Geyuan, Ge Yuan, or Ge Garden is located on Dongguan Street in

Yangzhou Yangzhou is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province, East China. Sitting on the north bank of the Yangtze, it borders the provincial capital Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north, Yancheng to the northeast, Taizhou, Jiangsu, ...

, a city renowned for traditional private gardens, in

Jiangsu Province Jiangsu is a coastal province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the third smallest, but the fifth most populous, with a population of 84. ...

, southeast China. Geyuan is open to the public, with different sections representing each of the four seasons.

Spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a he ...

is demonstrated with a picture of

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

and rock.

Summer Summer or summertime is the hottest and brightest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, daylight hours are the longest and darkness hours are the shortest, with day ...

is represented by the steel-grey

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 ...

Autumn Autumn, also known as fall (especially in US & Canada), is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southern Hemisphe ...

is depicted by

Huangshan Huangshan ( zh, s=黄山),Bernstein, pp. 125–127. literally meaning the Yellow Mountain(s), is a mountain range in southern Anhui province in eastern China. It was originally called "Yishan", and it was renamed because of a legend that Em ...

stone, and

winter Winter is the coldest and darkest season of the year in temperate and polar climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Dif ...

by Xuan stone.

History

Geyuan was known as "the garden of the long-lived ''

Ganoderma ''Ganoderma'' is a genus of polypore fungi in the family Ganodermataceae that includes about 80 species, many from tropical regions. They may be called ''shelf mushrooms'' or bracket fungi and have a high genetic diversity. ''Ganoderma'' can b ...

''" during the

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

. In 1818 (the 22nd year of the reign of the

Jiaqing Emperor The Jiaqing Emperor (13 November 1760 – 2 September 1820), also known by his temple name Emperor Renzong of Qing, personal name Yongyan, was the sixth emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fifth Qing emperor to rule over China proper. He was ...

), salt distribution commissioner Huang Zhiyun bought the land and rebuilt the garden as a private retreat. Huang Zhiyun loved bamboo, believing that they were as persistent, modest, straightforward, and loyal as a good man. A cluster of three bamboo leaves resembles the Chinese character ''个'' (pronounced “ge”). This was also noted by Yuan Mei, a writer during the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

: "the moonlight made the bamboo shadows hundreds of the character ''ge''". The owner chose the name ”Ge Yuan” for his garden to correspond to his name, ''Zhi Yun'' (, which also means "bamboo").

Architecture

Geyuan is known for its seasonal rock gardens, which paint a colorful landscape: "the rockery in spring is flamboyant like a bright smile, in summer is verdant like sparkling dewdrops, in autumn is clean like a light makeup, and in winter, it is pale like a sleeping beauty". The "spring hill is for visit, summer hill is for sight, the autumn hill is for climbing, and winter hill is for residence". The garden covers an area of . It is a small, elegant urban wooded mountain garden, primarily made up of bamboo and rocks. Rocks of different hues and shapes are used to represent scenes from the four seasons; hence, the rock garden was named the “Artificial Mountain of Four Seasons”. This artificial mountain has a typical Chinese artistic conception, as described in the poem below:

''Mountains in spring look like young maids with light make-up, smiling''.
''Mountains in summer look like dark green jade as crystal and clear as water drops''.
''Mountains in autumn look like charming ladies with careful make-up, bright and unstained''.
''Mountains in winter look like old men sleeping in gloom and coldness.''

Gallery

File:个园 - panoramio - 山海风 (3).jpg File:住秋阁 0975.jpg File:映碧水榭0949.jpg File:鱼池和竹林(个园) - Pool and Bamboos in Geyuan Garden - 2010.04 - panoramio.jpg File:步芳亭0948.jpg

Notes

References

External links