Lion Grove Garden

Shizilin was built in the second year of the Yuan Dynasty (1342 AD), which is one of the representatives of the Han classical private garden architecture. It is one of the four famous gardens in Suzhou (Zhuozheng garden, Liuyuan garden, net Lion Garden and Lion Forest). At the same time, Shizilin is a world cultural heritage, a national key cultural relic protection unit and a national AAAA tourist attraction.

Lion forest is located at No.3 Yuanyuan road in the northeast corner of Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province. It is divided into three parts: ancestral hall, residence and garden. Compared with the Humble Administrator's garden, the Lion Grove is small and exquisite in layout and pavilions. What's most worth seeing is the stone piled up in Taihu Lake and all kinds of stacked stones, such as the maze like rockery, the intricate but exquisite flower walls and leaky windows, and the stacked stone rockery with different spirits. In addition, surrounded by long corridors, the winding paths lead to seclusion.

Lion Grove Garden

Lion forest was built in 1342, which is one of the representatives of Chinese classical private garden architecture. It is one of the four famous gardens in Suzhou. At the same time, Shizilin is a world cultural heritage, a national key cultural relic protection unit and a national AAAA tourist attraction.

Lion forest is located in the northeast of Suzhou city. Because there are many stone peaks in the garden, which look like lions, it is called "Lion Forest". The lion forest is rectangular in plane, covering an area of about 15 mu. There are many and exquisite rockeries in the forest, and the buildings are well arranged. The main buildings are Yanyu hall, Jianshan tower, waterfall Pavilion, Wenmei Pavilion, etc.

Due to the rise and fall of the forest garden, the temple, garden and house were separated and combined, the traditional gardening techniques and Buddhist ideas were integrated, and the modern Bei family introduced the Western gardening techniques and ancestral temple into the garden, making it a temple garden integrating the principles of Zen and the pleasure of garden.

Historical evolution

In 1341, Zen master tianru, an eminent monk, came to Suzhou to give lectures, which was well received by his disciples. In the following year (the second year of emperor Shundi Zhizheng, the last emperor of the Yuan Dynasty), the disciples bought land and set up a house to build a Zen forest for Zen master tianru.

In the second year of Zhizheng (1342) of the Yuan Dynasty, it was built by the disciples of Zen master tianru Weize for his master. It was initially named "Shizilin Temple", and later renamed "Puti Zhengzong Temple" and "Shengen Temple". According to historical records, the disciples of Zen master Weize of tianru, a famous monk at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, contributed money to buy land and build houses to live in his master.

The garden is named "Shizilin" and "Shizilin" because "there are thousands of bamboos in the forest, and there are many strange rocks under the bamboos, which look like lion dragon (lion)" and "heaven is like a Zen master, but he got the method from Zhongfeng, the national master of Puying in shiziyan, Tianmu Mountain, Zhejiang Province. In order to commemorate the relationship between Buddhists and apprentices, he took the meaning of Leo in Buddhist scriptures. It is also named because there is a word "lion roar" in Buddhist books ("lion roar" refers to Buddhist Scriptures), and many rockeries are like lions. After the death of Zen master tianru, the disciples dispersed and the temple garden gradually became desolate.

In the sixth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1373), 73 year old great calligrapher Ni Zan (named Yunlin) passed through Suzhou. He once participated in gardening and wrote poems and paintings (painted with the picture of Lion Forest). In the early Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the temple garden became a private property, isolated from the temple hall. It was also called wusongyuan because there were five pine trees in the garden. In 1917, it was purchased by Bei Runsheng, a pigment comprador. After nine years of construction and expansion, it is still known as Shizilin (in the east of the garden are Bei's ancestral hall, ethnology and residence).

In the 17th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1589), the monk surnamed Ming was born in Chang'an and rebuilt the Shengen temple and Buddha Hall in Shizilin to reproduce the prosperous scene. During the reign of Emperor Kangxi, the temple and the garden were separated. Later, it was bought by Huang xingzu, the father of Huang Xi and the magistrate of Hengzhou, and named "Sheyuan".

On February 11, 1703, Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty toured here and granted the "Lion Forest Temple". Later, Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty toured the lion forest six times and successively granted the "mirror wisdom and round photo", "painting Zen Temple" and the existing "true interest" and other plaques. In the 36th year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty (1771 AD), Huang Xi was the number one scholar in senior high school. He refined his mansion and reorganized the courtyard, and named it "wusongyuan". By the middle of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, Huang's family was in decline, and the garden had fallen, but the rockery was still there.

In 1917, Shanghai pigment giant Pei Runsheng (the uncle of the world-famous architect I.M. Pei) bought the Lion Grove from Li Zhongyu, the director of civil affairs. It took nearly 70 years to renovate the Lion Grove. Some new scenic spots were added and named "Lion Grove". The Lion Grove was once covered by Suzhou city. Beirunsheng was preparing for the opening up, but he failed because of the outbreak of the Anti Japanese war. After beirunsheng died in 1945, Shizilin was managed by his grandson beihuanzhang. After liberation, the descendants donated the garden to the state, and Suzhou garden management office took over the renovation and opened it to the public in 1954.

In 1955, the Shizilin ancestral hall was mostly used by the cultural department. On March 20, 1963, Shizilin was announced as a cultural relic protection unit in Suzhou. In May 1966, the "Cultural Revolution" began. In the ten years of "Cultural Revolution", Shizilin was once renamed "Chaoyang Park". It was closed in 1967. In April 1973, the original name was restored.

