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Humble Administrator Garden

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The Garden of the Humble Administrator, located in Dongbei Street in the city of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, is a traditional landscape garden in the style of the south Yangtze River region. It features streams, ponds, bridges, and small, man-made islands that are covered in bamboo plants. The main pond comprises roughly 3/5 of the entire garden, with the result that the main pond is part of any particular view of the garden. It seems obvious that the garden's creator wished that the pond play a prominent role in his garden.

During the Tang (CE 618-907) Dynasty, the site of the present-day Humble Administrator garden was a typical scholar garden featuring, among other elements, rockeries. Later the scholar garden was transformed into a monastic garden for the nearby Dahong Temple, during the Yuan (CE 1279-1368) Dynasty. During the reign (CE 1505-1521) of Emperor Zhengde of the Ming (CE 1368-1644) Dynasty, a government official who had been dismissed returned to his hometown of Suzhou and purchased the land on which the temple and garden stood.

The temple had to yield place to a private villa, and the garden was totally remade: a huge pond was dug and the resulting earth was used to create a number of small islands in the pond. The elaborate garden was designed with the help of a renowned artist of the period by the name of Wen Zhengming. Much of the pond remains to this day, though the garden complex would pass through many hands and would be divided and parcelled up, then reunified, finally being rebuilt during the Qing (CE 1644-1911) Dynasty to the present-day house-and-garden complex, which is far removed from the original villa and garden constructed by Wang Xianchen, the government official who gave it its present-day name.

As an aside: there are various theories to explain the rationale for the name, Garden of the Humble Administrator, two of which are as follows: a) the dismissed government official wished to signal his regret over having merited being dismissed, and wished to humbly express his intent to strive to at least be worthy of tending a garden; and b) the administrator did not in the least feel shame over the actions that had caused him to be dismissed from government, but rather, in giving the garden the name he chose, the former administrator was expressing a touch of irony at best, and deep sarcasm at worst, since the villa-and-garden complex bore all the hallmarks of a deliberate and ostentatious expression of opulence.

Some years later, the Wang family of Suzhou sold the garden complex. During the latter part of the Ming Dynasty, the garden was divided up and distributed among various government officials. The garden was first reunified again during the reign (CE 1643-1661) of Emperor Shunzhi, and this restoration work was continued under the reign (CE 1661-1722) of Emperor Kangxi, both of the Qing Dynasty. Still later, during the reign (CE 1735-1796) of Emperor Qianlong, also of the Qing Dynasty, the garden, though unified (it was no longer parcelled out to various temporary occupiers) was sub-divided into two main parts: Fu Yuan (Restored Garden) and Shu Yuan (Book of Study Garden).

The present-day Garden of the Humble Administrator, though a unified garden that largely resembles the garden as it appeared during the reign of Emperor Qianlong, is subdivided into four parts - an Eastern, a Western, and a Central part, besides the living quarters. The Eastern part is called simply the Eastern part, though in former times it was referred to as Guitianyuanju (Dwelling Upon Return to the Countryside). It should be mentioned that this part of the garden was first reunified with the rest of the garden in 1949, when a number of modifications were made to this part of the garden. The Western part is more commonly known as Fushu Yuan (Supplementary Garden), while the Central part is more commonly referred to as Zhuozheng Yuan (Humble Administrator's Garden).

The large pond and the artificial islands, however, are remnants from the Wang garden, the garden of the original "Humble Administrator" (the quotation marks deliberately supplied so as to permit the reader to determine for him-/herself just how humble Wang Xianchen really was). The restored living quarters are built in the same Suzhou architectural style that was typical for the period when Wang Xianchen lived here. They now serve as exhibition halls for the Museum of the Gardens.

The Eastern part features pine forests and lawns, bamboo groves and flowing water. Some famous attractions here include Orchid Snow Hall, Dotted Cloud Peak and Lotus-Flower Waterside Pavilion. In the Central part, visitors will find pavilions, mansions and corridors, as well as lush vegetation and willow sheltered ponds. The main attraction in the Western part is Thirty-Six Mandarin Duck Hall. Corridors, terraces and small ponds are scattered throughout the Western part of the garden.

The Garden of the Humble Administrator requires about an hour's leisurely walk to take in everything on a first pass, but the garden is truly worth a second, more studied look, as it is rich in history, and perhaps irony as well.

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