Lingering Garden
Lingering Garden is one of the four major gardens in China and one of the Suzhou gardens listed as the World Cultural Heritage site by UNESCO. Situated between Suzhou’s Changmen City Gate and the Tiger Hill, it was built in the 16th century. Its founder was Xu Taishi, a high-ranking official. It was first named East Garden, as opposed to the West Garden that was laid out west of it at the same time by the same person.
In 1798 the garden was owned by Liu Rongfeng, an official in charge of military affairs. It was repaired and renamed the Cold Azure Mountain Villa. Local people thought it was too literary to remember, and used to call it Liu Family’s Garden, or simply Liu’s Garden and Liu Garden.
In 1876, Sheng Xuren, a provincial official took over the garden. The new owner, Sheng Family, changed the garden’s family name Liu into another Chinese character liu wuth the same pronunciation. This character liu means “linger to stay”. This is only a play on wards. Since then, the garden ahs been known as Liu Garden or the Lingering Garden.
During the Anti-Japanese War the garden was occupied by Japanese horsemen and reduced to ruins. In 1953, the people’s government repaired the garden and restored its former splendor.
The garden covers an area of 34.9 mu, or about six acres. It’s composed of the central, eastern, western, and northern sections, with the central and eastern sections being its quintessence. The western area is noted for natural scenery with rockeries, woods and brooks; and the northern part, rustic scenery.
Most buildings in the garden are naturally connected by a 670-metre-long winding corridor. So the garden’s characteristics are well-knit composition and infinite variety. And groups of the buildings are designed ingeniously to divide and compose the space into ever-changing garden scenes.
Picturesque Courtyard
The lay-out of the courtyard is quite unique. You see the rockeries and plants are arranged with the white wall as the background. Such a design is based on the idea that the white wall is like a sheet of paper, and it is painted with trees, flowers and rocks as the main theme. It’s regarded as a Chinese traditional painting.
Stone Engravings
Set in the white walls along the corridors are over 373 stone engravings. They record essays and poems written by ancient scholars in past dynasties or show beautiful calligraphy written by famous calligraphers centuries ago such as Wang Xizhi, Mifu and others.
Intertwined Old Trees
Grown on the flower bed are two trees, one is cypress and the other is camellia.
Above the trees is a brick tablet carved with four characters reading Old Trees with Intertwined Branches. It’s well designed to form a scene decorating such a tiny yard in order to let in sunbeams and fresh air. On the other hand it acts as a nice painting. The intertwined trees are a symbol of a happy pair-husband and wife.
Six Lattice Windows
Lattice windows, also known as flowery windows or pattern windows, play big role in embellishing Suzhou gardens. Their designs are different from each other. Through theme, visitors can see scenery changing while walking along the corridor.
Green Shade Studio
Staying in this water-side studio named Green Shade, we can see that rockeries, terraces, pavilions and trees are tastefully laid out around a pool. In spring when all the trees are turning green and birds are chirping in trees, the scene viewed from here is really charming. Then wisteria is flowering with purple colour over the zigzag bridge.
At the far end of the pool three giant gingko trees, believed to be about 300 years old, turn green in early April after winter jasmine is blooming with yellow flowers in early spring.
Fresh and Clear Tower
Turning to west from Green Shade, we can see a classical building by the pond. It’s the Fresh and Clear Tower. Seen from across the pool, this building looks like a two-storied cabin in a pleasure boat. When a breeze riffles the pond, it resembles a painted pleasure-boat cruising against the current, or along the current.
Lotus Hall
Azure-Containing Mountain House, also called Lotus Hall, is the main hall in the central part of the garden. North of it, a abroad terrace stretches to a lotus pond. So it is a place to view lotus flowers.
Osmanthus Pavilion
Following the long zigzag corridor up the hill, we reach the Pavilion for Smelling the Aroma of Osmanthus from which we can command an overall view of the middle section.
Osmanthus blooms in mid-autumn, when we Chinese celebrate the mid-autumn so we can see the moon rising from the east in the evening. Garden designers hold it’s the place to appreciate the autumn scenery.
Main Rockery
It is the highest place in the garden. On the rockery stands the Enjoyable
Pavilion. Behind it, grow two huge gingko trees, which are living fossil trees.
The ground around the pavilion is decorated or paved with eight designs known as Hidden Eight Immortals. Totally eight designs symbolize eight articles carried by Eight Immortals in Taoist, for instance, a fan , a ground, a lotus flower, etc. When it snows in the winter, it is good place for people to see the snowy scenery of the garden.
Other Scenic Spots
Other scenic spots in the central part include Distant Greenery Chamber, zigzag bridge on the Little Fairy Land, Fish-watching Pavilion, Winding Brook Chamber, Cool Breeze Water Verandah as well as a peony flower-bed carved in the Ming Dynasty.
