The gardens in Suzhou deserved the honor of being the most outstanding representatives of Chinese private gardens. With its beautiful scenery, developed economy and large numbers of native literati, poets and painters, Suzhou provided favorable conditions for the creation and development of classical gardens. Many of the gardens benefited from the advice and suggestions of the famous literati and painters in their design and construction¡Xfor example, the Lion Grove Garden built in the Yuan Dynasty. This garden was designed and built under the direction of the great painter Ni Yulin Ù ¶³ ªL, who modeled it after the Lion Rock in Tianmu Mountain ¤Ñ ¥Ø ¤s. As a result, it possessed the charm and beauty of Tianmu Mountain as well as the artistic features of Ni Yulin¡¦s landscape paintings. Another example was the Humble Administrator¡¦s Garden, which was designed with the help of a great painter, Wen Zhengming ¤å ¼x ©ú, who painted thirty-one paintings for the garden. The following is a brief introduction to the esthetic features of Suzhou gardens, the representatives of China¡¦s private gardens.
¡§Enjoying the Natural Beauty without Leaving Your House¡¨
What was emphasized by the designers of the private gardens was the appreciation and creation of natural scenery. They pursued the special pleasure of ¡§enjoying the beauty of nature without leaving your house,¡¨ and aimed for the standard of the ¡§four fits¡¨ and ¡§one effect¡¨ proposed by Gao Xi ³¢ º³, a great landscapist of the Northern Song Dynasty, in his Lofty Ambition of Forests and Streams ¡X fit for strolling in, fit for sightseeing, fit for amusement and fit for residence, and the effect of being ¡§pleasing to the ears, with the sounds of apes and birds and being pleasing to the eyes, with the scenes of mountains and waters.¡¨
The Yongcui Mountain Lodge ¾Ö »A ¤s ²ø, a small garden outside Suzhou, was located to the west of Ermen Hill ¤G ªù ¤s in the Huqiu Temple ªê ¥C ¦x. Along the natural slope of the hill, the garden stretched upward and gradually blended into the mountain. Entering the garden and walking northward along the rustic stone steps, visitors would soon find a plain door frame, hidden in the green trees. There, among the shade of the ancient trees, stood a small three-room house on a hummock. On the west and the north, a small artificial hill, built with lake pebbles, gradually melded so naturally into the mountain, with flowers and trees like roses, pines and pomegranates dotted here and there, that it was hard to distinguish the artificial from the real. Nearby, the wall was half covered with rocks and plants, so the garden merged into the outside forests and mountains. Further up was the terrace of the main building of the garden, the Linglan Study ÆF Äi ºë ªÙ, standing on the mountainside, which overlooked the green mountain scenery on which stood a lofty ancient tower. All in all, the artificial buildings were harmoniously integrated with the natural scenery. This kind of design on the one hand satisfied the needs of daily life, feasts and entertainment, while on the other, made itself part of nature, creating a man-made landscape with such great craftsmanship that ¡§although it is made by man, it is as if formed by nature.¡¨
Raising the Visitors¡¦ Awareness of the Beauty of Space
In general, private gardens in the cities were small in size, so the designers employed various architectural techniques to arrange the position and expand the visual space, such as winding and covering, hiding and revealing, closing and opening, separating and borrowing, to raise visitors¡¦ awareness of the esthetic use of space.
The most frequently applied techniques in garden construction were the masterly use of contrast between the straight and the winding, the closed and the open, and the light and the shade. The Lingering Garden was a good example: the entrance path to the garden was spiral and the Pavilion of Intertwined Old Trees was located partially in dark shadows beside the entrance. Then, all of a sudden, the view became open and bright at the Hanbi Mountain Lodge ²[ ºÑ ¤s ©Ð, where a clear pond was surrounded by artificial hills, with terraces winding on the left and pavilions standing on the right, forming a picturesque natural landscape. However, if visitors walked through the long and narrow corridors in the eastern Winding Brook Chamber and the West Building into the tremendous Enchanted Hall of Five Peaks, they would get the feeling of being indoors. Then, after walking through the small but airy gardens, such as the Crane Garden, the Small Courtyard of Stone Forests and the Peak House, visitors would arrive at the big gardens like the Cloud-Crowned Peak and the Hall for Eminent Elders; they would be inspired by the greatness and spaciousness and by the magnificent view. Frequent transitions between opening and shrinking in space, bright and dim in light, and large and small in size could effectively raise visitors¡¦ awareness of the esthetic use of space.
