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Jiangsu

Chinese ancient architecture and grottoes in Jiangsu: 4 entries, including Master of the Nets Garden, Xuanmiao Temple, Yunyan Temple Pagoda, and more.

001 Architecture Xuanmiao Temple The state Taoist system of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang gave the city of Suzhou its Kaiyuan Palace; in the Song it was retitled Tianqing Temple, and after repeated destruction by war it was rebuilt by the court. In the Yuan, a woman donated her hairpins and earrings to repair the Three Gates; in the Ming, the timber rafts for rebuilding the Miluo Treasure Pavilion were scattered by wind upon the river, yet the stele record says the drifting timbers afterward all gathered back together. The temple front also became the place where hundreds of weavers waited each day for work. In the Qing it was renamed Yuanmiao Temple and became an altar of birthday prayers for the southern tours; in 1912 the Miluo Treasure Pavilion burned down, while the Southern Song Hall of the Three Pure Ones has survived to this day. Tang Dynasty · Jiangsu · Gusu District, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province
002 Architecture Yunyan Temple Pagoda The Yunyan Temple Pagoda sits atop Tiger Hill in Suzhou, commonly known as the Tiger Hill Pagoda. The temple was founded in the second year of Xianhe of the Eastern Jin (334 CE) when the brothers Wang Xun and Wang Min donated their residence, yet the surviving pagoda dates from between the sixth year of Xiande of the Later Zhou (959) and the second year of Jianlong of the Northern Song (961)—temple and pagoda are separated by over six hundred years and share no common origin. An octagonal, seven-story brick pagoda in the timber-imitation pavilion style, its brickwork simulates columns, lintels, bracket sets, and diamond-tooth eaves projections; the tower leans toward the northeast. Later Zhou · Jiangsu · Suzhou, Jiangsu Province
003 Architecture Master of the Nets Garden The Master of the Nets Garden lies at Kuojiatou Lane in Gusu District, Suzhou, Jiangsu. Its predecessor was the Southern Song official Shi Zhengzhi's Hall of Ten Thousand Volumes and his Fisherman's Seclusion flower nursery; after the nursery fell into ruin, the estate was sold off, divided, and turned into a government grain depot, until Song Zongyuan rebuilt it in the Qianlong era of the Qing and Qu Yuancun enlarged it, passing in the Tongzhi era to Li Hongyi. It is now a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level and was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1997. The article gathers the full texts of sixteen Yuan, Ming, and Qing documents together with six historical photographs taken by Osvald Sirén. Southern Song Dynasty · Jiangsu · Gusu District, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province
004 Architecture Humble Administrator's Garden The Humble Administrator's Garden (Zhuozheng Yuan) stands in Gusu District, Suzhou, Jiangsu, and was founded in the Zhengde era of the Ming. Wang Xianchen built a garden of ponds, pavilions, and bamboo and trees in the northeast of Suzhou city; afterward the site passed through division and refashioning as the Xu family private garden, the Return-to-the-Fields Garden, the Su-Song-Chang Circuit offices, the Restored Garden, the Eight Banners Fengzhi Guild Hall, and the Supplementary Garden. This entry gathers Wen Zhengming's garden record, inscriptions preserved within the garden, and historical photographs, tracing the Humble Administrator's Garden from a Ming private garden to a Qing guild hall. Ming Dynasty · Jiangsu · Gusu District, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province

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