Lion Forest Garden
The Lion Forest Garden ( Chinese 獅子林 / 狮子林 , Pinyin Shīzi Lín ) is one of the four most famous private gardens in the east Chinese city of Suzhou . It is located in the northeast of the historic district in the Gusu district . It was laid out as early as the Yuan Dynasty and has been changed again and again by various owners since then. The Lion Forest Garden is one of the five gardens in 2000 as an extension of the Heritage Classical Gardens of Suzhou in the list of UNESCO world heritage were registered. In 2006 it was declared a Monument of the People's Republic of China .
Location and structure
The Lion Forest Garden covers an area of 1.1 hectares, of which 0.88 hectares are open to the public. It is located about 400 meters south of the humble official's garden and the Suzhou Museum, which encompasses a much larger area . The garden itself is laid out at right angles, its east-west extent being slightly larger than the north-south extent and a pond in the middle forms its center. The pond is framed by rocks on its east, south and west sides. The various pavilions and buildings are arranged around it; in the lake there are small pavilions and bridges, one of which has nine points. The pond has a surface of 1518 square meters.
The Lion Forest Garden is one of the Chinese gardens with the largest and oldest artificial rock arrangements. The original arrangements cover 1200 square meters on the east side of the pond, at the beginning, 1100 square meters were added on the west side of the pond as part of an expansion of the garden. The naturally jagged stones were arranged in such a way that small peaks and gorges were created. A total of nine paths lead through this small rocky landscape, 21 caves give the visitor the feeling of getting lost. Some of these stones also look like lions that assume a jumping, sleeping or roaring posture.
The artificial hills in the west of the garden were created during earthworks at the beginning of the 20th century, when mud and earth were removed from the pond and deposited along the walls. The flanks of the resulting hills were secured with limestone so that the result harmonized with the rocks that were already present to the east of the pond. The hills are higher on the north side than on the south side, there is also a cave in the north. On top of the hills is the plum blossom visit tower, next to it is an artificial waterfall.
Along the west wall, a total of 70 meters long walkway leads from the hall of the faint scent and the faded shadow past the tower to greet the plum blossoms to the arched bridge over the pond.
Poems by the four great poets of the Song dynasty Su Shi , Mi Fu , Huang Tingjian and Cai Xiang as well as the plum blossom poem by the poet Wen Tianxiang from the southern Song dynasty can be seen as calligraphic stone carvings on the walls of the walkway .
The Tower of the Plum Blossom Visit ( Chinese 问 梅 阁 , Pinyin Wèn Méi Gé ) is located on the western wall of the garden on one of the hills created at the beginning of the 20th century. It was a place for poetry and poetry; not only is he surrounded by plum trees, but all of his furniture is decorated with plum blossoms. In addition, works of art by Ni Zan and Xu Ben can be seen in this building .
The pavilion of the snow-standing ( Chinese 立雪堂 , Pinyin Li Xue Tang ) got its name from a legend of the life of Huike , the second patriarch of Chan - Buddhism in China, after which he so long standing in the snow on it waited to be able to speak to the monk Bodhidharma that in the end he was completely covered with snow. This gesture showed Bodhidharma that Huike was serious, so he accepted him as a student. The pair of sayings on the pillars of the building come from the scholar and poet Tang Yin , who came from Suzhou and lived during the Ming Dynasty.
The name of the pavilion of real pleasure ( Chinese 真 趣 亭 , Pinyin Zhēn Qù Tíng ) goes back to an incident that is said to have occurred during the visit of Emperor Qianlong during the Qing Dynasty . The manager of the garden is said to have asked an official named Huang Xi (黄 熙), who had passed the official examination with flying colors, to accompany the emperor through the lion forest garden. Huang Xi is said to have asked the emperor, who liked to name buildings, for a name for the hitherto unnamed pavilion. Even after a long period of thought, the emperor couldn't think of anything, so he thoughtlessly wrote the characters 真 有趣(very interesting) on paper. Huang Xi found this banal, but noted that omitting the Zeich would give the pavilion an extravagant name. So he asked the emperor indirectly whether he would like to give him the symbol 有. The remaining characters 真 趣(real pleasure) can now be seen in imperial calligraphy on a plaque by the pavilion.
