees. The most important features of this garden are its man-made mountains. The Lion Peak is the highest of these and contains many grottoes connected by a labyrinth of stone paths.
The Gardens built in Ming Dynasty
The Humble Administrator's Garden (Zhuo Zheng Yuan)
Developed over several centuries, the Humble Administrator's Garden is the largest and most famous of the gardens in Suzhou and its many styles are representative of the history of classical gardening in Suzhou. It was begun in the early 16th century by Wang Xianchen, a government official who either retired or was demoted before returning to his hometown. Originally built on the site of the Da Hong Monastery, the garden was named from a line in a Jin Dynasty poem: "Building a house and planting trees, watering the garden and selling vegetables constitute a humble administrator's business". The garden frequently changed owners, each contributing his own vision. During the era of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the mid 1800s, the Loyal Prince Li Xiucheng lived here.
Water comprises three-fifths of the whole garden which is divided into three parts. The Garden of the Unsuccessful Politician is at the center and took on its present appearance in the Later Qing dynasty though the original structure remained. It features mountains and a lake at its center with many of the forty-eight buildings in the garden along its shore.
The Affiliated Garden to the west, once a garden belonging to a separate family, features elegant pavilions and a series of halls separated by glass and carved gingko screens. There are over seven hundred bonsai in this part of the garden, representing the Suzhou style bonsai, one of the four leading bonsai styles in China, and eighteen kinds of camellias. An undulating corridor built on a wall by the water simulates walking on waves.
The eastern section of the garden, the site of the old Hermit's Farmhouse, Gui Tianyuan Ju, was once owned by the aide Wang Xinyi. Wang was very talented at mountain and water painting, and he therefore designed and arranged artistic landscapes. Long neglected, this section was reconstructed in 1955 and now contains lawns and and a grove of pine trees. The house to which the gardens belong is to the south.
The Lingering Garden (Liu Yuan)
Originally called the Eastern Garden, construction of the Lingering Garden began during the Ming dynasty by Xu Taishi, a high-ranking official in charge of the emperor's horses and vehicles. During the Qing Dynasty, the garden was taken over by Liu Rongfeng, an official in charge of the province's finance, taxes and personnel matters. It was rebuilt and renamed Hanbi Shanzhuang, which means Cold Azure Mountain Village or Cold Mountain Villa. In 1875, Sheng Xuren acquired the garden and renovated it. He renamed it Liu Yuan, meaning "long lasting between heaven and earth". During the Sino-Japanese War the garden was ruined but it was restored to its former beauty in 1953.
One of the largest gardens in Suzhou, the Lingering Garden is divided into four distinct areas by buildings with many small courtyards throughout. The architectural elements occupy one third of the space. This garden is known for its many carefully placed doors and patterned windows, each of which serves to frame the scene to be viewed from it. The sections are connected by a long roofed corridor which shapes itself to the changing terrain. The Lingering Garden contains 373 stelae inscribed with the works of more than a hundred calligraphers from six dynasties which serve to illustrate the development of Chinese calligraphy over 1000 years.
The central area consists of a quiet pond, surrounded by artificial hills on four sides. Fine buildings occupy most of the eastern section. In the west there is miniature mountain scattered with yellow stones and planted with maple trees. On top of the mountain stands a pavilion which commands a view of the entire garden. There is an islet in the western lake which is connected to the east shore by a bridge and a winding brook lined with peach trees and weeping willows. The northern part of the Lingering Garden contains a miniature mountain and pavillions situated in a grove, along with a bonsai garden enclosed by a bamboo fence.
Garden of Cultivation
This very small garden was begun in the Ming Dynasty. Originally called Jingting Mountain Cottage, it was improved during the early Qing Dynasty and renamed the Garden of Cultivation. The house occupies over half of the garden's area and a rectangular pond takes up another quarter of the space. Open sided galleries provide many different views which add a sense of spaciousness to the garden. Pavilions can be found throughout the garden, as well as deep pools and springs and artistically arranged rockeries and plantings.
Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty
Another small garden, the Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty is known for its man-made limestone mountain around which the other elements are arranged. This garden was begun in the Five Dynasties Period but the mountain was not added until the Qing Dynasty by Gu Yuliang, a master builder.
There is a feeling of spaciousness despite the small size due to artistic divisions created by pathways, stone steps, and bridges. Ravines and cliffs are carefully contrived to give the visitor a sense of being in a mountainous terrain. Always the mountain is within view, its aspect changing at every turn, even appearing in places to be more than one mountain. There are only eight buildings in this garden. The most interesting of these which has a long walkway at ground level and viewing rooms on the second floor is to the west of the mountain.
The Retreat and Reflection Garden (Tuisi Yuan)
The Retreat and Reflection Garden is located in Tongli, a water town eleven miles south of Suzhou. It was built by Ren Lansheng, an imperial scholar, upon his dismissal from office. The name Tuisiyuan means Garden Close to the Water. The small garden is laid out horizontally instead of vertically. The residence is in the western section and opens into an outer garden which contains halls for entertaining guests. The focal point of the inner garden to the east is a large pond. Most of the structures and rockeries were built right at the water's edge. They appear to float on the water and create a sense of space through their reflections.
The town of Tongli itself was built roughly in the shape of a circle around five lakes. It is divided into seven islands by more than ten rivers or canals and linked by forty-nine bridges. Nearly all the buildings in the town were built facing water.
The Couple's Garden Retreat
This garden was originally begun in the 1700s. Nearly one hundred years later, a government official bought the property and divided the garden into the present east and west sections. He named it the Couple's Garden Retreat which refers to the two sections as well as to the more romantic meaning.
The Couple's Garden Retreat is surrounded by a canal on three sides and has two piers on the canal. The house is in an unusual center location. The East Garden features a mountain of yellow stones sloping upward from a pond. Other yellow stones can be seen in the rockeries, as well as flowers and trees. The West Garden features a limestone mountain with caves which can be seen from the numerous pavilions and garden courts.
The Garden of the Master of Nets
Garden of the Fisherman, Wang Shi Yuan
The Garden of the Master of Nets is one of the smallest in Suzhou, yet one of the finest. It was built in the mid-12th century as the residence of Shi Zhengzhi, a retired government official of the Song Dynasty who named his hall The Fisherman's Retreat. He had a library in the garden known as The Hall of 10,000 Volumes. During the reign of Qian Long in the 1700s, Song Zongyuan bought the property and remodeled the gardens and renamed it based on the name of the original hall.
The garden is divided into three parts: the eastern residential area, the central landscape garden and the western garden court. Pavilions, corridors, and rockeries line the shores of the central lake, which is encircled by a covered walkway. One pavilion sits out over the water and is called The Washing-My-Ribbon Pavilion after a fisherman's song written by Mencius, a Confucian philosopher of the Warring States Period. Off the lake is a small bay to the northwest and a stream to the southeast, each of which have stone arched bridges.
The northwestern part of the garden features courtyards and buildings designed for specific activities such as studying, painting, sharing tea or meals with friends, or presenting musicales. To the west of the lake is a cottage and a courtyard which was the model for the Astor Court at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
The Canglang Pavilion (Northern Song Dynasty)
The Blue Waves Pavilion, The Surging Waves Pavilion, Cang Lang Ting
The Blue Waves Pavilion is the oldest of the existing private gardens of Suzhou. It began as an imperial flower garden in the Five Dynasties period. Su Shunqin, a poet and a judge in the high courts of the Northern Song dynasty, bought the property and built a pavilion beside the water. When he left office he lived there and wrote articles which were later collected in a book called Scholar Su's Writings. During the Southern Song dynasty Han Shizhong, a famous general who fought the Nuzhen Tartars, lived on the property. During the Ming dynasty the garden became a temple and later fell into disrepair. The garden was reconstructed in the Qing dynasty, at which time it was expanded into the nearby fields and more buildings and other features were added.
