Suzhou classical garden --- Jiangsu province

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Suzhou classical garden --- Jiangsu province

Ming Dynasty – Suzhou   

This is really paradise on Earth. In the classical gardens that were built over 1000 years ago, there's a lot of history. And these gardens are hidden within the city's walls.

Open your eyes to Suzhou, a city in the southeast of Jiangsu Province. Located near Taihu Lake, in the west, the Yangtze River, in the north, and trespassed by the Grand Canal, the history and culture of Suzhou is tied to the water. Suzhou’s crisscrossing waterways gave it the name "the Venice of the East" since ancient times.


Today’s Suzhou is a city that preserves its awe-inspiring scenery, running streams, small bridges, waterside houses, elegant kunqu opera, and the most characteristic of Suzhou, the classical gardens, which are listed in the UNESCO World Heritage List. In fact, the entire city looks like one big garden in itself.

[ 本帖最后由 limengran1 于 2008-12-3 19:46 编辑 ]

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crisscrossing waterways.

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The night sight site of today Suzhou.

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The humble administrator’s garden, magnificent. But, who owns this place?

These gardens come in three types: official, monastic, and private. Like the Humble Administrator’s Garden, the owners were often retired government officials who wanted to get away from the bureaucratic, materialistic, and often corrupt lifestyle. This garden was built in the Ming Dynasty by an imperial inspector, who was tired of official life. He got the name for the garden from an essay called "To cultivate my garden and sell my vegetable crop is the policy of humble man."

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The names of the gardens have strong cultural flavor. Retired officials wanted simple lives, like the official who dreamed of a trouble-free, fisherman’s lifestyle, unrestrained by the water. Thus, Fisherman's Garden was his paradise after retiring. The gardens became microcosms of a world made up only of the most basic elements of water, stones, and plants. The owners of the gardens were unsatisfied with their positions in society, so they built their own metaphysical world in their backyards. For instance, they planted lotus in their gardens above the mud. The mud symbolized the polluted society, while they, like the flower, managed to keep themselves clean, blossoming purely above the dirt as “a true person of virtue among flowers.” The names of the halls, the calligraphy, the carvings, and the decorations have deep literary significance.

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The serene simple environment draws us back to the Ming Dynasty, when the owner stood under this “Listening to the Rain”Pavilion on a misty day, as he sipped his tea and felt the world before his eyes call out his own emotions.

Besides individuals, wealthy couples also built gardens. Couple’s Retreat’s garden, Ou Yuan’s name, means lotus root garden, and a couple’s love is compared to the lotus root’s interconnecting threads and inseparability.

Ou yuan zhu jia ou. What that means is that inside the couple’s garden there lives a very happy couple. And there are many signs in the garden that tell you that the couple is very happy. Little things here and there. See if you can find them.

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The owners divided the garden into two gardens, an east and west section that follows the theme of a couple. Inside, everything also comes in twos, from paths to roof linings , pagodas, to windows and rocks. It’s the details here that show the deep artistic connotation and hint at the love between the two owners.

I found something else that comes in two…pavilions. There’s one for the husband, and one for the wife. This one is called “pavilion to my love.” It’s where the husband would watch his wife perform, in the pavilion over there.

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So why did these people decide to construct the classical gardens in Suzhou?

With its captivating natural environment, mild climate, and location along the fertile Yangztze delta, Suzhou was the perfect choice. It’s advanced economics, developed handicrafts and silk trade in the Ming Dynasty allowed it to support a booming culture. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Suzhou was so prosperous even commoners would place bamboo or stones in their yards. The literati flocked here, bringing an aura of erudition and artistry. Many of the scholars who succeeded in the official examinations were also “Jiangsu-ers,” returning to their hometown after their retirement. Gradually, excellent craftsmen gathered in Suzhou, drawing even more people with the classical garden dream.

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What were things like in the Ming Dynasty, when these gardens blossomed?

From 514 B.C., the King of Wu started to build these gardens. From the Tang Dynasty to the Northern Song, it slowly developed, reaching its height in the Ming Dynasty.

At one point, there were almost 300 classical gardens in Suzhou. The construction of the gardens was on the verge of perfection, with a specific division of labor. The famous architect who designed the Forbidden Palace in Beijing, Kuan Xiang, was hired from Suzhou. There are hints of the classical gardens within the Forbidden Palace. There was also a study on the construction of the gardens and two of the most representative works were written in the Ming Dynasty…

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Around me is a living piece of art. Now, it seems like mother nature created this work. But in reality, it was created by humans. Every rock, every tree, and every drop of water was specifically put into place just like a piece of music or maybe a poem, a painting. This is a work of art you would show to your friends that you would invite to your home.

Just like you would invite someone to enjoy music, you would welcome them to savor your beautiful garden.

However, building a garden was not something everyone could do, there are specific characteristics.

The first thing to remember is that these were man-made constructions that modeled nature, but perfected it. The best gardens were those that looked most pristine, seemingly untouched by man.

Additionally, you can feel of the breath of artists and scholars at every corner of the gardens, since they contributed to its design. The gardens are a blend of poetry, paintings, literature, and opera.
Art is built into its very blood and soul.