Canglang Pavilion is the oldest surviving classical garden in Suzhou, with a history of nearly 1,000 years. Originally, it was the garden where Sun Chengyou, a cousin of Qian Yuanji, the King of Guangling, lived in the fifth dynasty. In the fourth year of the Northern Song Dynasty, su Shunqin, a poet who was an official in the dynasty, was dismissed from his post for supporting Fan Zhongyan's reform of the calendar, and came to Suzhou and bought the garden. According to historical records, Su Shunqin spent forty thousand green dollars (about 12 gold) to buy this garden, after buying this garden, Su Shunqin built a small pavilion on the waterfront of this garden, taking the song "The water of the canglang is clear, you can mao me; the water of the canglang is turbid, you can maze my feet" in "Mencius Lilou", and the pavilion is named "Canglang Pavilion", in order to show a kind of pure interest that transcends fame and fortune and returns to nature. After that, the garden was destroyed several times and changed owners several times. During the Shaoxing period of the Southern Song Dynasty, Canglang Pavilion was purchased by the famous anti-Jin general Han Shizhong and renamed "Han Garden". In the Yuan and Ming dynasties, it became the Myo yin nunnery and the Dayun Nunnery where the monks lived. Most of the buildings in the garden today were built during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty.
In 1963, Canglang Pavilion was listed as a cultural relics protection unit in Jiangsu Province. In 2000, it was listed as one of the typical examples of Suzhou classical gardens as a world cultural heritage.
In front of this stone arch, there are four words "The Victory of the Waves", which was inscribed by Mr. Yu Fan, a master of the late Qing Dynasty. It tells us that there is a famous historical site in Suzhou, Canglang Pavilion. Canglang Pavilion is not only a pavilion, it is the oldest existing classical garden in Suzhou, with a history of nearly a thousand years.
Canglang Pavilion is currently the only one in Suzhou that can enjoy a partial view without buying a ticket. Pacing the Canglang Pavilion, before entering the garden gate, you will see a pool of green water around the outside of the garden, the water mountain is rocky, the complex corridor is winding like a belt, and the leaky window in the corridor integrates the landscape and water inside and outside the garden.
Water is too familiar and too important for Suzhou people. Water is not only necessary for daily life, but also a cultural material for the ancient literati to create an ideal living space. Chinese used to call "landscape" "landscape", which shows how important water is in the aesthetic consciousness of Chinese. In front of the water, on the one hand, it makes the scenery in the park look like it is not separated, and the forest is far away and ethereal, with the characteristics of simple and clear style. And the role of the stream outside the garden that seems to be separated from the garden constitutes a barrier in Su Shunqin's spirit, which plays a role in separating dust and separating mortals, and this practice of replacing the garden wall with water is his originality, in addition, from here you can also see another feature of Canglang Pavilion that is different from other classical gardens in Suzhou, that is: breaking the closed pattern of high walls around, self-formed hills and ravines, with the help of superior natural terrain, using the water surface outside the garden, so that the building has a vivid and lively appearance and jagged outer contour lines, A long water-attached corridor was also built along the river to integrate the water directly with the garden. Along the corridor, there are also waterside pavilions such as Lotus Champs, MianShuixuan, and Fish Viewing, which serve as the turning and closing of the veranda connection, giving people the feeling of stream twists and turns and open water surfaces. Form an open layout feature. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, it has always been a place for officials and gentry to feast and drink, and literati to gather elegantly, so it is generally believed that Canglang Pavilion is one of the earliest public gardens in ancient China.
There is a flat stone bridge over the river. Walking across the stone bridge, there is an exquisite brick gatehouse.
The "Canglang Pavilion" plaque in the Song style on the brick carved gate tower is inscribed by Wen Zhengming.
Standing on the stone girder bridge in front of the entrance main entrance, looking east, the water surface here is gradually widening, the ancient trees on the water's edge are towering, the pavilion and Xuan can be seen, here, although it has not yet entered the park, but it has been able to feel the first feature of the Canglang Pavilion, that is, before entering the garden, a flood of clear water around the garden. At the same time, you can also appreciate another feature of Canglang Pavilion that is different from other classical gardens in Suzhou, that is, to break the closed pattern surrounded by high walls, and to organically integrate the landscape inside and outside the park with the architectural group near the water's edge, thus forming an open layout feature. On the one hand, it constitutes the landscape outside the Canglang Pavilion, and at the same time, it also makes a group of ancient literati such as Su Shunqin, the owner of the garden, who are frustrated in the official field, intoxicated by the artistic conception of "the water of the canglang", indifferent to fame and fortune, quiet and far-reaching!
The rockery in front is the center of the Canglang Pavilion, which is a relic of the Song Dynasty, with more soil and less stones. The rockery has green trees and vines hanging from the ancient trees, just like the real mountains and wild forests. The so-called "water makes people far away, stones make people quiet", climbing the rockery, immersed in it, will produce a kind of simple and quiet feeling, which also reflects the characteristics of the Northern Song Dynasty scholars' gardening focus on intention and not carving.
