Chapter 4 Section 3 Royal Gardens of Past Dynasties

The feudal dynasties in China, after they took power, always built large-scale construction and construction of capital palaces to symbolize feudal imperial power and use it to come to the court to listen to politics.Historically, these places were called 园, garden, palace garden, garden limit, imperial garden, Shanglin, etc. These are what are called royal gardens today. In 221 BC, Qin Shihuang unified China and moved 200,000 wealthy households to the capital Xianyang. He also wiped out the royal families of the vassal states in the unification war and demolished them to Beiban (banban) in Xianyang.Due to the high concentration of financial resources, material resources and architectural skills from all over the country, the scale of Qin Palace construction is unprecedentedly large. Only in Xianyang Palace, there is a record of "800 miles from east to west, 400 miles from north to south, and the other palaces are connected to each other".However, the earliest record that can be seen as a royal garden is the Shanglin Garden built by Qin Shihuang in the south of the Wei River.The famous Efang Palace was built in Shanglin Garden.According to historical records, Efang Palace is "500 steps from east to west, 500 feet from north to south, and ten thousand people can sit on it".From this, we can infer the grand scale of the entire Shanglin Garden.In addition to Shanglin Garden, there is another Ganquan Garden.After the fall of the Qin Dynasty, these palaces were burned down by Xiang Yu, and they only existed for more than ten years. 1,000 years later, Du Mu, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote an "Ode to Efang Palace", in which there are "five steps to the first floor, ten steps to a pavilion, corridors and waists, and eaves and teeth pecking high; The bridge is lying on the waves, the clouds are not there, and the dragon? The road is empty, and there is no Ji (Ji Ji) He Hong?" The description, at that time, the Efang Palace had long since ceased to exist, and the scenery in the text is a vivid summary of the palace gardens of the past dynasties.

The royal gardens in the Han Dynasty mainly include the Shanglin Garden expanded by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Liu Che on the basis of the Shanglin Garden in the Qin Dynasty. In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty inherited Qin's Shanglin Garden, and it was greatly expanded during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.According to historical records, the Shanglin Garden covers an area of ​​"300 miles wide and long, and there are hundreds of beasts in the garden. In the Spring and Autumn Period of the Son of Heaven, there are countless beasts taken from the hunting garden. Among them, there are 70 palaces, which can accommodate thousands of rides and ten thousand horses."It is also said that "Shanglin has twelve gates, among which there are thirty-six gardens, twelve palaces, and thirty-five temples."From this point of view, Shanglin Garden not only has the function of hunting and hunting for the emperor, but also has many palace buildings, which have multiple purposes for the emperor to stay and play.The function used can also be reflected from the name of the temple.For example, the Wangyuan Palace is for ascending heights, the Xuanqu Palace is related to music, and the Grape Palace is for planting grapes, etc.; the so-called Guanxiang Temple, White Deer Temple, and Fish and Bird Temple should be related to raising and viewing animals.There is a clear record of the cocoon view: "Shanglinyuan has a cocoon view, which is also the view of covering silkworm cocoons."

There are also many waters called pools in Shanglin Garden, such as Kunming Pool, Pick (Hao Consumption) Pool, Sacrifice Pool, Mi Pool, Niu Shou Pool and so on.Among them, Kunming Pond was excavated manually, with a radius of 40 li. It is not only large, but also has a story about its excavation.It is said that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty once taught water warfare in Kunming Pool and conducted drills for attacking Kunming Kingdom, so it was named Kunming Pool.Kunming Lake is not only for military purposes, there are also dragon-headed boats on the pool, where the court ladies sing and play in the boats. It is a place for the emperor and empress to play.On the east and west banks of Kunming Pool, stone statues of Altair and Vega are erected respectively, symbolizing the Altair and Vega on both sides of the Tianhe River.