While most of the gardens of Suzhou are surrounded by walls, this one is centered on a large lake and its streams which wind through the grounds. The focal point is the Facing the Water Pavilion which sits at the edge of the water. There is a miniature mountain at the center of the garden and a smaller mountain at the southern end. There are twenty buildings, and a number of steles and tablets throughout the garden, along with very old trees and eighteen kinds of bamboo.
The Lion Grove Garden (Yuan Dynasty)The Lion Forest Garden, Shi Zi Lin
The Lion Grove Garden was begun in 1342 as a temple garden, part of the Puti Zhengzong Temple. During the Ming Dynasty, it drew Buddhist scholars, painters and poets. The Qing emperor Qian Long was so impressed with the garden that he inscribed three characters on a tablet, called the True Delight tablet, which can still be seen today.
This garden takes its name from the numerous lion-shaped stones there, though erosion has altered many of them past recognition. Enclosed by high walls are rockeries which cover half of the garden with a shallow lake at the center, along with many very old pines and cypress trees. The most important features of this garden are its man-made mountains. The Lion Peak is the highest of these and contains many grottoes connected by a labyrinth of stone paths.
The Gardens built in Ming Dynasty
The Humble Administrator's Garden (Zhuo Zheng Yuan)
Developed over several centuries, the Humble Administrator's Garden is the largest and most famous of the gardens in Suzhou and its many styles are representative of the history of classical gardening in Suzhou. It was begun in the early 16th century by Wang Xianchen, a government official who either retired or was demoted before returning to his hometown. Originally built on the site of the Da Hong Monastery, the garden was named from a line in a Jin Dynasty poem: "Building a house and planting trees, watering the garden and selling vegetables constitute a humble administrator's business". The garden frequently changed owners, each contributing his own vision. During the era of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the mid 1800s, the Loyal Prince Li Xiucheng lived here.
Water comprises three-fifths of the whole garden which is divided into three parts. The Garden of the Unsuccessful Politician is at the center and took on its present appearance in the Later Qing dynasty though the original structure remained. It features mountains and a lake at its center with many of the forty-eight buildings in the garden along its shore.
The Affiliated Garden to the west, once a garden belonging to a separate family, features elegant pavilions and a series of halls separated by glass and carved gingko screens. There are over seven hundred bonsai in this part of the garden, representing the Suzhou style bonsai, one of the four leading bonsai styles in China, and eighteen kinds of camellias. An undulating corridor built on a wall by the water simulates walking on waves.
The eastern section of the garden, the site of the old Hermit's Farmhouse, Gui Tianyuan Ju, was once owned by the aide Wang Xinyi. Wang was very talented at mountain and water painting, and he therefore designed and arranged artistic landscapes. Long neglected, this section was reconstructed in 1955 and now contains lawns and and a grove of pine trees. The house to which the gardens belong is to the south.
The Lingering Garden (Liu Yuan)
Originally called the Eastern Garden, construction of the Lingering Garden began during the Ming dynasty by Xu Taishi, a high-ranking official in charge of the emperor's horses and vehicles. During the Qing Dynasty, the garden was taken over by Liu Rongfeng, an official in charge of the province's finance, taxes and personnel matters. It was rebuilt and renamed Hanbi Shanzhuang, which means Cold Azure Mountain Village or Cold Mountain Villa. In 1875, Sheng Xuren acquired the garden and renovated it. He renamed it Liu Yuan, meaning "long lasting between heaven and earth". During the Sino-Japanese War the garden was ruined but it was restored to its former beauty in 1953.
One of the largest gardens in Suzhou, the Lingering Garden is divided into four distinct areas by buildings with many small courtyards throughout. The architectural elements occupy one third of the space. This garden is known for its many carefully placed doors and patterned windows, each of which serves to frame the scene to be viewed from it. The sections are connected by a long roofed corridor which shapes itself to the changing terrain. The Lingering Garden contains 373 stelae inscribed with the works of more than a hundred calligraphers from six dynasties which serve to illustrate the development of Chinese calligraphy over 1000 years.
