'Up we have heaven, down we have Suzhou-Hangzhou': for gardens, canals, food, operas, silk and scholastic activities - Classical Gardens of Suzhou 813; The Grand Canal 1443; Kun Qu opera 00004
What and Why
The quote 'Up we have heaven, down we have Suzhou-Hangzhou (Chinese: 上有天堂、下有苏杭, Shangyou tiantang, Xiayou Su-hang)' aptly describes how beautiful Suzhou (苏州) has always been in the eyes of all Chinese. The city has been an important centre of culture, and has developed its own unique regional Wuyue (吴越) culture in terms of landscape and architecture, trade, gastronomy, scholastic activities throughout all dynasties of China (中国), including today's China.
The cultural depth of the city makes it one of the best touristic cities in the world, and in particular the city is famous for its Suzhou-styled classical gardenscapes (苏州园林, Suzhou yuanlin), which was developed over a period of more than a millennium. These gardens, mostly built by scholars, were constructed using rocks, plantations, water bodies, temples and pavilions to mimic natural sceneries, and is being imitated in all parts of China, so much so that it became a standard by itself.
Suzhou has been in existence for more than 5,000 years, making it one of the most ancient cities of the country. At one point, especially during its involvement in trades along the Silk Road (丝绸之路, Sichouzhilu) it was even classified as one of the world's top-ten cities. In parallel, the strategic location of Suzhou at a main estuarial point ensures it becomes a major trading post throughout history, further prospering the city. As a result another main feature of the city is the extensive presence of canals within and around to foster and develop trades. These canals eventually formed one of the main segments, the Jiangnan Canal (江南运河, Jiangnan yunhe) section of the Grand Canal (大运河, Dayunhe).
Toponymy
The word su (苏) by itself means birth although this is not how the city is named at all. Legends have it that the city was formed by a very respected minister named Su (胥) in the beginning of human civilisation, when he was awarded the region to be under his government. The area was thus named Gusu (姑胥), with the word gu (姑) being a meaningless filler-word itself. The city name Gusu, however was considered inauspicious during the Zhou (周) dynasty, and thus a word of similar pronunciation su (苏) was chosen to replace it. The traditional Chinese writing of the word su (蘇) includes parts denoting vegetation, fish and rice-grain, symbolising prosperity and abundance. Eventually the city became Gusu (姑苏) and later the word gu (姑) was dropped.
See
The highlights in Suzhou are definitely the inscribed classical gardens, especially the four great gardens namely:
Humble Administrator Garden (拙政园), during the Song (宋) Dynasty;
Lingering Garden (留园), Yuan (元) Dynasty;
Great Wave Pavilion (沧浪亭), Ming (明) Dynasty;
Lion Grove Garden (狮子林), Qing (清) Dynasty.
Coincidentally each represents the style from a different Chinese dynasty. All of these gardens are not particularly big in area. However within its respective small areas, the designer used all sorts of artistic skills, especailly the four components: stone, plantation, architecture and water to decorate the spaces and created an almost unsurpassable landscape, while retaining the deep and high-class cultural values of the city.
Humble Administrator Garden (拙政园)
While the site was built as early as the mid-12th century, the original garden was destroyed and rebuilt multiple times until in early 16th century CE, a retired administrator Wang Xianchen (王献臣) bought the dilapidated site and started the garden's reconstruction for his retirement. Wang himself had an unaccomplished political career and experienced ups but mostly downs. He quoted a small passage from the famous scholar of the Jin (晋) Dynasty Pan Yue's (潘岳) prose An Idle Life (闲居赋, Xianjufu) to describe his retirement life in the residence, 'I enjoy a carefree life by planting trees and building my own house...I irrigate my garden and grow vegetables to eat...such a life suits an unaccomplished official like me... (筑室种树，逍遥自得…灌园鬻蔬，以供朝夕之膳…此亦拙者之为政也, zhu shi zhong shu, xiaoyao zìde…guan yuan yu shu, yi gong zhaoxì zhi shan…ci yi zhuozhe zhi wei zheng ye)', and hence the residence was humbly named. Wang probably would never have anticipated this landmark make him very famous, and the site is possibly the most important of all gardens in Suzhou.