In the huge Shanglin Garden, there is also a large-scale Jianzhang Palace, which is a palace city and a self-contained garden within a garden.To the north of Jianzhang Palace, there is also Taiye Pool, which was built 10 years later than Kunming Pool. It can be seen from the name that this is a wide water area with rippling blue waves.In the Taiye pool, there is a 20-foot-high gradual platform, and three sacred mountains on the sea, Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou, are piled up in the water.The appearance of these three sacred mountains in the water formed the royal garden model of one pool and three mountains, which was regarded as a classic in the royal gardens of later generations and imitated by successive dynasties.

Shanglin Garden, built in the Western Han Dynasty near Chang'an, established the basic content and form of the royal garden, which existed for about 100 years.At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang demolished and used the building materials of Shanglin Garden.Later, Liu Xiu, Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty moved his capital to Luoyang, and this magnificent palace with complete functions was abandoned.Due to the influence of Shanglin Garden, especially the martial arts of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the word "Shanglin" in Shanglin Garden is often used as a synonym for royal gardens.The landscape regulation in Shanglin Garden was deliberately imitated.If the Summer Palace, the last royal garden in the Qing Dynasty, was built in 1894 as the end of the construction of royal gardens, the shadow of Emperor Wudi’s Shanglin Garden has been covering the royal gardens for almost 2,000 years. Moreover, it has had an important impact on all aspects of politics, economy and culture.

After the establishment of Luoyang as the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Luoyang, which was originally the accompanying capital of the Western Han Dynasty, had a great development of the original palaces. At the same time, many gardens and ponds were built for the emperor's entertainment, such as Shanglin Garden, Fanglin Garden, Lingyuan and Zhuolong Pond. , Ganoderma lucidum pool and so on.Zhang Heng, a famous scientist and writer in the Eastern Han Dynasty, described it in the "Fu of Erjing": "Dragon dragon Fanglin, nine valleys and eight streams. Hibiscus covered water, autumn orchids are covered. Zhu play leaps fish, deep swim turtle oyster [xi Xi 〕. Yongan Li Palace, Xiuzhu Holly..."

After the Eastern Han Dynasty, Luoyang was established as the capital, including Cao Wei, Western Jin, and Northern Wei in the Three Kingdoms period. The imperial families of these separatist regimes also used the Eastern Han palace gardens or built new gardens.It is worth noting that Buddhism was introduced to China in the 10th year of Emperor Liuzhuang Yongping of the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 67). The White Horse Temple was built in Luoyang in the second year. This was the first Buddhist temple in China, which created conditions for the emergence of later temple gardens.At the same time, it also added Buddhist temple architecture to other types of ancient gardens, especially royal gardens.

From the Three Kingdoms to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the regimes that separated the south and established Nanjing as the capital include: Soochow, Eastern Jin, Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen Six Dynasties, which made Nanjing unprecedentedly prosperous, and there is a saying of "six dynasties gold powder".While building palaces, these regimes also built gardens.There are Xiyuan in the Eastern Wu Dynasty and Hualin Garden in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.During the Liu Song Dynasty, three sacred mountains, Abbot, Penglai and Yingzhou, were erected in Xuanwu Lake.Later, the suburban altar in the Eastern Jin Dynasty was moved away, and Le Youyuan was built in Fuzhou Mountain.Qi Jianfang Leyuan and Xuanpu.According to historical records, all the stones in the garden are painted with colorful colors, which shows that they are very luxurious.On the foundation site of Qidong Palace, Liang dug Jiuqu Pool and set up pavilions.Chen Wei built the Ande Palace for Empress Wen.After the Sui Dynasty destroyed Chen, the city of Jiankang (the old name of Nanjing) was plowed into cultivated land.A century and a half later, when the great poet Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty paid tribute to the ruins of these palaces and gardens, he also sighed in his poems that "the flowers and plants in the Wu palace are buried in the quiet path, and the clothes and crowns of the Jin Dynasty are like ancient hills".