In 1975, the Suzhou garden management office bought the nanmu sister hall owned by Zheng's family in the guest house of Changfeng factory in Suzhou for 30000 yuan, and moved the south facing hall to the original lotus hall, which was renamed Hualan hall. In March 1982, Shizilin was announced as a cultural relic protection unit in Jiangsu Province. In May 1988, the relocation of Suzhou arts and crafts school in the former Bei clan school was completed; in June, Shizilin took over, covering a total area of 1360 square meters. In December 1997, Suzhou landscape management bureau held a press conference to announce that Shizilin was added to the list of world cultural heritage. In October 1999, Shizilin's new "Centennial Wisteria trellis" was officially opened to tourists. In August 2000, due to the danger of "Jianshan building", and the incongruity between the concrete exterior wall of the building and the garden of Yuan Dynasty and the surrounding buildings, in order to maintain the unity of the style in the garden, it is planned to make some changes in the maintenance of "Jianshan building". In September 2000, the Jiangsu Provincial Department of culture approved the repair with the Su cultural relics [2000] No. 54 document. At the end of December, the reconstruction project of Jianshan building was completed. In November 2000, at the 24th UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting held in Cairns, Australia, five gardens including Lion Grove were officially approved for inclusion in the world cultural heritage list. In April 2001, an inscription of "Lion Forest" was added on the south wall of Shizilin Zhaoqiang from Qianlong's handwriting, which was developed from the Yuanmingyuan site in Beijing. In April 2002, Ni Yunlin (Ni Zan) "lion forest map" was inlaid in the east side of the North corridor of zhenqu Pavilion. In November 2003, I.M. Pei, the master architect of the world, came to the lion forest twice and wrote seven words for the Lion Forest: "stone cave Lion Forest". In April 2004, Shizilin was awarded the national AAAA tourist attraction. In June 2004, the Shizilin Historical Museum officially opened.

architectural composition

Shizilin building can be divided into three parts: ancestral hall, residence and garden. The entrance of the garden was originally Bei's ancestral hall, with two entrances of hard mountain hall.

The residential area is represented by Yanyu hall, which is the main hall of the whole garden. The building is high and magnificent, and the furnishings in the hall are elegant. There are four small gardens along the north axis of the main hall. Yanyu hall takes white, Purple Magnolia and peony flower terrace as its spring garden. Two cherry trees are planted in tangbeiting garden. The small square hall is of Xieshan style. The empty windows on the East and west sides of the hall, together with the Chimonanthus praecox, putianzhu and Shifeng outside the window, make up the "picture of cold plum" and "picture of bamboo and stone", just like a silent poem, which enlivens the small square hall. The main scenery of jiushifeng courtyard is jiushifeng. Two and a half pavilions, open and closed, are set up in the East and west respectively. They contrast with each other and cross each other to highlight the stone peak. Further north, there is a small courtyard and a boxwood terrace.

The lotus hall and zhenqu Pavilion in the main garden are built near the water, with exquisite wood decoration and carving. The stone boat is a concrete structure, but it is small in shape and suitable in volume. The dark fragrance and light shadow building is not a building, and the corridor upstairs can reach the rockery. Waterfall Pavilion, Wenmei Pavilion and Lixue hall echo each other with waterfall, cold plum and Xiuzhu. Fan Pavilion, wentianyang stele Pavilion and imperial stele Pavilion run through a long corridor, breaking the straight and high feeling of the south wall. The buildings of the main garden are mainly distributed in the north, scattered in front and back, with various forms. However, due to the different construction years and the different understanding of the garden by Bayes in the reconstruction, the use of building materials and the volume ratio, the dry boat is too realistic, the volume of Wenmei Pavilion is too large, the exterior shape of the mountain building is integrated with the west, and there is even a concrete hexagonal pavilion, so the architectural style is not unified.

There are exquisite stalagmites, stone peaks, clumped peonies and magnolias at the entrance of the garden, which are in harmony with the side window on the back of Lixue hall, making the frame scenery more complete, forming a visual aesthetic feeling before entering the courtyard, and meaning "Yutang is rich". And it has the meaning of covering the outside and the inside, and the background is profound and far-reaching. In the north of the courtyard is the grand mandarin duck hall. The name of the South Hall is "yanyutang", which comes from the book of songs. It means Gaolu, Chongan, leisurely and happy. Yanyutang is the main hall of the whole garden. There are brick plaques on the door of the main hall, such as "entering victory", "communicating with you", "listening to fragrance", "reading painting", "you Guan" and "winning appreciation". Beiting is called "green jade and green Yao's Museum", which comes from the poem of Yuan painter Ni Yunlin, "green water" refers to water, and "green Yao" refers to rockery. The south side of the central hall screen is engraved with the story of rebuilding the lion forest, which records the process of rebuilding the lion forest between 1917 and 1926. In the north, the painting of lion forest is engraved, the temple peak is ancient cypress, and the waterfall is on the first floor.

The furnishings in the hall are exquisite and luxurious. The west side of the front corridor of the hall can pass through the "Lixue hall", and the west side door of the back corridor can pass through the rockery cave to enter the "woyun hall"

Chinese PinYin : Shi Zi Lin