history
In 1341 the monk and Chan master Tianru came to Suzhou to teach there. A year later, his students bought the grounds of a Buddhist temple in order to set up a meditation garden for Tianru. The garden got its name because Tianru was taught by the monk Zhongfeng at Lion Rock in Tianmu Shan Mountains . Furthermore, the name is an allusion to the early Buddhist text Sutra of Queen Śrīmālā of the Roar of the Lion . However, after Tianru's death, his disciples dispersed and the garden began to deteriorate.
In 1373 the eminent painter Ni Zan visited the Lion Forest Garden, created poems and paintings there (including scrolls from the Lion Forest Garden 狮子林 图 ) and made it widely known, so that it became a place where poets, painters and scholars came together of Buddhism met.
In 1589, after raising enough money in Chang'an , the monk Mingxing bought the garden and had it restored. During the reign of Emperor Kangxi , the temple and garden were separated from each other. The garden was acquired by the Prefect of Hengzhou and renamed She Garden (涉 园). Kangxi visited the garden on February 11, 1703, and Emperor Qianlong visited it six times. In 1771 Huang Xi (黄 熙) took over the garden, had the facilities renewed and the buildings renovated. He renamed it the Five Pine Garden (五 松园). With the reign of Emperor Guangxu , the Huang family clan began to decline and the garden began to deteriorate.
In 1917, Bei Runsheng , who had become rich in pigments and paint in Shanghai, bought the Lion Forest Garden from the head of the government, Li Zhongyu, for 800,000 silver dollars . He had the garden restored and expanded for seven years, and he also gave it back its original and current name. Runsheng actually wanted to make it accessible to the public, but the Sino-Japanese war that broke out at the time prevented this. After Bei Runsheng's death in 1945, the property was initially managed by his grandson Bei Huanzhang. However, it soon became state property. It has been open to the general public since 1954. The garden has been a cultural asset of Jiangsu Province since 1982. In 2000 the garden was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which protects not only the garden itself, but also the neighboring streets.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Classical Gardens of Suzhou / Jardins classiques de Suzhou on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).
- ↑ a b 国家 文物 局 (Ed.): 全国 重点 文物保护 单位 (第六批) . 1st edition. tape 5 . 文物 出版社, Beijing 2008, ISBN 978-7-5010-2446-9 , pp. 57 (Chinese).
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i 狮子林 简介 (short presentation of the Lion Forest Garden). (No longer available online.) 苏州 市 狮子林 管理 处 (Administration of the Lion Forest Garden), archived from the original on February 10, 2016 ; accessed on January 2, 2018 (Chinese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b 山水 (mountains and water). (No longer available online.) 苏州 市 狮子林 管理 处 (Administration of the Lion Forest Garden), January 16, 2015, archived from the original on January 15, 2018 ; accessed on January 2, 2018 (Chinese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b 西部 假山 (Artificial hills in the western part). (No longer available online.) 苏州 市 狮子林 管理 处 (Administration of the Lion Forest Garden), January 16, 2015, archived from the original on January 15, 2018 ; accessed on January 2, 2018 (Chinese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b 立 雪 堂.苏州 园林 和 绿化 管理局 (Suzhou Gardens and Green Areas Administration), April 20, 2016, accessed January 10, 2018 .
- ↑ 狮子林 真 趣 亭 的 由来 传说 (Legend of the origin of the pavilion of real pleasure in the Lion Forest Garden). (No longer available online.) 苏州 市 狮子林 管理 处 (Administration of the Lion Forest Garden), January 16, 2015, archived from the original on January 15, 2018 ; accessed on January 2, 2018 (Chinese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Plane Figure of the Lion Forest Garden Protection Area & Buffer Zone. UNESCO, accessed January 8, 2018 .
Coordinates: 31 ° 19 ′ 23.6 ″ N , 120 ° 37 ′ 30.1 ″ E