Both the Sui and Tang Dynasties established Chang'an as their capital, and they both took Luoyang as their accompanying capital, which was called the Eastern Capital. Therefore, most of the royal gardens in the Sui and Tang Dynasties were built in Chang'an and Luoyang. The Sui Dynasty was a short dynasty with a history of only 38 years. Yang Guang, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, built a large-scale Xiyuan in the west of Luoyang City in the first year of Daye (605 A.D.), with a circumference of 200 li. The three islands of Yingzhou, Penglai and Yingzhou are more than a hundred feet high.Five lakes, Yingyang, Cuiguang, Jinming, Jieshui, and Guangming, are arranged in the garden in the east, south, west, north, and middle directions, and are connected with the Longlin Canal to form a complete water system.This canal is 20 steps wide and can be used for dragon boats and phoenix boats.In this water system, there are 16 palaces and courtyards in which beautiful women live.The gates of these palaces are facing the water, and bridges are built for traffic, which is the pattern of waterscape gardens.In the west garden, exotic flowers and plants are planted. After autumn and winter, the flowers wither and leaves fall, and people are ordered to cut the flowers and leaves with colored silk and hang them on the branches.This fully reflects Sui Yang Emperor Yang Guang's desire for extravagance.The layout of Xiyuan’s divisional landscaping and self-contained palace courtyards had an impact on the royal gardens of later generations. Until the Qing Dynasty, the layout of Yuanmingyuan was still similar to that of Emperor Sui Yang’s Xiyuan.

As the heyday of China's feudal society, the Tang Dynasty was also reflected in the palace architecture of Chang'an, the capital city.The three major palaces in the Tang Dynasty: Daming Palace, Taiji Palace, and Xingqing Palace, according to historical records and archaeological excavations, are all complexes of palaces and gardens.In the Daming Palace, there is a garden area centered on Taiye Pool. There is Penglai Mountain piled up in the middle of Taiye Pool. Corridors are built along the pool, and towers and pavilions are connected in series.Taiji Palace is inherited from the Daxing Palace of the Sui Dynasty.There are four seas in Taiji Palace, which are distributed between the palaces. They were the main activities and entertainment places for emperors before Daming Palace and Xingqing Palace were built in the early Tang Dynasty.There are more gardens in Xingqing Palace, the garden area accounts for almost half of the entire area, and is famous for its peony flowers in Chang'an. The famous story of Li Bai writing "Three Poems of Qingping Diao" and offending Yang Guifei happened here.The Chenxiang Pavilion in the poem "the Chenxiang Pavilion leans on the railing in the north" is a pavilion made of agarwood by the Longchi in Xingqing Palace.There were several forbidden gardens in Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty. Among them, the one in the west of the Daming Palace was smaller than the Shanglin Garden in the Han Dynasty, but it was 13 miles from east to west.Another famous palace is the Li Palace in Lishan, Lintong. This is where the famous story of the Palace of Eternal Life took place.The Huaqing Pool in the Li Palace is a hot spring that has attracted many emperors since King Zhou You.The Li Palace in the Tang Dynasty could not only escape the summer heat, but also dissipate the cold. Bai Juyi's "The high place of the Li Palace enters the green hills, and the wind of fairy music is heard everywhere" is a description of this palace garden.In addition to the hall of longevity, there is also a hall of flying frost in the palace, where you can spend the winter and enjoy the winter scenery of frost and snow outside the hall.

