The Lion Grove Garden (;
Suzhou Wu: Sy tsy lin yoe, ) is a garden located at 23 Yuanlin Road in
Gusu District
Gusu District () is one of five urban districts and the main district of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, China. It was created on 1 September 2012 by the merger of the three former districts of Canglang, Pingjiang, and Jinchang.
Administrative division ...
(formerly
Pingjiang District),
Suzhou,
Jiangsu
Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...
,
China. The garden is famous for the large and labyrinthine
grotto of ''taihu'' rocks at its center. The name of the garden is derived from the shape of these rocks, which are said to resemble lions. The garden is recognized with other classical
gardens in Suzhou as a
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
.
History
![20090905 Suzhou Lion Grove Garden 4520](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/20090905_Suzhou_Lion_Grove_Garden_4520.jpg)
"Of all the famous rock-gardens in history, only one has survived. This is the so-called 'Lion Garden' in Suzhou ." The Lion Grove Garden was built in 1342 during the
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fift ...
by a Zen Buddhist monk, Wen Tianru, in memory of his teacher Abbot Zhongfeng. At that time the garden was part of the Bodhi Orthodox Monastery (). The name of the garden is derived from the lion-shaped ''taihu'' rocks, which in turn were built as a reference to the symbolic lion in the
Lion's Roar Sutra. According to a garden record of the Yuan dynasty, there were ten thousand bamboo plants and many eccentric rocks in the Lion Forest. Among those rocks, one peak of them looks like a lion, thus, the garden has named The Lion Forest Garden. The name also refers to the Lion Peak of
Mount Tianmu
Tianmu Mountain, Mount Tianmu, or Tianmushan () is a mountain in Lin'an County west of Hangzhou, Zhejiang, in eastern China. It is made up of two peaks: West Tianmu () and East Tianmu (). Twin ponds near the top of the peaks led to the name o ...
in
Lin'an City
Lin'an District () is one of ten District (China), urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang, Zhejiang Province, East China, East China. It is located in northwest Zhejiang as a separate urban area of Hangz ...
, Hangzhou,
Zhejiang
Zhejiang ( or , ; , Chinese postal romanization, also romanized as Chekiang) is an East China, eastern, coastal Provinces of China, province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable citie ...
, where Abbot Zhongfeng attained
nirvana
( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...
. At that time, the garden was 6,670 m
2 and was covered in rock and bamboo. After Wen Tianru's death, the garden fell into disrepair, but in 1589 another Buddhist monk, Mingxing, rebuilt the garden. The magistrate of bought the garden, and his son Huang Xi rebuilt the garden in 1771.
The garden's name was then changed to the 'Garden of Five Pines'. Starting in 1850, the garden fell into disrepair once again. In 1917, Shanghai pigment merchant, Bei Runsheng, grandfather of
I. M. Pei
Ieoh Ming Pei
– website of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners ( ; ; April 26, 1917 – May 16, 2019) was ...
, purchased the garden and finished the restoration in 1926. Many buildings and rocks in the garden have been preserved since the restoration. After the death of Bei Runsheng in 1945, the Lion Forest Garden was managed by his grandson Bei Hwanzhang. According to official signs posted in the garden, the Bei family "donated" the garden to the Chinese government in 1949. This words on the signs seem curious because all private property was nationalized by the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
in the same year. The garden was not opened to the public until 1956.
[Suzhou, 2009]
The garden's design attracted the attention of notable visitors, such as the painter
Ni Zan
Ni Zan (; 1301–1374) was a Chinese painter during the Yuan and early Ming periods. Along with Huang Gongwang, Wu Zhen, and Wang Meng, he is considered to be one of the Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty.
Life
Ni Zan was born into a wealth ...
, who created the painting ''Picture Scroll of Lion Grove'' in 1373. In 1703, the
Kangxi Emperor
The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 1654– 20 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, born Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1661 to ...
visited the garden, and in 1765, the
Qianlong Emperor also visited the garden and left a tablet ''True Delight'' personally inscribed by him as a gift. He also had a replica of the garden constructed in the Changchun garden of the
Summer Palace
The Summer Palace () is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces in Beijing. It was an imperial garden in the Qing dynasty. Inside includes Longevity Hill () Kunming Lake and Seventeen Hole Bridge. It covers an expanse of , three-quarte ...
and at the
Chengde Mountain Resort
Chengde Mountain Resort in Chengde (; Manchu: ''Halhūn be jailara gurung''), is a large complex of imperial palaces and gardens situated in the Shuangqiao District of Chengde in northeastern Hebei province, northern China, about 225 km northea ...
.
Design
![Shizilin001](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Shizilin001.jpg)
The 1.1 ha garden is divided into two main parts, a housing complex and rockery around a central pond.
[Terebess, 2009] In addition to the 22 buildings the garden also houses 25 tablets, 71 steles, 5 carved wooden screens, and 13 ancient specimen trees, some dating back to the Yuan Dynasty.
The garden is most famous for its elaborate grotto of taihu rocks. This 1154 m
2 grotto contains a maze of 9 paths winding through 21 caves across 3 levels. The pond divides the grotto into the east and west sections. The formal entrance to the western section is called the Eight Diagram Tactics located across the Jade Mirror Bridge from the Pointing at Cypress Hall. The
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 ...
peaks are located atop this grotto. The most famous attraction in the grotto is the Lion Peak, surrounded by four other stones - sandesh bansal, Xuan Yu, Tu Yue, and Ang Xiao - which collectively form the Famous Five Peaks. There is a folktale about two immortals,
Iron-Crutch Li
Li Tieguai ( Mandarin: ; lit. "Iron Crutch Li") is a Chinese mythological figure and one of the Eight Immortals in the Taoist pantheon. He is sometimes described as irascible and ill-tempered, but also benevolent to the poor, sick and the needy, ...
and
Lü Dongbin
Lü Dongbin (796 CE – 1016 CE) is a legendary Chinese scholar and poet said to have lived during the Tang Dynasty. Whether he actually lived the two hundred and twenty years cannot be determined. Elevated to the status of an immortal in the ...
, who wandered into the maze of the Lion Grove and lost their way, after which they settled in a cave to play chess.
Image:Lion grove garden grotto.png, Grotto of taihu rock
Image:Lion Grove Garden Pond.png, Lion Grove Garden Pond
File:Lion garden 9 lion peak.jpg, Nine Lion Peak
File:Lion garden waterfall.jpg, Flying Waterfall
See also
*
Chinese garden
*
Suzhou
Notes
References
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*, retrieved 2020-02-07
External links
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Classical Gardens of Suzhou UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
's official website on
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lion Grove Garden
Classical Gardens of Suzhou
AAAA-rated tourist attractions
Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Jiangsu