Similar to other classical gardens in Suzhou, the garden contains numerous pavilions and bridges set amongst a labyrinthe of stones, water bodies and islands, all of which are the main features of Suzhou gardens. Rocks are designed to cut through the wall, making visitors feel like they are exploring a mountain in nature. The plants were planted to represent all seasons: peony for spring, lotus for summer, osmanthus in autumn and plum in winter in different sections of the garden.
The garden can be roughly divided into eastern, central and western section, with the most of the main sights located in the central section. The central section is said to recreate the scenery of the mythical island of Penglai (蓬萊).
Lingering Garden (留园)
Great Wave Pavilion (沧浪亭)
Lion Grove Garden (狮子林)
Garden of the Nets Master (网师园)
Hanshan Temple (寒山寺）
North Temple Pagoda (北寺塔)
Tiger Hill (虎丘)
Jiangnan Canal (江南运河)
Buy and Do
Kunqu (昆曲)
Silk (丝绸)
Eat and Drink
Suzhou cuisine
Getting There and Around
Suzhou is well covered by its metro system and almost every spots mentioned above are accessible by metro. Suzhou does not have a civil airport but is only 30 minutes away by high-speed train from Shanghai (上海). Suzhou can be quite congested in terms of traffic.
UNESCO Inscriptions
Classical Chinese garden design, which seeks to recreate natural landscapes in miniature, is nowhere better illustrated than in the nine gardens in the historic city of Suzhou. They are generally acknowledged to be masterpieces of the genre. Dating from the 11th-19th century, the gardens reflect the profound metaphysical importance of natural beauty in Chinese culture in their meticulous design. The Grand Canal is a vast waterway system in the north-eastern and central-eastern plains of China, running from Beijing in the north to Zhejiang province in the south. Constructed in sections from the 5th century BC onwards, it was conceived as a unified means of communication for the Empire for the first time in the 7th century AD (Sui dynasty). This led to a series of gigantic construction sites, creating the world’s largest and most extensive civil engineering project prior to the Industrial Revolution. It formed the backbone of the Empire’s inland communication system, transporting grain and strategic raw materials, and supplying rice to feed the population. By the 13th century it consisted of more than 2,000 km of artificial waterways, linking five of China’s main river basins. It has played an important role in ensuring the country’s economic prosperity and stability and is still in use today as a major means of communication.
Kun Qu Opera developed under the Ming dynasty (fourteenth to seventeenth centuries) in the city of Kunshan, situated in the region of Suzhou in southeast China. With its roots in popular theatre, the repertory of songs evolved into a major theatrical form. Kun Qu is one of the oldest forms of Chinese opera still performed today.
It is characterized by its dynamic structure and melody (kunqiang) and classic pieces such as the Peony Pavilion and the Hall of Longevity. It combines song and recital as well as a complex system of choreographic techniques, acrobatics and symbolic gestures. The opera features a young male lead, a female lead, an old man and various comic roles, all dressed in traditional costumes. Kun Qu songs are accompanied by a bamboo flute, a small drum, wooden clappers, gongs and cymbals, all used to punctuate actions and emotions on stage. Renowned for the virtuosity of its rhythmic patterns (changqiang), Kun Qu opera has had a considerable influence or more recent forms of Chinese opera, such as the Sichuan or Beijing opera.
The opera has suffered a gradual decline since the eighteenth century because of the high-level technical knowledge it also requires from its audience. Of the 400 arias regularly sung in opera performances in the mid-twentieth century, only a few dozen continue to be performed. The Kun Qu opera survived through the efforts of dedicated connoisseurs and various supporters who seek to attract the interest of a new generation of performers.
References