Suzhou Couple Garden | A niche beautiful garden about love

#suzhou

 

The October 1 holiday is coming soon. Suzhou, as an ancient city with many classical garden buildings, has always been loved by everyone. Porcelain Editorial Department comes to Suzhou and helps you visit Suzhou gardens in advance. What? You said you wanted to go to the Humble Administrator's Garden, Lion Grove Garden, and The Lingering Garden? Farewell, they are beautiful, but the garden, which is crowded with people three hundred and sixty-five days a year, always feels a little less interesting.

 

We feel that the most important thing to experience the southern gardens is to enjoy the tranquility of "although they are made by people, they are open from the sky",so this time Ciqi chose a not-so-popular garden hidden deep in an alley, and carefully designed it I have prepared for you a information-filled piece of popular science about Suzhou gardens. Please read it patiently to ensure that you are different from those novices who check in everywhere .

 

"Couples live in a garden, and a city of poems is built with the music of the city." The word "couple" here refers to the couple's marriage, which means that the husband sings and the wife follows, and returns to the fields to live in seclusion. Therefore, the couple garden is a symbol of beautiful love (we will not say that the editorial department is here for this symbolic meaning), and this meaning comes from a story that happened more than a hundred years ago...

 

The male protagonist of the story is named Shen Bingcheng, a native of Huzhou, Zhejiang. He has been very smart since he was a child and likes to read. In the 29th year of Daoguang's reign (1849), he passed the imperial examination and served successively as Susongtai Taoist priest, governor of Anhui, and inspector of various places. The heroine's name is Yan Yonghua, a native of Tongxiang, Zhejiang. She is good at all kinds of paintings, poetry, music and rhythm, and can be called a talented woman of her generation. The combination of these two people seems to be a match made in heaven and envies others, but in fact, Yan Yonghua is Shen Bingcheng's third wife.

But in the love between two people, what does it matter? The two people met only because of a handkerchief with flowers and birds painted on it and a poem inscribed on it. In the late Qing Dynasty, sending love tokens like this could be regarded as a proper private commitment to lifelong free love. After marriage, the two fell in love and lived a happy life.

 

But at that time, Shen Bingcheng was going through the turmoil of his official career and wanted to retire. He happened to buy a garden (he had money), so he hired a designer to tidy it up and secluded it with his wife. Shen Bingcheng was very emotional about this love, so he named the garden Coupling Garden based on the meaning of the sentence in "The Analects of Confucius: Wei Zi", "Chang Ju and Jie dote on the couple and cultivate the land".

It is precisely because there is such a true story in the long history that today's couple garden is given the meaning of love.

Couple Garden is located deep in Xiaoxinqiao Lane, Cang Street, Suzhou City, facing the river on three sides and along the street on one side. The total area of ​​the garden is about 8,000 square meters. If you take a taxi here and get off the bus, you won't see the gate you imagined. If it weren't for the sign, you would think you're in the wrong place. Walk 50 meters along the river, and you will see willows rippling along the blue waves. After passing through a small archway, you will see a white wall. At this time, you can fully appreciate the artistic conception of "people are all pillowing the river".

 

This kind of leisure is even more reflected in the gardener. "Frustrated seclusion" is the cultural foundation of all Suzhou gardens, and it is also the intention when the couple garden was built. The owner of the garden, Shen Bingcheng, was a scholar at the time. Although he had lofty ideals for an official career, after suffering the poison of the sinister human heart of the officialdom, he gradually forgot his previous achievements and became tired of pursuing an official career. Apart from the hustle and bustle of material life, he attached great importance to mountains and rivers, stacking mountains and rocks, building pavilions and pavilions, and raising plants.

 

Similar to the ups and downs of love between the male and female protagonists, the couple itself also experienced ups and downs and was damaged several times. The renovated garden adopts the layout of "one house and two gardens", which is different from most classical private gardens of "house in front and garden in back". It is an isolated example of the existing classical gardens in Suzhou.