The imperial gardens before the Sui and Tang Dynasties have disappeared with the change of dynasties. Some of them can only be tested by the huge palace foundations excavated by archaeology, and some of them can only vaguely identify the location of the pond from the low-lying wilderness.For example, the cows and Weaver Girl stone figures on the east and west banks of Kunming Pool in the Han Dynasty are still there today, and the stone bathing pools of Jiulong Tang and Guifei Pool in the Tang Dynasty cleared out of Huaqing Pool are rare relics.The same is true of the royal gardens after the Sui and Tang Dynasties.Among them, Genyue, the royal garden of the Northern Song Dynasty built in Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, was destroyed, and it is still difficult to determine its site. Genyue was built in the seventh year of Zhao Jizhenghe, Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty (AD 1117), and it was completed in 1122 after six years of construction.This is a garden built on the ground based on the Phoenix Mountain in Hangzhou. It has been evaluated as "the beauty of the world, the victory of ancient and modern times".It was named Genyue because "Gen" is the northeast direction in the gossip, and it should be in the northeast of Bianliang (now Kaifeng), the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty.Jiangenyue is Zhao Ji's words from the alchemists, and he raised the height of the Northeast, so that his offspring can prosper and live forever.So Genyue is also called Longevity Mountain and Shoushan Mountain.It set a precedent for later calling the mountains in the royal gardens long live and long life. Genyue is a landscape garden that imitates the natural landscape. It divides many scenic spots, and there are "uncountable" scenic spots.Such as Meiling, Yanchi, Library, Fengchi, Chaofeng Pavilion, Alchemy Pavilion, Gaoyang Restaurant, Qingsi Pavilion, Jiangxiao Tower, etc. From these names, some of its garden appearances can be imagined.But from the historical records, one thing is very clear, that is, because Genyue was built, strange flowers and stones were collected among the people, which is the so-called "Flower and Stone Gang".Often a Taihu stone several feet high has to be transported from the south of the Yangtze River to Bianliang. On the way, "thousands of men and boats were carried on it, rivers and bridges were dug, weirs were destroyed and gates [zha, same gate] were demolished, and it took several months."Obviously, this is a disaster for the common people.Huashigang was the direct fuse that aroused the peasant uprising led by Fang La in the late Northern Song Dynasty.Although the site of Genyue has not been determined yet, after the Jin Dynasty destroyed the Song Dynasty, Genyue was destroyed, and the rocks in the garden were transported to Beijing by the Jin people.Many of the rocks in the Forbidden City in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and Qionghua Island in Beijing are relics of Gen Yue.In the gardens of various places in the south, there are also many places where one or two mountain rocks with "flower and stone outline" are rare treasures, which shows the influence of Gen Yue. After the Northern Song Dynasty, since the Liao, Jin, and Yuan Dynasties, the imperial capitals of all dynasties were built in Beijing for a total of 800 years.In the meantime, the Southern Song Dynasty settled in Hangzhou. Although the royal gardens were built with the beauty of the West Lake landscape, the scale of these palaces and the influence on later generations were not as good as the Beijing royal gardens. Liao was a regime established by the Khitan people in the north. As the accompanying capital of Liao, Beijing at that time was called Nanjing, also known as Yanjing. The Yaoyu Palace was built here, with Yaochi Hall and Linshui Hall inside.In the Jin Dynasty, Beijing was called Zhongdu, and the Yaoyu Palace was expanded, called Xiyuan. The water pools in the garden were collectively called Taiye Pool, and the island in the pool was called Qionghua Island.In Xiyuan, there are also architectural scenery such as Xiyuan and Tongyuan.There are also Dongyuan (Dongmingyuan), Nanyuan (Xichunyuan) and Beiyuan in Zhongdu City, all of which are places for sightseeing with flowers, trees, pools and terraces.Outside the central capital, there are also gardens and palaces such as Jianchun Palace, Changchun Palace, Wanning Palace, Diaoyutai, and West Lake.Among them, Wanning Palace is located in today's Beihai area. While the Liao and Jin dynasties built gardens in the suburbs of the capital, they also built palaces in Xiangshan, Yuquanshan and Badachu in the western suburbs with lakes and mountains. These are royal gardens with the function of palace gardens. In the Yuan Dynasty, Beijing was called Dadu, and it was the political, commercial and cultural center of the unified central government.Most of them are cities planned, developed and built on flat land.It is famous all over the world for its majesty, wealth, and