拙政园英文介绍

The Humble Admini strator's Garde n is the largest and most famous classic garde n in Suzhou.

Its exquisite beauty, artistic value and historic significant established the garden, as one of

Chin a's four most famous garde ns, other three being the Summer Palace in Beiji ng, the

Mountain Resort of Chen gde in Hebei Prov in ce a nd the Lin geri ng Garde n in Suzhou. It also

listed as a World Cultural Heritage site by United Nations Educational , Scientific , and Cultural Organization in 1997. Covering an area of 52,000 square meters, the Humble Admini strator's Garde n was bega n to built in 1509 AD duri ng the Ming Dyn asty and was

fini shed after 16 years of elaborate work.The private reside nee is a gover nment administrator named Wang Xianchen. It was said that he was tired of official life and want to build himself a garden to do some gardening work like planting trees and vegetable, which he believed should be a life of a humble man.

I n 1513, Wang Xiancheng, an government administrator and poet of the Ming Dynasty, created a garde n on the site of the Daho ng Temple which had bee n bur nt out duri ng the

Ming con quest. In 1510, he retired to his n ative home of Suzhou on the occasi on of his father's death. He had experieneed a tumultuous official life punctuated by various

demotions and promotions, and gave up his last official post as a magistrate of Yongjia county in Zhejiang province, and began to work on the garden.This garden, meant to express his fine taste, received close atte nti on from the renowned artist, a Suzhou n ative, and his friend, Wen Zhengming. The garden was named by a verse of a famous scholar

official of Jin Dynasty, Pan Yue, in his prose he said "I enjoy a carefree life by planting trees and buildi ng my own house.. .I irrigate my garde n and grow vegetables for me to eat...such a

life suits retired official like me well". It took 16 years to complete. Wen Zhenming wrote an

essay for this Garde n, and pain ted Lan dscapes of it in 1533 in cludi ng 31 paintings and poems to commemorate the garde n.

Wang's son lost the garden to pay gambling debts, and it has changed hands many times

since. In 1631 the eastern garden was divided and purchased by Wang Xinyi, the Vice Minister of the Justice Board. He added many modifications over the next four years, finishing work in 1635. After completi on it was ren amed as Dwelli ng Upon Retur n to the

Coun tryside. The cen tral garde n was purchased by Jia ng Qi, Gover nor of Jia ngsu in

1738.After extensive renovations he renamed it Garden Rebuilt. Cao Xueqin, the author of the Dream of the Red Chamber, is supposed to have lived at the garden during his teenage years —arou nd 1735. Among Chin ese scholars, it is believed that much of the garde n in his no vel Dream of the Red Chamber was in spired by the sce nery of the Humble Admi nistrator's

Garde n.

The Humble Administrator's Garden is centered upon a lake of large size, making up about one fifth of the total area. The buildings are carefully arranged in order to match the natural

beauty of lakes, ponds, artificial mountains, and various of vegetation and flora. And therefore, the garde n lan dscape and water scape are simple, exte nsive and n atural, and yet

not at all dull since the scenes are distinctive, changeful and of interest. The garden is divided into three sections - the eastern, middle and the western sections. The middle part is

the gem of the garden with clear water, various shaped stones and mountains, elegant buildings 、leafy old trees and colorful flowers. When stepping into the garden, you will find a lake of peaceful water and many an cie nt cypresses n ear the bank. To the opposite of the

pond is the main building Hall of Distant Fragranee (Yuanxiang Tang). The building is beautifully designed, and the reflection of the pavilions, trees and flowers just make up a

beautiful picture. And you may just imag ine that you are walk ing through a 3-D Chin ese pain ti ng.

The eastern part of the garden features a verdant hills covered with pine and bamboo trees and encircled by winding streams, and an extensive area of grass, flowers and trees. The highlight spots in clude the Fur ong Waterside Pavili on and the Tian qua n Pavilio n, which are

very finely built and make beautiful reflections on the ponds. The peaceful west section has

rich water views with a lake at the center, around which are zigzagging corridors and Mandarin Duck Pavilion. There are so many scenes and spots you can discover in the