 

Panoramic view of the couple garden, picture from tumblr

 

The garden is divided into three parts, from west to east, the west garden, the central residence, and the east garden. The east garden is mainly used as a recreational garden, and the west garden is used for collecting books and studying. The central residential area has a typical traditional layout of large-scale residential buildings in the south of the Yangtze River, with entrance halls, sedan halls, halls and halls in sequence from south to north.

 

The overall layout of the Coupling Garden is square, and the internal layout of the two gardens is also very similar. They are both composed of a mountain, a water, and a center. The scale of each courtyard is almost the same.

When you stand in a certain place to appreciate another scene, this scene is the "opposite scene" of your location. Looking through the doorway or window, the scenery looks like a painting embedded in a frame. In the Couple Garden and Suzhou Gardens, this method of gardening with contrasting scenery is widely used. It can be presented in many ways. Buildings, plants, rockery and other elements can all be used as contrasting scenery. In addition to Suzhou private gardens and royal gardens in the north, French gardens, Islamic gardens and Japanese gardens also often use the method of gardening with contrasting scenery.

 

In the coupling garden, there are both front and side views. As the name suggests, the front view is to set up the scene directly in front of your sight. This form gives people a strong sense of order and a sense of solemnity; while the side view is different, it has the "still holding the pipa" The artistic effect of "half-masking" , the atmosphere created by this method of landscaping is very relaxing.

 

Standing on the gravel road, across the pond, you look at the small bridges, rockeries on the other side, and the branches that seem to be deliberately stretched out in front of your eyes as a foil. They are all beautiful landscapes carefully created by the designers.

 

Since the buildings in the coupling garden are dense and small in area, in order to increase the level of the landscape in the limited space, the garden architect used walls to separate the landscape. In order to break the dullness of solid walls, landscapers will also cut holes in the walls to create leaky windows. Leaking windows are the favorite in gardens. They are different from windows in housesbuildings. They cannot be opened and closed. They only serve to separate and borrow scenery. They are widely used in private gardens in the south of the Yangtze River. Among them, the leaky windows in Suzhou gardens are recognized as masterpieces among garden leaky windows due to their rich patterns and exquisite workmanship.

sun pattern window

The breeze blows slowly, and the comfortable sunshine illuminates the beautiful scenery on the opposite side of the wall through the leaky window. The shadow reflected on the ground seems to be a flowing image, and the mottled colors add a bit of agility to the garden.

 

Architect I.M. Pei once said, "In the West, windows are windows, through which light and fresh air are let in. Air. But for the Chinese it is a picture frame, and the garden is always outside it. "This sentence reveals the role of windows in borrowing scenery.

The ancients' understanding of all things in nature was different from that of modern people. They would use all things to express their good wishes for future life. Leaky windows are one of these forms. The builders will make the patterns of the window core into patterns such as flowers, birds, animals, and text, giving the graphics an auspicious meaning.

For example, the sun pattern, ten thousand character pattern, Dingsheng pattern, Buddha's hand pattern, wishful thinking pattern, etc. all express worldly wishes such as blessing, wealth, longevity, happiness, wealth, and exorcism. The shapes of happy characters, autumn leaves, and red leaves express good wishes for love and marriage. The Couple Garden displays the pattern of "happy" characters on many leaky windows, embodying the beauty of the "Garden of Love" everywhere. It has to be said that the ancients were more subtle and profound in showing affection than modern people.

 

Most of the rockeries in Chinese gardens are located on the north side of the main building or pool in the garden, or in the northwest and northeast directions of the garden. However, in some small and medium-sized gardens, including coupling gardens, due to the limited overall area, they can only adapt to local conditions and follow the trend.

At that time, Shen Bingcheng asked someone to design this rockery in Couple Garden because he missed his years as an official in Anhui. In Suzhou classical gardens, Taihu stones are generally used to create the main scenery. However, there is only one garden where Huangshi stacked mountains are used as the main scenery.

