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the Canglang Pavilion
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 ¡¡¡CCelebrated
for the delights of the wilderness of mountain and forest scenery,the
Canglang Pavilion is the oldest among the existing classical
gardens of Suzhou. The exact location of the Canglang Pavilion
can be found in the Song Dynasty map of Pingjiang (Suzhou,A.D.1229)
inscribed on the stele.The northern Song poet Su Sunqin said
in "A Record of the Canglang Pavilion","...To
the east of the Confucian Temple were earthen hills covered
with trees and grass,and a wide expanse of water,quite different
from the urban scenes... I was reluctant to leave because I
fell in love with this place.So I bought it for 20,000 coins,built
a pavilion on the rock projecting over the water on the north
and called it the Canglang Pavilion."Fan Chenda wrote in
"Historical Records of Wu Jun" under the Song Dynasty,"The
Canglang Pavilion is located to the south of the Confucian Temple,fronting
an area of about 1.6 ac.of water space...During the reign of
Qingli(1044 A.D.) Su Sunqing bought it and built a pavilion
by the water,called the Canglang Pavilion...The name of the
Canglang has been known to all far and wide since then."
On the whole the present garden of the Canglang Pavilion still
keeps the style of the Song.It features a range of man-made
moutains inside the garden and waterscapes outside.Proceeding
past the pure expanse of water over a zigzag bridge of stone
and through the entrance,one comes to the garden and catches
sight of man-made mountain covered with age-old trees and bamboo,running
from east to west. At the foot of the mountains are rocky slops.The
Canglang Pavilion in the shape of a square stands at the top
of the mountain and has a parallel couplet from the Song poets
on the stone pillars to heighten artistic conception,reading
,"The refreshing breeze and the bright moon are priceless,the
nearby water and the distant mountains strike a sentimental
note,"Most of the garden buildings,simple and plain,were
rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty,carefully arranged around the mountains
and connected by a long roofed walkway. A double-corridor built
by the canal lies to the northof the garden,unifying waterscapes
outside the garden and "mountain scenery" inside in
one breath through its latticed windows, one of incredible examples
of borrowed scenes in the classical gardens of Suzhou.There're
over 100 different latticed windows with impressive designs,possessing
extremely high artistic value.
 ¡¡¡¡To the south of the
mountains is the chief building of the garden,called "the
Enlightenment Hall". Other building include the Smelling
Prunus Mume Pavilion,the Realm of Yaohua (Yaohua is said to
be a kind of jade-like,sweet-smelling flower in the Chinese
garden of Eden,which can help prolong the life expectancy of
those who behold it.),the Mountain-in-View Tower,the Elegant
Bamboo House,the Temple of 500 Sages,the Pure Fragrance House,
the Imperial Stele Pavilion,the Pavilion Fronting Water, the
Fish Watching Spot, the Water Pavilion of Lotus Fragrance,and
the Prunus Mume pavilion.
 ¡¡¡¡The
garden has altogether 20 different building, 22 plateaux and
tablets, 23 parallel couplets,153 steles,and 12 such valuable
old trees as gingo biloba L.,pterocarya stenoptera,celtis sinensis
pers,camellia japenica L.,santalum album,chimonanthus praecox,etc.,
which fall into 10 catalogues,70 kinds of valuable cymbidium
spp.,and 18 kinds of bambusoideae. |
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