Humble Administrator's Garden |
These techniques could also be seen in the design of the Humble Administrator¡¦s Garden. Whichever directions the visitors looked, no matter whether it was from the west part of the garden into the eastward distance of the Lotus Pavilion, or from the east side of the middle area to the Green Shade Corridor in the west, they would see a screen of waterside willows, waving and dancing in the breeze, filmy and misty like silky green curtains, making the vista nearby only dimly visible from time to time. The charming beauty of such a borderland was created when trees and flowers were partially veiled and were a foil for each other.
The advantage of this garden-making technique was also well illustrated in the Yipu Garden ÃÀ ®E. A slim and statuesque lake rockwork stood at the entrance of the small Qinlu Court ªà Ãf ¤p °|, half concealing the moon-shaped gate behind it. Therefore, both the rockwork and the gate were somewhat hidden from each other and were a foil for each other, adding a formal beauty and a deeper and more serene attraction to the scenery inside. The mysterious beauty of the scenery was created by being appropriately hidden behind the artificial hills and rockworks.
There were two moon-shaped openings in the boundary wall of the Qinlu Court of the Yipu Garden. The scenery there was mostly hidden behind the wall but was partially visible through the two moon-shaped openings. This was a more-hidden-less-exposed scenic area. From different angles, visitors could get a tranquil view of the two moon-shaped openings either contrasting finely with each other or encircling each other. Meanwhile, the hills, flowers, trees, brooks and bridges dotted inside and outside these two openings made the spatial arrangement more complex and exquisite.
Other important techniques for arranging and extending the spatial dimension in garden designs were ¡§separating¡¨, ¡§partitioning¡¨ and ¡§borrowing¡¨. As a principle, waters must be devious and gardens must be separated. Without the dividing and hiding effects created by the winding corridors, trees or artificial hills, a small garden could only be a small enclosure.
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It was the masterly partitioning that prevented the garden from being seen at a single glance, thereby giving a small garden the potential to look larger and more elegant to visitors. That explained why the more partitions there are, the larger the garden looks. A successful application of this technique could be found in the Small Courtyard of Stone Forests in the Lingering Garden. There were two studies designed according to the concept of ¡§serene and easy, deep and endless,¡¨ which created grand scenes in a small garden and illustrated intricate designs in zigzags. In this small area, measuring only twenty-nine meters in length and seventeen meters in width, there were as many as thirty-eight patios and side yards of with diverse forms and sizes, either connected or separate, either chained to or encircled by one another. This small and exquisite courtyard containing many architectural structures became representative of ancient private gardens of this kind.
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Borrowing referred to the technique of implying infinite space in a limited area by borrowing pleasant scenes inside or outside the garden. After thousands of years, this technique has developed a variety of forms, such as borrowing distant scenes, borrowing nearby scenes, borrowing adjacent scenes, concrete borrowing, abstract borrowing, mirror borrowing and seasonable borrowing. These techniques were finely exploited in the famous Tangan Garden ÀÈ °® ¶é in Huizhou City À² ¦{. To its north, there towered several peaks of the Huangshan Mountain ¶À ¤s, while the Pingding Mountain ¥ ³» ¤swith its lofty ancient trees stretched like a screen to the north. These two mountains, one far away and the other nearby, set off the Tangan Garden, and made the best borrowed scenes for the garden. The Jingting Pavilion Ãè «F in the garden was also settled with these borrowed mountain views as its background, like an elegantly decorated boat on the lake. Looking afar, one could gain a good view of the beautiful green mountains surrounding Little West Lake, within which the pavilion was located. Climbing up to the platform in front of the pavilion, the plains and hills outside the garden would come into the visitors¡¦ sight. A leisurely look at the mirror-like water-face would treat visitors to a fascinating view of inverted images of hills, trees, blue skies and white clouds. That was abstract borrowing. Taking advantage of the concrete borrowing of the distant and nearby mountains and the abstract borrowing of the mirror effect of the lake, all the beauty in nature was brought into the Tangan Garden.
All these techniques were designed to give a far-reaching view within a restricted area through the arrangement, organization, creation and extension of space, thus adding to the visitors¡¦ esthetic appreciation of the space.
Bring in the Bright Moon and the Fresh Breeze from Nature
The artificial hills, pools, brooks, trees, flowers and architecture in the garden could only compose the framework of the scenery, the spirit and vitality of the garden had to rely on the effective use of ever-changing nature, such as rain, wind, clouds and sunshine. Therefore, every garden designer attempted to bring into the garden the shades of clouds, the sheen of sunlight, the changes of daylight from dawn to dusk and the variations in weather, enabling even a small garden to contain beautiful, diverse scenery. This technique was effectively applied in both private and royal gardens.