 

Although the area of ​​the coupling garden is not large, the construction area of ​​the Huangshi rockery in the garden is relatively large. Walking up to the top of the mountain, different viewing positions can produce different viewing effects, which is quite artistic.

 

The ideal place for the garden life of ancient scholar-bureaucrats was the "urban forest", which reproduced the natural landscape in an artificial way. You can admire the majestic yellow stone rockery in the east and the beautiful lake rockery in the west. You can not only enjoy the material life of the city, but also linger in the mountains, forests and streams. It can be said to be the most elegant and ideal living space for scholar-bureaucrats.

 

 

 

Corresponding to the mountains is water. The outer ring of the coupling garden has a vast water surface, and the interior is also carefully designed. In addition, there is a corridor built next to the pool for people to look around, and the entire space has an ever-changing and dynamic beauty.

The shape of the pool in the coupling garden is very simple, surrounded by lake rocks, flowers and trees; fish are raised and water lilies and lotus are planted in the pool. The ancients compared "water" to a humble gentleman. The waterscape brought them vitality and inner peace.

The two-phase seal of lakes and mountains

"The scenery is better than the curve", the curved bridge is a unique bridge style in gardens. Most of the curved bridges in the coupling garden have folded corners to extend the scenery and expand the landscape area.

 

Curved bridges are generally composed of stone slabs and railings. The stone slabs are slightly higher than the water surface and the railings are low, creating an implicit beauty that seems to be inseparable from the water surface. At the same time, the curved bridge is also a link between the scenic spots in the garden. Because the distance between the landscapes in the garden is very limited, the construction of the bridge not only has the effect of stretching the longitudinal space, but also changes the perspective every time you take a step. There are new changes, forming different viewing effects.

"樨" refers to osmanthus, which is homophonic with "wife" and is also another name for sweet-scented osmanthus. Corridors connect various major viewing spots. The one corresponding to it in the east is called Junlang. The newly born bamboo in early spring is called "Jun", which is a homophonic pronunciation of "Jun". The opposite of Junlang means beautiful love. In the corridor, you can best feel the wonderful artistic conception of changing scenery as you move.

The long corridor of Couple Garden is zigzag shaped. Walking on the promenade, the scenery in front of you keeps changing, which gives people endless fun. At the same time, it is also a link between scenic spots, which cleverly leads tourists to the next garden scenic spot.

 

Similar to painting, garden landscaping also often uses the technique of "leaving blank space". In addition to very common landscaping such as empty pavilions, In addition to form, cave gates are also an indispensable part of classical garden architecture.

 

Most of the gates in Suzhou gardens have only door frames but no door leaves, and their shapes vary. Full moon, hexagon, crabapple, gourd, vase "Hu Lu" and "Fu Lu" have the same pronunciation, which symbolizes good fortune; the treasure bottle is the container for Guanyin to hold water, which implies the meaning of wisdom and perfection. At the same time, "Ping" and "Ping" have the same pronunciation, which symbolizes the gardener's expectation for peace and happiness.

 

The hollowed-out cave door establishes a connection with other landscapes in the garden. Through the cave door, you can see the sunlight shining freely. Walking here, you can realize the garden designer's understanding of the garden from the all kinds of strange cave doors The vision of a better life.

 

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"Mountains, rivers, vegetation, and nature are created by nature." There is also a place like Coupling Garden in Suzhou, which is an undisturbed mountain forest in the city. Here, you can sit on a stone bench, lean on a curved bridge, or lean on a rockery; Listening to the wind, the chirping of birds, and watching the leaves fluttering, I feel the fullness of autumn. Or brew a pot of Biluochun in the teahouse in the park, listen to a Pingtan song, relax your mind, and take a nap. During the upcoming National Day holiday, I hope that those who plan to go to Suzhou will not have to squeeze in the popular Lion Grove Garden and Humble Administrator's Garden. The sparsely populated, quiet and elegant Couple Garden, we personally tested it and it is very fragrant.