splendor. Westerners call it "Khan Bali", which means the city of the Great Khan.In front of the north-south axis of the city is the palace, and the west side of the palace is the garden that the Yuan Dynasty concentrated on building. Before the construction of the capital city, in the third year of Yuan Zhongtong (AD 1262), Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, refurbished the palace garden outside the capital city of the Jin Dynasty as a temporary residence [bibi].This is the current Qionghua Island in Beihai. At that time, the Guanghan Hall was built on the top of the mountain, the Renzhi Hall was built on the mountainside, and the Yitian Hall was located in Tuandi (now Tuancheng) in the water opposite Qionghua Island.After the completion of Miyagi, Qionghua Island was called Longevity Mountain, and the water surface was renamed Taiye Pool.The overall mountain pool still embodies the tradition of imitating the sacred mountains of the sea since the Qin and Han Dynasties, and laid the foundation for the three seas of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.The jade urn "Dushan Dayuhai", a relic of the Wansui Mountain in the Yuan Dynasty, was originally placed in the Guanghan Hall, which was specially used for Kublai Khan to store wine and have banquets, and later lived in folk temples. Inside, it is still for people to appreciate. In the Ming Dynasty, the royal gardens were still dominated by Longevity Mountain and Taiye Pond, and developed to some extent.At that time, the Taiye Pool was expanded southward to become a consistent water area of ​​the North Sea, the Central Sea, and the South China Sea. Additional palaces were built on the island, collectively called Xiyuan, separated from the Forbidden City by a long street, forming a grand layout of palaces and gardens.Another representative of the imperial gardens in the Ming Dynasty is the imperial garden in the Forbidden City. This garden conforms to the strict and symmetrical overall regulation of the palace, with certain rules for planting trees, placing stones, and garden paths. The Ming and Qing Dynasties changed, and the palaces and gardens of the Ming Dynasty also changed owners. The members of the royal family of the Manchurian aristocrats fully took over the Forbidden City, Xiyuan, and altars and temples everywhere. Since the Qing Dynasty took over the central government in 1644, the construction of royal gardens has been continuous. After about 100 years, the royal garden area of ​​three mountains and five gardens, represented by the Old Summer Palace, appeared in the northwest suburb of Beijing.In the 42nd year of Kangxi (AD 1703), Chengde Mountain Resort was built.It was Qianlong, the fourth emperor after the entry of the Qing Dynasty, who established the final scale of these gardens. Changchun Garden was the earliest palace garden that appeared in the northwestern suburbs of Beijing in the Qing Dynasty.The garden used by Emperor Kangxi was built on the basis of Li Wei's Tsinghua Garden in Ming Dynasty.In the northwest of Changchun Garden, there is another private garden in the Ming Dynasty. Kangxi gave it to the fourth son of the emperor, Yinzhen, and named the garden Yuanmingyuan.After Yinzhen succeeded to the throne, he became Emperor Yongzheng, and the Old Summer Palace became a royal garden. The Zhengda Guangming Hall, the Entrance and Exit Xianliang Gate, and the Qinzheng Qinxian Hall were built successively. These building names can only be used by emperors, forming a place for court meetings and audiences. area of ​​political activity.After Emperor Yongzheng ascended the throne, Qianlong expanded it extensively, and drew pictures of famous scenery, gardens and buildings in Jiangsu and Zhejiang to imitate the garden.The first expansion was in the ninth year of Qianlong (AD 1744), and forty scenes of the Old Summer Palace were inscribed. Soon after that, the Changchun Garden adjacent to the east of the Old Summer Palace was built. The "Western Building" imitating a European-style palace was built in Changchun. Garden North.Later, Emperor Jiaqing, the son of Qianlong, built the Qichun Garden in the southeast of Yuanmingyuan.Yuanming, Changchun, and Qichun are generally called the Three Gardens of Yuanming.Covering an area of ​​more than 5,200 mu, the building area is equivalent to the total area of ​​the Forbidden City. The three gardens of the Yuanming Dynasty all used the traditional method of digging ponds and piled mountains on the flat ground.There are as many as 150 or 60 scenic spots centered on the building complex, which are not the same, but harmonious and unified.It is not an exaggeration to describe the artistic achievements of the Old Summer Palace as "all the scenery in the sky and on earth are prepared, and the sky and the earth are in the king's arms".At that time, the Old Summer Palace was praised internationally as "the garden of ten thousand gardens". In 1860, a fire by the British and French allied forces reduced it to ashes. At the same time, the royal gardens