All the famous Chinese gardens had their waterside scenic spots designed for viewing the moon. Among the Ten Scenes of the West Lake, two were designed especially for this purpose, Autumn Moon over the Calm Lake being one. At this scenic spot, a platform was constructed on the lake, with a small pavilion standing on it. This area was surrounded by water on three sides and thus became the best place for appreciating the moon in autumn. As the ancient saying went, ¡§Whenever the autumn comes with fresh breezes, the water-face of the lake would ripple with silky dimples. The moon shines in the vast sky, and everything is bathed in its bright cast. You may feel as if you were in a fairy land of pearls and jade, the earthly land simply disappeared.¡¨
The Moon on the Rippling River in the Chengde Mountain Resort was another wonderful site to enjoy the moon. Whenever the bright harvest moon was shining in the dark blue sky, the water-face of the river would mirror its silver and pearl light, and a soft lullaby would be heard as the ripples lapped against the shore.
The afterglow of sunset, just as with moonlight, was an indispensable sight in Chinese gardens. The Zhenzi Valley ºd ¤l, located by the west side of the Chengde Mountain Resort, had a lookout pavilion on the peak of the lakeside hill to the north. This pavilion was specially designed for the sunset view on the opposite side, and was named ¡§Afterglow on the Qingchui Peak ·² ¤s ³» ´º «F.¡¨ At dusk, the setting sun would cast its lingering rays right on the towering Qingchui Peak, making it brilliant and dazzling and adding a mysterious charm to the eastern mountain views.
The sight of rain, as with moonlight, could also evoke sentimental emotions and imaginings. The Haze-and-Rain Pavilion in Jiaxing City ¹Å ¿³, Zhejiang Province ®ý ¦¿ ¬Ù was a well-known site for appreciating rainy scenes. This pavilion was built on an island in the middle of the South Lake. With haze and mist swirling around, it was even more attractive in the rain: the silver lake rippling, the haze steaming, the green trees swaying, the pavilion standing alone, a small boat barely seen in lotus flowers ¡X in effect, a beautiful ink-painting of Southern China!
In the Yuyuan Garden ¿Ý ¶é in Shanghai, facing a huge artificial hill, stood the Rain-Splashing Pavilion. With its eaves pointing upward, the pavilion looked like a flock of phoenixes flying towards the sky. This scene was especially beautiful in the rain, when the rainwater flowed along the steep roof, splashing far away at the curving eaves like huge pearls dropping down from the sky. This scene would perhaps remind visitors of the line by Wang Bo, describing the Pavilion of Prince Teng ¼ð ¤ý »Õ : ¡§Pearly window curtains flutter in the evening rain of the West Hills.¡¨
The majority of gardens in and around Suzhou took viewing the moon and listening to the rain as their thematic concept: there was the exquisite Moon-Viewing Pavilion in the Tuisi Garden °h «ä ¶é in Wujiang§d¦¿; the Beauty Xi Shi-Playing-with-the-Moon Pond at the Guanwa Palace À] «½ ®c relics in the Lingyan Mountain ÆF ©¥ ¤s; and the Moon-embracing Pavilion behind Tiger Hill. The most evocative name might be the Moon-sound Porch in the Art Garden, almost as if one could hear the moon whispering, enhancing the mystery and charm of the landscape. Another example was the Rain-listening Room in the Humble Administrator¡¦s Garden. With banana trees and bamboo lushly planted inside, the garden was full of the musical rhythm of raindrops patting on the banana leaves when it was raining.