Five Peak Fairy Hall
When we enter the eastern scenic area, what we see first is the Five-Peak Fairy Hall. It is also called Nanmu Hall because its structural parts and furniture are made of Phoebe nanmu wood. Nanmu is a very good which is never rotton. It is unique to China. The hall produces an effect of magnificence and elegance. It is the largest hall in all gardens in Suzhou.
In old days the owner of the garden received his distinguished guests in this nanmu hall. And grand occasions such as birthday, wedding day and festivals were held in this hall, too.
Displayed in the northwest corner of the hall is a round marble stone as large as a round table top. It is a whole piece showing the natural scenery in the mountainous area after raining. This rare stone is produced in the Diancang Mountain, Yunnan Provinces, southwest China.
Bowing Rocks Studio
The Bowing Rocks Studio is also called the Small Courtyard of Stone Forest. It is an independent garden court, quiet and unique. It’s adorned with winding corridors and an assortment of strangely shaped rocks.
Three windows in the studio are like three pictures. Behind them is a small garden plot, known as a sky-well, with bamboo and rocks. Set off against the white wall behind, they look like three beautiful old Chinese paintings.
The studio faces a rockery courtyard. The rock in the middle resembles an eagle. Lower right is a stone which looks like the head of a dog. It seems that there appears a fighting between the two animals.
A lot of framed windows from rather beautiful window scenes which look like charming pictures. Their frames are square, rectangular, hexagonal or octagonal. Especially the window in the south looks like a mirror reflecting the Eagle Rock into it. Actually behind the window lies another rock so as to form an opposite scene. It is a visual illusion. But it is a great success in piling up rockeries, showing the real expertise of classical gardening done by Suzhou’s craftsmen in ancient times.
Hall of Relaxation for Eminent Elders
It is one of the three largest buildings in the garden. Architecturally it is ingeniously designed and magnificently constructed. Under its single roof rest two separate houses, each having its own separate roofs. Doors, windows, beams, pillars and furniture are different in style in its northern and southern halls. This kind of classical building is called the Mandarin Ducks Hall. Its southern part was used for the wife of the owner to receive her friends while the northern part for gentlemen. Because the northern part is much better. It faces the Cloud-Crowned Peak in the northern garden court.
Cloud-Crowned Peak
It is a 6.5-metre-tall Taihu Rock weighing about five tons. This is an ornamental rock standing opposite the Hall of Relaxation for Eminent Elders. The rock has all the four features required of Taihu rockery, i.e., it is lean, wrinkled, hollow and perforated. The rock looks slim and has rugged contours. It is hollowed because it contains a lot of pierced cavities. And it is perforated because there are lots of small holes inside it. After raining, the rock can drain the rain water through these inner tiny holes.
The manufacture of such rocks has a long history. Back in the Song Dynasty some 900 years ago, stone masons living by Taihu Lake brought rocks from the mountains and chiseled them into different shapes. Then the rocks were placed in the lake for many years, where the waves eventually rubbed them smooth. The saying goes that Zhu Mian of the Song Dynasty originally intended to give this Cloud-Crowned Peak to the emperor for the imperial garden. But it was too heavy, so it remained in Suzhou.
Beside the peak stand two other rocks, one called the Auspicious Cloud Peak to the east and the other, the Mountainous Cloud Peak to the west. The three rocks are known as the Three Peaks of the Lingering Garden.
The two-storied building behind them is named the Cloud-Crowned Building. The pavilion nearby is called the Cloud-Crowned Pavilion. As its foot is a tiny pond with water lily growing and gold fish swimming. It is named the Cloud-Washing Pool.
Another Village
Heading westward from the three peaks, we can see the Pavilion of Clear Skies, Seasonable Rain and Gratifying Snow. Walking along a winding corridor, we come to the northern part of the garden, where is a spacious Chinese-rose nursery, providing the rustic scenery.
Further on, we get to a moon gate with Another Village carved above. Inside it we’ll be glad to find hundreds of potted landscapes in a garden court, which is a complete display of Suzhou miniature landscapes. Then appears a hill built up of yellow rocks, picturesque and wild in a natural setting. When autumn comes, the flaming red of maple trees on this earthern hill matches up the gingko foliage of
the central section in a riot of colours.
A flight of steps up the hill takes visitors to Shout-for-Joy Pavilion and Ultimate Happiness Pavilion. By a small stream at the foot of the hill lies the Pavilion of Liveliness Place, a rustic waterside pavilion.
The exquisite close-knit structure of the Lingering Garden and the open scenery of the Humble Administrator’s Garden are regarded as to linger in this garden of enchantment.
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