built on the basis of natural landscapes were also destroyed: Xiangshan Jingyi Garden, Yuquanshan Jingming Garden and Wanshoushan Qingyi Garden.Among them, Qingyi Garden is the predecessor of the Summer Palace in the late Qing Dynasty. Qingyi Garden was built in the fifteenth year of Qianlong (1750 A.D.) after the forty scenes of Yuanmingyuan were completed. It is different from the plain gardening of Yuanmingyuan, and it is also different from its collection-style landscaping techniques.Qingyi Garden is a garden with a more royal style.It is a large garden composed of large-scale scenery such as high pavilions, promenades, long embankments, long bridges, large islands, and broad water surfaces among natural mountains and rivers. The weather is myriad.During the Guangxu period at the end of the Qing Dynasty, after Empress Dowager Cixi embezzled funds from the navy for reconstruction, she maintained the original basic layout and reproduced the magnificent and elegant style of Qingyi Garden.It has become the most well-preserved typical royal garden so far. The Summer Palace covers an area of ​​4,350 mu, of which 3/4 of the water surface of Kunming Lake. It follows the name of Chang'an Kunming Pool in the Han Dynasty.In the waters divided by several long dikes, there is an island each, which adopts the garden waterscape treatment method of "one water and three mountains".Inside the East Palace Gate of the main entrance of the Summer Palace, there is a complete former area for political activities, a living area for the emperor and empress, a three-story theater building in the Virtuous Harmony Garden specially used for acting, and a tea and dining room dedicated to Cixi in the East Eight Institutes. facility. The existing ancient buildings in the Summer Palace are about 60,000 square meters, with more than 3,000 rooms. It also broke the rule that only Buddhist halls in the garden in the early Qing Dynasty could use glazed bricks and tiles. It is magnificent, especially the 40-meter-high Foxiang Pavilion, which stands high on the Longevity Hill and becomes the composition center of the whole garden and the symbol of the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is not only the last royal garden in my country, but also the last one completed with traditional materials, traditional craftsmanship, traditional planning and design procedures, traditional construction techniques, and traditional craftsmanship before the rise of modern architecture. of buildings. Looking back, we would like to introduce the summer resorts in the early Qing Dynasty.The Summer Resort is also a collection of gardens composed of the Thirty-six Views of Kangxi and the Thirty-six Views of Qianlong, but unlike the Old Summer Palace, it is built among mountains and rivers whose natural terrain is much more complicated than that of the Old Summer Palace.Occupying an innate geographical advantage, although there are not many scenery left in the villa, its majestic scale, quiet and deep mountain atmosphere, the solemnity and mystery strengthened by the setting off of the eight outer temples, especially because it is the stage of major historical events , its historical value and artistic value cannot be underestimated. The Summer Resort was developed from the largest of the more than 20 palaces that the emperors of the Qing Dynasty passed through when they set off from Beijing to Mulan Paddock in autumn for hunting.Since the establishment of the Mulan paddock in the 20th year of Kangxi (AD 1681), the emperor has carried out annual hunting activities in the north called "Mulan Qiuxi" (Xian Xian), which not only has political purposes, but also has certain military purposes.The size of the paddock is almost 10,000 square kilometers.It can be seen from this that the enclosure introduced when we described the origin of ancient gardens still existed until the Qing Dynasty.Not only in the northeast of Chengde, but also in Beijing, there is another place dedicated to hunting for emperors, that is Nanyuan, also known as Nanhaizi.This is a garden that has been used since the Yuan Dynasty, and was called Feifangbo at that time. It was expanded in the Ming Dynasty, with a radius of 160 miles.Not only is hunting here, but also a "big parade" lecture here.At the end of the Qing Dynasty, foreign missionaries transported the rare animal Sibuxiang (elk) from here for hunting, and later bred them in Ubang Temple Manor in England. In 1985, the population returned from the UK is still stocking here. The history of royal gardens spans the entire feudal society of China.When they were built, they brought many disasters to the common people. Before the Qing Dynasty, they were all driven by the peasants in the form of corvee.The royal garden is the historical witness of the extravagant life of the supreme ruler in the feudal society.However, it cannot be ignored that the royal gardens are also a highly concentrated embodiment of ancient culture, art, science and technology, and are important historical and cultural heritages.