Construction of the Gardens
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| Overlooking the Forbidden City from the Jing Shan Park. |
The northern region is quite different from the south in terms of natural conditions, economic development and culture. As Me north is low in temperature in winter times, vegetation, due to the climate, is rarely evergreen. In winter, except for a few types of pines and cypresses, most trees and bushes have nothing left but bare branches. And even in spring and summer, there is not such a variety of trees and flowers as in the south. The northern economy, whether in agricultural production or in urban commerce and trading, was also not as developed as that of the south, and up until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, grains and daily supplies were mostly shipped from the south through the Grand Canal.
However, most dynasties have set up their political center in the north, especially Beijing. As the capital city of the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Beijing harbored a large number of members of the royalty and aristocrats, who had the political power and economic privilege to pursue pleasure, and a large number of gardens were thus built out of demand. The royalty and aristocracy are often artistically well educated. While amongst them there was no lack of garden builders who aspired to the traditional garden style of the literati, most opted for extravagance and luxury. Although many garden artisans were called in to the north to build gardens, but differences in natural conditions, political and cultural backgrounds as well as architectural styles had set the northern gardens apart from the gardens in the south.
In addition to gardens of the officials, rich merchants and the intellectuals, there is another type of private garden in Beijing, and that is the garden within the prince palaces. In the Qing Dynasty, the royalty were concentrated in the capital city. Palaces for princes were thus residences given to the royalty. The royalty, with their family position, size and wealth, could certainly not be satisfied with a simple Sihevuan courtyard, and consequently a royal residence made up of multiple Siheyuan court3"ards with both living quarters and gardens attached came into being in the capital city.
Private gardens in Beijing are mostly concentrated around the Shichahai Lake and in the northwest suburbs of Haidian.
During the Yuan Dynasty, in order to solve the problem of water shortage in the central districts of Beijing, the court had decreed to have water drawn into the city from Qinghe River and Jade Spring Hills northwest of Beijing, connecting the northwestern river system with the Shichahai Lake, the Tonghui River and the Grand Canal. This not only helped solve the water shortage problem in Beijing but also facilitated the transportation of supplies from the south. Therefore the Shichahai region became the bustling business center of Beijing. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the water
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| BUddhist key point of interest:The Wutai Mountain. | level in Tonghui River dropped, and northern bound boats were only able to dock at the southern suburbs of Beijing. Shishahai lost its past bustling prosperity but remained a valuable water region where water is clear, lotuses and water-nuts fill the pond, and water fowls play and weave through the water plants in flocks. Within three or four li of this region many private gardens appeared.
The northwestern suburb of Beijing has the Shou'an Mountain Ranges headed by the fragrant hills at a distance, as well as the Jade Spring Hill and the Wongshan Mountain nearby. The most unique feature of this area is its rich water supply. The Jade Spring Hill is rich in spring water since ancient times, and in the plain area nearby water can easily be found without digging deeper than three feet. In front of the Wongshan Mountain the excess water pools into a lake, named Wongshan Pool in ancient times, and also known as the West Lake. The northwestern suburb, became a famous scenic area. As a result, the Ming Dynasty aristocrats, noblemen and scholars mostly chose to have their gardens built here, the most famous of which are the Qinghua Garden and the Ladle Garden.
The Qinghua Garden was a private garden of Ming royalty. It takes up 80 hectares of land space, and is located approximately at the east of the Summer Palace and south of the Yuanmingyuan Garden. The Ladle Garden was the private garden of a famous Ming Dynasty poet Mi Wanzhong, and was built in the Wanli Period (1573-1619) of the Ming Dynasty. It is located southeast of the Qinghua Garden, with water scenes as its main feature. The architecture is sparse and simple, following the classic garden style of the scholars.
In the Qing Dynasty many of the remaining Ming gardens were taken by the government and bestowed to the royalty, aristocrats and officials. These "bestowed" gardens are lined around the imperial gardens, forming a large garden area of the northwestern suburbs.
