Some people say: "Jiangnan garden is the best in the world, and Suzhou garden is the first in Jiangnan." Suzhou is famous for its beautiful gardens, which can be divided into three categories: home gardens, suburban gardens and temple gardens. Suzhou gardens are mostly house gardens, built by nobles, bureaucrats and wealthy businessmen, which are exquisite and elegant. These gardens reflect the different styles of gardens in past dynasties, and they are all representative works of China's garden art, "There is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below". Suzhou has won the reputation of "Xanadu", largely because it has a number of national and even world-famous classical gardens.
Humble Administrator's Garden: Together with the Summer Palace, chengde mountain resort and Suzhou Lingering Garden, it is called the four classical gardens in China. Humble Administrator's Garden was originally the residence of Lu Guimeng, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, and later it was the secluded place of the imperial censor in the Ming Dynasty. It is named after the meaning of "I am a humble administrator". It was once a part of Zhongyi Palace in Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and now it is a national key cultural relic protection unit. Humble Administrator's Garden is divided into four parts: East, Middle, West and Residential. Folk houses are typical Suzhou folk houses, which are now arranged as exhibition halls of garden museums.
Canglang Pavilion: Located in Sanyuanfang, south of the city, it is the oldest garden in Suzhou. The layout of the whole park is natural and harmonious, which can be called a masterpiece with ingenious conception and appropriate techniques. Together with Lion Grove, Humble Administrator's Garden and Lingering Garden, it is listed as the four major gardens in Suzhou in Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. The scenery of the whole park is unpretentious and elegant, winning by nature instead of ingenuity.
Lion Grove: One of the four famous gardens in Suzhou, with a history of more than 600 years. From the Yuan Dynasty to Zheng Zheng for two years, Wei Ze, a disciple of the famous monk Tian Ru Zen Master, "donated money according to the rate and bought land to build a house to live in his teacher". It is named after "the forest is full of bamboo, and there are many strange stones under the bamboo, which look like a lion". Lion Forest not only has the humanistic landscape of Suzhou classical gardens such as pavilions, terraces, buildings, pavilions, halls and corridors, but also is famous for its grotesque rocks and deep caves, and is known as the "rockery kingdom".
Lingering Garden: Built in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, it is divided into four scenic spots: the middle part is centered on the mountain pond, and the scenery is quiet; To the east, the hall is magnificent and spacious, and pavilions are stacked; There are heaped-up mountains and maple forests in the west, and the scenery is natural and delicate; The north is idyllic. The layout of the whole garden is rigorous, especially the architectural space is properly handled, ranking first among Suzhou gardens and one of the four famous gardens in China.
Master Wang Garden: The whole garden covers an area of about eight acres, less than one-sixth of the humble administrator's garden. But it is small and medium-sized, with rigorous layout, clear priorities and rich changes. There is a garden in the garden, and there is a scene outside the scene, which is exquisite and profound. Although there are many buildings, it is not congested. Although the mountain pond is small, it is not cramped, and it is considered as a model of Suzhou classical gardens.
Yiyuan Garden: It is the latest garden in Suzhou, so that it can absorb the advantages of other gardens and form its own concentrated characteristics. Because of its compact layout and proper techniques, it has high ornamental value. The whole park covers an area of about nine acres and is long and narrow from east to west. According to local conditions, the landscape is divided into two parts, separated by a corridor, and the corridor wall and flower window communicate the eastern and western scenery, which can increase the depth of field. The eastern part of the corridor is dominated by courtyard buildings, and the curved corridor surrounds the pavilion, dotted with flowers and trees and stone peaks. Looking from the empty window of the winding corridor, all Chinese paintings are meaningful. Langxi is the main attraction of the whole park, with water in the middle and rockeries, flowers and trees and buildings around. The central water surface gathers, the east and west ends are long and narrow, and a curved bridge and sluice are built to show that the water in the pool is inexhaustible. The rockeries in the north of the pool are all made of beautiful lake stones. Although the mountain is not high, there are peaks and valleys, which are set off by tree pavilions.