Bronze Medal of World Heritage Site
The name "Mian Shui Xuan" is taken from the Tang Dynasty Du Fu's poem "All layers of water are faced with water, and old trees are full of frost". There are floor-to-ceiling windows on all four sides of the "Face Water Pavilion", which has a wide view, and it is also a good place to enjoy tea and enjoy the scenery. Looking to the east side of Xuan, there is a pavilion built on the rockery in front of it, which is the famous Canglang Pavilion.
The east and west sides of the garden face water, and the "Face Water Xuan" Xuan is written by Shen Xihua in the twelfth year of Tongzhi. The rockery is standing on the wall, and the lower side of the Qingchi, "Face Water Xuan" looks like a dry boat on the shore, for which Wu Changshuo has a plaque of "Land Boat Water House". Surrounded by green trees, the four floor-to-ceiling windows are walls, and the eaves are surrounded by a quiet place to watch and enjoy fish. Zhang Zhiwan, a scholar of Dongge University in the Qing Dynasty, wrote a couplet: "The short boat has to hold the moon to go, and Xiaoxuan is near the water for the flowers to blossom." Xuanzhong also has a seal book of hongjun, a foreign minister during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty: "Migrating to Shuiyun Township to worship the New Ancestral Hall of Chang Shi is like a retainer who has left a victory; "Expresses the humor of the author Sigu.
The north side of the corridor is the Fengxi River outside the garden, and the south side is close to the rockery in the park, with high and low, twisting and turning nature. The southern half of the corridor can enjoy mountain views, and the northern half of the corridor can see the color of the water.
On the walls of the corridor, there are also many exquisite leaky windows with different patterns, which are subtle and delicate, that is, hidden and leaky. Looking inward through these leaky windows from outside the garden, you can feel the leisure and leisure of the life of the literati doctor, which can be called "the scenery in the scenery"; and when you look out through the leaked window in the garden, you can also feel the tranquility of the water surface in the noise of the city, which is "there is a scene outside the scene". Of course, the window leakage only causes the visitors to be visually transparent, and the corridor is completely connected to the mountains and water inside and outside the park. The corridor wall where the window is located plays a role in separating the scenery inside and outside the garden, and the eaves above the corridor wall are responsible for closely connecting the mountains in the garden and the water outside the garden, so as to form the effect of mountains and water borrowing scenery from each other. Of course, this also makes up for the lack of water in the garden, not only expands the visual space of the garden, but also enriches the content of the scenery, which is also an excellent example of the classical garden in Suzhou.
"Fish Viewing Place", also commonly known as "Diaoyutai", its original name is "Hao shang guan". The original meaning of "Hao Shang Guan" is taken from the allusion of Zhuangzi and Huizi's question and answer on Haoliang, the so-called Haoliang, Haoliang refers to Haoshui, that is, there is a small river, in today's Fengyang County, Anhui Province, Liang refers to the bridge. It is said that one day, Zhuangzi and Keiko were accompanied by a bridge in The Water to watch the fish in the water. Seeing the fish swimming happily in the water, Zhuangzi sighed: "What a happy fish! At this time, Keiko, who was beside her, asked Zhuangzi, "You are not a fish, where do you know the happiness of fish?" And Zhuangzi's answer was: "You are not me, where do you know that I do not know the happiness of fish?" This dialogue is a wonderful tongue battle between Zhuangzi and Keiko, two debaters in ancient China, and it is also a famous "Haoliang discernment" in history.
The "Fish Viewing Place" contains the "Record of canglang pavilion" written by Su Shunqin. Watching the fish and enjoying the scenery here, you can not only feel the freedom and leisure of life, but also taste the ease and happiness of life! The fish in the pond often became the object of the ancient literati's expression. The leisurely ease of the fish makes those literati forget themselves in their movements, and the silence of the fish can make them watch me in silence, and from this scenery, they can feel the pure and high realm that the owner wants to retreat to the rivers and lakes and is not bound by worldly utilitarianism.
The flower wall of the compound corridor divides the gardenscape into two completely different realms, and the two sides of the landscape scenery are moved by the leakage window, so that the water surface, the pond bank, the promenade and the rockery complement each other. Strolling north of the corridor, in front of you is a bend of flowing water, looking at the mountain through the window, looming, pushing the nearby mountain shadow to the south, expanding the realm; through the south corridor, there is the interest of near the mountains and distant waters.
Opposite the Canglang Pavilion is the only remaining "Academy Garden" in Suzhou, which will be introduced next time.
To the east of Canglang Pavilion is the "Yan Wenliang Memorial Hall".
Yan Wenliang (July 2, 1893 – May 1, 1988), born in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, was a famous Chinese painter and art educator, who studied Western painting in the drawing room of the Commercial Press in 1911, founded the Suzhou Academy of Fine Arts with Hu Chuzhong and Zhu Shijie in 1922, entered the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1928, returned to China in 1932, presided over the teaching of the Suzhou Academy of Fine Arts, and after 1953 served as the vice president of the East China Branch of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and an advisor to the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts. Consultant of China Artists Association, he has published "Yan Wenliang Painting Collection", "Oil Painting Series", "European Tour Sketches" and watercolor painting collection "Suzhou and Hangzhou Landscape", etc., and authored "Perspective for Fine Arts" and "Color Trivia".