园林英语论文——拙政园The Humble Administrator’s Garden - 副本

The Humble Administrator's Garden Introduction

The Humble Administrator's Garden was originally built in 1509 ，also is the fourth year of Zhengde period in Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It was initially a private garden of a former government official named Wang Xianchen. He rebuilt it when returning home because of his failure in his official career. It was said he intended to build a garden after retirement and just do some gardening work like planting trees and vegetables there, which was said to be the life of a humble man by him. In fact，the garden was named after the connotation of one sentence from Pan Yue's article in Jin Dynasty. In the article "Watering Vegetables in the Yard", he said "to supply three meals a day, this is also a way of administration by humble ones".Hence is the name of the garden. The garden was built upon the sites of the old residence of the Tang-dynasty scholar Lu Guimeng and the Yuan-dynasty Dahong Temple.

The designer of the garden was Wen Zenming, one of the Four Talent Painters in the Ming Dynasty. Near the old entrance of this garden, grows a Chinese wisteria planted by Wen Zhengming. Although around 500 years old, it still puts forth luxuriant foliage and witnessed the long history of the Humble Administrator’s

Garden designed by Wen Zhengming.

It took sixteen years to complete the garden. Unfortunately, his son lost the garden in gambling and the three winners divided it into three parts after the founder of the garden passed away. The east part was owned by Wang Xinyi, who named his new possession Return to Countryside Garden Villa.

General Layout

The Humble Administrator's Garden was laid out in line with the local conditions. It was designed with the lotus pond at the center, surrounded by other pavilions and halls at random. Covering 51,950 sq.m,the Humble Administrator's Garden is the largest of all classical gardens in Suzhou . It is centered upon the broad expanse of a pond, making up about one fifth of the total area. With well spaced buildings, the garden landscape and water scape are simple, extensive and natural, possessing the traditional appearance of the Ming Dynasty. Without going out of the city can attain a pleasure in the woods here.

The whole garden consists of 3 parts and some residential buildings. These 3 parts are divided into the eastern, western and middle part. Every part has its own distinctive features. And the residential buildings is a dwelling quarter. The dwelling quarter is filled with typical Suzhou architectures which used to be

residential houses for the administrator and his family, which now serves as the exhibition halls of the Museum of the Gardens.

Its layout is so attractive that it leaves no pity for the visitors." Honors

As a gem of the gardens in the area south of the Yangtze River and a masterpiece of the Ming-style gardens,The Humble Administrator's Garden retains various artistic forms such as painting,calligraphy,architecture,carving and gardening,reflecting the great influence of the profound Chinese culture and traditional arts. It is a treasure house of arts of architecture, calligraphy, carving, painting, and bonsai. Indeed,it was inscribed on the World Heritage List by UNESCO in 1997,known as "the mother of Chinese gardens".

Rare for national key cultural relic preservation organ, the national special tour, one CanGuanDian world cultural heritage, and the Summer Palace in Beijing, chengde mountain resort and suzhou garden known collectively as China four classical gardens, so far, along with the four national only zhuozhengyuan a crown. For it’s Honors:

1. Four Most Famous Gardens in China

2. Cultural Relics of National Importance under the Protection of

the State