The Charm of Rocks and Stone
Artificial hills were a representative feature of the gardens in Suzhou. The Grand Lakeland-stone Rockwork in the Huanxiu Mountain Villa Àô ¨q ¤s ²ø was the best-known man-made hill, and was designed by Ge Yuliang ¤à ¸Î ¨}, an expert in constructing artificial mountains. This rockwork was regarded as a model of copying from nature. It occupied an area of merely half a mu, (about 333 square meters) but the rocks snaked and zigzagged, spiraling upwards and downwards, encircling, overlapping and embedded, giving a rich and complex feel to the structure. The remarks made by the famous painter Shi Tao ¥Û ÀÜ about some traditional Chinese ink-paintings might well be paraphrased to describe the agglomeration of rocks: ¡§some leaning upward and others leaning downward, some slanting and others leaning, some gathering and others separating, some near and others faraway, some inside and others outside, some false and others true full, some broken and others connected, some open and others closed, some vaulted and others standing, some squatting and others jumping, some majestic, some gorgeous, some steep, some precipitous, some hierarchical, some stripped, some charming and some barely discernible.¡¨ This rocky structure deserved the honor of being described as ¡§one mountain possessing the forms of hundreds of mountains.¡¨ In addition, when seen from different angles and perspectives, that is, from mansions, houses, halls, pavilions, boats, bridges, cliffs, valleys, hills and caves, this hill took on diverse looks. In Su Shi¡¦s words, ¡§Lengthwise we see the ridges, sidewise the peaks. Different shapes of the mountain are seen at various heights and distances.¡¨
Besides being used to resemble hills, the Taihu Lake Rocks were also the raw material for the construction of peaks in the gardens in Suzhou. Peaks constituted another important element of garden views. Rare stones and unusual peaks could be found everywhere in the gardens in Suzhou. The most prized was the Cloud-crowned Peak in the Lingering Garden. Small wonder the Cloud-crowned Peak was considered to be the best rockwork to the south of the Yangtze River.
The Beauty of Flowers and Trees
In addition to the pavilions, terraces, buildings, hills, brooks and rocks, the indispensable elements in traditional Chinese gardens were flowers and trees. The gardens in Suzhou provided a rich display of beautiful trees and flowers, which, in their various colors, pleasant fragrances, shape and special characteristics, greatly added to the charm of the gardens. Furthermore, different flowers were designed to bloom in different seasons, giving a changeable beauty. The Humble Administrator¡¦s Garden was famous for its flowers all the year round: in spring, there were magnolia blossoms, pure as snow, in the Magnolia Yard; malus spectabilis blossoms, red as rosy sunglow, in the Court of Spring Crabapples; and peonies, pink with red and white petals, in the Xiuqi Pavilion; in summer, lotuses in the ponds looked beautiful and gave off a fragrant scent; in autumn, the highlight was the view of the crimson maple leaves surrounding the Waiting-for-the-Frost Pavilion on the northern hill; and in winter, the calyx against the snow were a highly appreciated spectacle in the Snow-and-Cloud Pavilion.
The Master Fisherman Garden also offered an attractive floral show. The garden blossomed throughout the year with forsythia, magnolia and costustoot in spring, wisteria and lotuses in summer, sweet osmanthus and maple leaves in autumn and pines, cypresses, plum blossoms and bamboo in winter. In fact, almost all of the famous gardens in Suzhou were so full of flowers that anyone of them could have qualified as the realm described by the great poet Ouyang Xiu ¼Ú ¶§ ×: ¡§never have a day in the garden without blossoms.¡¨
Special emphasis was given to the appreciation of ancient trees in traditional Chinese gardens. The four giant ancient cypresses in the Minister Temple in Guangfu ¥ú ºÖ, Wuxian County §d ¿¤, with their unique shapes, all implied a feeling of restiveness, lankness and ruggedness. They were said to have been planted in person by Deng Yu ¾H ¬ê, a renowned minister in the Han Dynasty, and were named by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty as elegant, quaint, antique and weird respectively, in accordance with their own characteristics.
To the south of the pool in the Master Fisherman Garden, there was an antique Er-Qiao (Senior and Junior Sisters Qiao) magnolia, whose branches spread arrisways in the air and intercrossed. The blossoms were pure white in the upper part of the petals and light purple in the lower, one overlapping another, dense but not cluttered, demonstrating the great vitality of nature.
The Beauty of Black and White Shadows of Light
All the royal gardens in Beijing looked as imposing and magnificent as the splendid Chinese landscape paintings by Li Sixun §õ «ä °V of the Tang Dynasty. However, the private gardens in Suzhou were of a totally different style. Architectural structures in Suzhou gardens were peculiar with their black tiles and whitewashed walls, simple and elegant, with the charm of a sharp contrast between black and white. White walls were of great importance in the composition of gardens, for without the foil or partition of the white walls, the charm and beauty of the trees, flowers, hills or rocks in the garden would be largely reduced.
In Chinese gardens, great attention was paid to the beauty of the shadows from the light. Take the Joy Garden for example: in the southern courtyard of the Stone-Worshiping Hall, there stood a white wall facing west. At sunset, the rockworks, peaks, bamboo, cypresses and the other trees and flowers in the garden all cast the black shadows of their profiles onto the white wall, artistically abstract and deforming, overlapping and flickering in different shades and shapes, making up a picture of lingering attraction.
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