Two. Suzhou Garden Features 1, Borrowing Scenery to visit Suzhou Gardens, the biggest attraction is the application of borrowing scenery and contrasting scenery in China Garden Design. China gardens pay attention to "changing scenery" and have ingenious designs in scenery arrangement and viewing position, which is the most important feature different from western gardens. China Garden tries to perfectly reproduce the space and structure of the external world in the limited internal space. There are courtyards, pavilions and verandahs in the park, and the internal and external spaces penetrate each other, making it smooth, circulating and flowing. Through the lattice window, the vast natural scenery is condensed into a miniature landscape. Inscriptions can be seen everywhere, adding a rich humanistic atmosphere to the garden. Drops of clear water flow under your feet, reflecting the scenery in the garden, intertwined with reality and reality, bringing the viewer from the tangible real world into the infinite dream space. As far as techniques are concerned, borrowing scenery or putting the beautiful scenery outside the garden into the garden through careful selection and tailoring is called remote borrowing; Or use one scene to set off another scene, which is called borrowing scenery, and so on. In this way, Suzhou gardens with limited area can not only provide richer landscapes and deeper levels, but also greatly expand the spatial feelings of the appreciators. In the Humble Administrator's Garden "Hongyi Pavilion", you can see the North Temple Tower outside the garden; In the flower window of Canglang Pavilion, you can enjoy the bamboo forest outside the house, which is a common way to borrow scenery. 2. Freehand brushwork thought in garden art China's gardening art has a deep historical origin with China's literature and painting art, especially influenced by the freehand brushwork of literati's landscape paintings in Tang and Song Dynasties, which is a model of literati's freehand brushwork landscape simulation. In the course of its development, China gardens have formed two series: royal gardens and private gardens. The former is concentrated in Beijing and the latter is represented by Suzhou. Due to the differences in political, economic, cultural status and natural geographical conditions, there are obvious differences in scale, layout, volume, style and color. Royal gardens are famous for their grandeur, neatness and richness, while Suzhou gardens are famous for their smallness, freedom, exquisiteness, elegance and freehand brushwork. Because the latter pays more attention to the harmony and unity of culture and art, the royal gardens developed in the later period also absorbed a lot of "freehand brushwork" techniques of private gardens in terms of artistic conception, creative thinking, architectural techniques and humanistic content. 3. Perfect living conditions and living environment. Suzhou classical gardens and folk houses are integrated, which can be appreciated, traveled and lived. The formation of this architectural form is a creation that human beings attach themselves to nature, pursue harmony with nature, beautify and improve their living environment in a densely populated city lacking natural scenery. Humble Administrator's Garden, Lingering Garden, Master's Garden and Huanxiu Mountain Villa are four classical gardens with complete architectural types and well-preserved. They systematically and comprehensively show the layout, structure, shape, style, color, decoration, furniture and furnishings of Suzhou classical garden buildings. They are representative works of Jiangnan folk architecture in Ming and Qing Dynasties (14-early 20th century) and reflect this period. It once influenced the architectural style of the whole city in the south of the Yangtze River, and brought the design, conception, layout, aesthetics and construction technology of folk buildings closer to it, reflecting the scientific and technological level and artistic achievements of urban construction at that time. This is a great historical building! 4. Rich social and cultural connotations One of the important features of Suzhou classical gardens is that they are not only the product of history and culture, but also the carrier of China's traditional ideology and culture. It is manifested in the naming, plaque, calligraphy, carving and decoration of the garden hall, as well as the meaning of flowers and trees and the love of stacked stones. It is not only a beautiful art that adorns the garden, but also stores many historical, cultural, ideological and scientific information, material and spiritual contents. Some reflect and spread various philosophical concepts and schools of thought such as Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism; Some preach the philosophy of life and cultivate noble sentiments; With the help of classical poems and literary works, the landscape is embellished, germinated and rendered, so that people can turn the landscape into feelings in their lives and sightseeing, produce artistic beauty and obtain spiritual satisfaction. The park has a well-preserved collection of calligraphy works by famous calligraphers in China, which is a precious work of art and has high cultural value. In addition, Suzhou Classical Garden, as the first house garden in China, reflects the life style and etiquette of folk living and leaving their relatives in the south of the Yangtze River in ancient China, and is the material for understanding and studying the folk customs in the south of the Yangtze River in ancient China.