001 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 Gusu District, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province Master of the Nets Garden · Hall of Ten Thousand Volumes · Fisherman's Seclusion →
002 Architecture Yu Garden Shanghai's Yu Garden lies in the old walled quarter of Huangpu District and was the private garden that Pan Yunduan began building in the thirty-eighth year of the Jiajing era of the Ming. After the Pan family declined, the grounds passed through resale; in the twenty-fifth year of the Qianlong era they were purchased by local gentry and wealthy merchants and attached to the City God Temple, and in the late Qing they were managed and rebuilt in parcels by more than twenty trade guilds. Drawing on the Record of the Yu Garden, local gazetteers, archival photographs, and restoration records, this entry traces the garden's transformation from the Pan family residence-garden and the West Garden into a modern public garden. Ming Dynasty Huangpu District, Shanghai Yu Garden · West Garden · Shanghai City God Temple →
003 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 Gusu District, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province Humble Administrator's Garden · Classical Gardens of Suzhou · Ming Dynasty Gardens →