Geyuan Garden () is located on Dongguan Street in

Yangzhou Yangzhou, postal romanization Yangchow, is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province (Suzhong), East China. Sitting on the north bank of the Yangtze, it borders the provincial capital Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north ...

, a city renowned for traditional private gardens, in Jiangsu Province, southeast China. The Geyuan Garden is open to the public, with different sections representing each of the four seasons.

Spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season) Spring, also known as springtime, is one of the four temperate seasons, succeeding winter and preceding summer. There are various technical definitions of spring, but local usage of ...

is demonstrated with a picture of

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

and rock. Summer is represented by the steel-grey

Taihu stone Taihu stone () or porous stone is a kind of limestone produced at the foot of Dongting Mountain () in Suzhou, which is close to Lake Tai. Due to long-term surging by water, this kind of stone features pores and holes. These stones are very popula ...

. Autumn is depicted by

Huangshan Huangshan (),Bernstein, pp. 125–127. literally meaning the Yellow Mountain(s), is a mountain range in southern Anhui Province in eastern China. It was originally called “Yishan”, and it was renamed because of a legend that Emperor Xuan ...

stone, and

winter Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Different cultur ...

by Xuan stone.

History

The Geyuan Garden was known as "the garden of the long-lived ''

Ganoderma ''Ganoderma'' is a genus of polypore fungi in the family Ganodermataceae that includes about 80 species, many from tropical regions. They have a high genetic diversity and are used in traditional Asian medicines. ''Ganoderma'' can be differenti ...

''" during the

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...

. In 1818 (the 22nd year of the reign of the

Jiaqing Emperor The Jiaqing Emperor (13 November 1760 – 2 September 1820), also known by his temple name Emperor Renzong of Qing, born Yongyan, was the sixth emperor of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and the fifth Qing emperor to rule over China proper, from ...

), salt distribution commissioner Huang Zhiyun bought the land and rebuilt the garden as a private retreat. Huang Zhiyun loved bamboo, believing that they were as persistent, modest, straightforward, and loyal as a good man. A cluster of three bamboo leaves resembles the Chinese character ''个'' (pronounced “ge”). This was also noted by Yuan Mei, a writer during the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...

: "the moonlight made the bamboo shadows hundreds of the character ''ge''". The owner chose the name ”Ge Yuan” for his garden to correspond to his name, ''Zhi Yun'' (, which also means "bamboo").

Architecture

Geyuan Garden is known for its seasonal rock gardens, which paint a colorful landscape: "the rockery in spring is flamboyant like a bright smile, in summer is verdant like sparkling dewdrops, in autumn is clean like a light makeup, and in winter, it is pale like a sleeping beauty". The "spring hill is for visit, summer hill is for sight, the autumn hill is for climbing, and winter hill is for residence". The garden covers an area of . It is a small, elegant urban wooded mountain garden, primarily made up of bamboo and rocks. Rocks of different hues and shapes are used to represent scenes from the four seasons; hence, the rock garden was named the “Artificial Mountain of Four Seasons”. This artificial mountain has a typical Chinese artistic conception, as described in the poem below:

''Mountains in spring look like young maids with light make-up, smiling.
''Mountains in summer look like dark green jade as crystal and clear as water drops''.
''Mountains in autumn look like charming ladies with careful make-up, bright and unstained''.
''Mountains in winter look like old men sleeping in gloom and coldness.''

Gallery

File:个园 - panoramio - 山海风 (3).jpg File:住秋阁 0975.jpg File:映碧水榭0949.jpg File:鱼池和竹林(个园) - Pool and Bamboos in Geyuan Garden - 2010.04 - panoramio.jpg File:步芳亭0948.jpg

Notes

References

External links