Famous Gardens of the North
The Prince Gong Palace Garden The Prince Gong Palace Garden is also called "Garden of Gathered Brocade". It is the largest and the most well preserved garden among the dozens of gardens in Beijing, and is the only prince palace open to the public as a garden. The Prince Gong Palace Garden is ingeniously laid out with scenes that please the eye, and some even say that it is the prototype for the garden in the famous Chinese classic "The Dream of the Red Mansion".
The overall construction of the Prince Gong Palace can be divided into the residence area and the garden area, with the former in front and the latter in the back. The garden takes up 28 thousand square meters, and includes 31 historic buildings. The subsequent owner of the garden, the Gong Prince Yixin, summoned hundreds of the best craftsmen to reconstruct the garden, combining both the southern garden style and the northern architectural layout, and the western mingling with the Chinese architectural elements. The whole garden is laid out in 3 routes.
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| The Yishu Garden Where various vegetables were planted to seek for the wild interest in the Cuijin Garden. | Entering the garden through the central gate, one can first see a Western style arched door of white marble. Facing the gate is the 5-meter-high Dule Peak, shaped like clouds rolling back and forth. Behind the Dule Peak there is Anshan Hall. sitting on a base of stone and connected with the eastern and western wing rooms by corridors to form a three-sided courtyard opening to the south.
In Qing Dynasty Beijing, channeling running water into a private residence would need the emperor's consent, an honor rarely bestowed except for a few prince palaces. and the Prince Gong Palace is one of them. Within the garden there is a large bat-shaped pond built with green stone named the "'Bat Pond". Elm trees encircle the pond, and in the season when the elm seeds fall, the coin-shaped seeds cover the Bat Pond, implying "wealth and fortune (bat is homonymous with fortune in Chinese)". Crossing the hall to enter the central courtyard, one can find a stone hill called "'Rock of Dripping Green", the major scene of the entire garden. In front of the hill there is a small pond, and behind the pond there is a cave called "'Cave of Secret Cloud". Inside which there is a stone tablet with the word "fortune" personally inscribed by Emperor Qianlong. At the north of the Rock of Dripping Green is the Bat Hall, a hall shaped like a bat. Main constructions such as the garden gate, the Anshan Hall, the Rock of Dripping Green and the Bat Hall are all located at the central axis of the Prince Gong Palace residential area, forming a standardized central part.
The east route of the Garden of Gathered Brocade is made up of dense architectural groups. The southern part is composed of two parallel-running long and narrow Siheyuan courtyards, The northern part is the grand opera stage, a large architectural structure including the front hall, the grand hall for watching the opera, the stage and the backstage. On the eastern route and in the courtyard with decorated doors, the most elegant architecture is the "Refreshing Autumn Pavilion" or the "Running Wine Cup Pavilion", built with a twisting and turning creek 10 centimeters wide shaped like the Chinese character "pavilion". It is an ideal setting for scholars to get together.
There is very little architecture on the western route. This area is mostly made up of mountain scenery and water scenery. Scattered within the garden are the Lake-center Pavilion, Cloud Washing Residence and Firewood Fragrance Path. Within the Lake- center Pavilion there are three water pavilions, which are named "Stone Boat of Poetry and Paintings". Gazing at the green ripples, a small boat sitting idly by the lakeside and the reflection of mountains and trees in the waters is enough to take away all worldly cares.
The Garden of Gathered Brocade, being a prince palace, has a larger number of architecture and a more formally laid-out courtyard compared with private gardens of scholars. It not only has the grand halls and lobbies rarely seem in scholar's private gardens, but also the grand opera stage
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| The gate of the east line of the Garden of Gathered Brocade. | hardly found in private gardens of government officials. But it is, after all, a garden of the prince palace, where the garden builder uses many techniques to differentiate the garden area from the residential area. First of all, care is taken that the overall environment is well planned. For example, at the entry way through the garden gate, artificial hills are built on both sides with green stone, and flowers and trees are planted on the hills. Paths on the hills extend to the east and the west, passing through hill after hill, creating a mood of the wild mountains and woods. In addition, hills made of earth are built on the external sides of the eastern and western route, closing off the outside bustle to form a complete garden environment. Secondly, local treatment of mountain and woods is emphasized. Within the more formally laid-out courtyards on the central and eastern route, irregular-shaped ponds, mountains and rocks are used in addition to the lush bamboo, ancient pines, ancient Chinese locusts and other trees and bushes and flowers to break the rigid and stale air of the formally-planned architecture. Last of all, the western route is designed as an area of natural scenery, with water and hills as the main body. The relaxed and simple layout brings a refreshing air to the entire garden. The Prince Gong Palace Garden is therefore a garden with royal grandeur but not lacking in natural beauty.