The central area consists of a quiet pond, surrounded by artificial hills on four sides. Fine buildings occupy most of the eastern section. In the west there is miniature mountain scattered with yellow stones and planted with maple trees. On top of the mountain stands a pavilion which commands a view of the entire garden. There is an islet in the western lake which is connected to the east shore by a bridge and a winding brook lined with peach trees and weeping willows. The northern part of the Lingering Garden contains a miniature mountain and pavillions situated in a grove, along with a bonsai garden enclosed by a bamboo fence.
Garden of Cultivation
This very small garden was begun in the Ming Dynasty. Originally called Jingting Mountain Cottage, it was improved during the early Qing Dynasty and renamed the Garden of Cultivation. The house occupies over half of the garden's area and a rectangular pond takes up another quarter of the space. Open sided galleries provide many different views which add a sense of spaciousness to the garden. Pavilions can be found throughout the garden, as well as deep pools and springs and artistically arranged rockeries and plantings.
Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty
Another small garden, the Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty is known for its man-made limestone mountain around which the other elements are arranged. This garden was begun in the Five Dynasties Period but the mountain was not added until the Qing Dynasty by Gu Yuliang, a master builder.
There is a feeling of spaciousness despite the small size due to artistic divisions created by pathways, stone steps, and bridges. Ravines and cliffs are carefully contrived to give the visitor a sense of being in a mountainous terrain. Always the mountain is within view, its aspect changing at every turn, even appearing in places to be more than one mountain. There are only eight buildings in this garden. The most interesting of these which has a long walkway at ground level and viewing rooms on the second floor is to the west of the mountain.
The Retreat and Reflection Garden (Tuisi Yuan)
The Retreat and Reflection Garden is located in Tongli, a water town eleven miles south of Suzhou. It was built by Ren Lansheng, an imperial scholar, upon his dismissal from office. The name Tuisiyuan means Garden Close to the Water. The small garden is laid out horizontally instead of vertically. The residence is in the western section and opens into an outer garden which contains halls for entertaining guests. The focal point of the inner garden to the east is a large pond. Most of the structures and rockeries were built right at the water's edge. They appear to float on the water and create a sense of space through their reflections.
The town of Tongli itself was built roughly in the shape of a circle around five lakes. It is divided into seven islands by more than ten rivers or canals and linked by forty-nine bridges. Nearly all the buildings in the town were built facing water.
The Couple's Garden Retreat
This garden was originally begun in the 1700s. Nearly one hundred years later, a government official bought the property and divided the garden into the present east and west sections. He named it the Couple's Garden Retreat which refers to the two sections as well as to the more romantic meaning.
The Couple's Garden Retreat is surrounded by a canal on three sides and has two piers on the canal. The house is in an unusual center location. The East Garden features a mountain of yellow stones sloping upward from a pond. Other yellow stones can be seen in the rockeries, as well as flowers and trees. The West Garden features a limestone mountain with caves which can be seen from the numerous pavilions and garden courts.
The Garden of the Master of Nets
Garden of the Fisherman, Wang Shi Yuan
The Garden of the Master of Nets is one of the smallest in Suzhou, yet one of the finest. It was built in the mid-12th century as the residence of Shi Zhengzhi, a retired government official of the Song Dynasty who named his hall The Fisherman's Retreat. He had a library in the garden known as The Hall of 10,000 Volumes. During the reign of Qian Long in the 1700s, Song Zongyuan bought the property and remodeled the gardens and renamed it based on the name of the original hall.
The garden is divided into three parts: the eastern residential area, the central landscape garden and the western garden court. Pavilions, corridors, and rockeries line the shores of the central lake, which is encircled by a covered walkway. One pavilion sits out over the water and is called The Washing-My-Ribbon Pavilion after a fisherman's song written by Mencius, a Confucian philosopher of the Warring States Period. Off the lake is a small bay to the northwest and a stream to the southeast, each of which have stone arched bridges.
The northwestern part of the garden features courtyards and buildings designed for specific activities such as studying, painting, sharing tea or meals with friends, or presenting musicales. To the west of the lake is a cottage and a courtyard which was the model for the Astor Court at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
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