Xichunyuan Garden
The Xichunyuan Garden lies to the east of the Garden of Splendor in Haidian, which is in the Qinghua Campus today. The garden was originally built in the Kangxi Period (1662-1722), and in the Daoguang Years (1821-1850) it was bestowed to the two royal princes to live in. The Xichunyuan Garden is divided into two parts of east and west, the east being called the "Qinghua Garden" and the west "Jinchun Garden".
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| The serene and refined interior scenery of courtyard in the Qinghua Garden. |
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| The water scenery of the Jin Chun Garden where embankment was built with yellow stone. | Both Jinchun Garden and Qinghua Garden are built on the flatland, and they utilize the readily available underground water supply to dig ponds and make artificial hills with earth. But they are not quite the same either in planning or scenery design. In Jinchun Garden was dug a ring-shaped pond with a small island in the center. The buildings of the garden are concentrated on this island. Earth left from digging the pond is utilized to make hills around the pond, and the ring-shaped pond and ring of hills surround the group of buildings in the center. Although circular in shape. the pond has both narrow and wide water surface areas and irregular-shaped banks, where docks of yellow stone are built. With lotus planted in the water, and willows and Chinese locusts around the water, an open landscape effect is achieved. The layout of Qinghua Garden is different in that the residence area sits in front and the garden area is in back.
The residence area comprises an orderly architectural group. Entry through the gate leads through the hall to the I-shaped lobby in the back, forming the front and the back courtyards from south to north, connected by corridors on all sides. On the east and west sides of this central axis two courtyard groups stand side by side, weaving in corridors and circular or bottle-shaped doors. Within these courtyards evergreens like pine and cypress are planted together with flowering trees of crabapples, pears and magnolia. Artificial hills are built in the central backyard, and the yard gives no sense of being shut in but rather a delightful taste of a garden scene. Closely linked to this group of architecture is a large pond with crooked ~banks and yellow stone docks, as well as trees all around. On the east bank of the pond there is a small pavilion, where as the south bank is an l-shaped platform extending into the water for the enjoyment of the water scene. Although the garden area is not large in size, the secluded environment and all the hills and water nearby are rich in the charms of nature, thus the name "Qinghua of water and woods".
In 1860, the allied troops of the British and the French army invaded Beijing, and burnt the
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| The waterside corridor Pavilion in the Jin Chun Garden. | Garden of Perfect Splendor to the ground. In the Tongzhi Period (1862-1874) of the Qing Dynasty, the court decided to demolish all the nearby gardens so as to pool the materials for the reconstruction of the Garden of Perfect Splendor. All the architecture in Xichun Garden was destroyed. The architecture of Jinchun Garden, which is west of the Garden of Perfect Splendor, was also completely destroyed. Fortunately the Qinghua Garden on the east side remained intact, but the garden had fallen into disuse and gradually became deserted. In 1909. in order to set up the preparatory school for overseas students to the US, the Qing government rediscovered the site of the Xichun Garden, and decided to set up a school in Qinghua Garden with its large land area and remnant architecture.
The school was named the "'Qinghua School", which is the predecessor of the Qinghua University today. For nearly one hundred years, constructions in the Qinghua Garden had been repeatedly renovated, but the base of the architecture and the overall layout had never been altered. Even the two ancient cypress trees and the rocks are things from the past. Today taking a stroll on the campus of Qinghua University you can see all the architecture brought back to its original Qing style, and the classic look of the garden restored. Although all constructions in the Jinchun Garden were destroyed, the lakes and hills remain. In 1927, the famous writer Zhu Ziqing who taught at Qinghua University wrote the famous prose "Moonlight on Lotus Pond". The work was written when he was taking a stroll around the lake after reading in the heat of a summer night. It is no doubt that the garden environment and the mood it evokes transcends all times.
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