★ Tourist location: Suzhou Lion Forest

Lion Forest was built in the second year of Zhizheng of the Yuan Dynasty, diagonally opposite Humble Administrator's Garden and is famous for its rockery. The plane is basically rectangular and covers an area of about 15 acres. It is not very large in a garden, but the scale of the rockery is truly unique. Lion Grove used to be the site of the temple, so the gardening method of Lion Grove also combined Buddhist thoughts. In modern times, the Bayes family introduced Western gardening methods and family temples into the garden, making Lion Grove a temple garden that integrates Zen principles and gardens. A temple garden that integrates happiness and happiness.

During the Yuan Dynasty, the eminent monk Tianru went to Suzhou to teach scriptures. The disciples bought land, built a house, and built a meditation forest for the monk. It was initially named Lion Forest Temple, but later changed its name several times to include Puti Zhengzong Temple and Shengen Temple. Because the strange rocks in the forest are shaped like Suanni (lions), Zen Master Tianru obtained the Dharma at the Zhongfeng of Puying National Teacher in Shizi Rock, Tianmu Mountain, Zhejiang Province. In order to commemorate this relationship between teachers and teachers, he took the meaning of Leo in the Buddhist scriptures. There is also the saying "lion roar" in Buddhist books, so the name Lion Grove really carries many things.

After Zen Master Tianru passed away, his disciples dispersed and the temple garden gradually became deserted. During the Ming Dynasty, Ni Zan traveled through Suzhou to participate in gardening and wrote a poem and painted "Lion Grove Painting". At that time, this great calligrapher and painter was already 73 years old. During the Wanli period, some monks rebuilt the Lion Forest Shengen Temple and the Buddha Hall, and they flourished again. During his southern tour, Kangxi once awarded the title of "Lion Forest". Emperor Qianlong visited the Lion Forest for six times and successively awarded the same plaques as "Mirror Wisdom Yuan Photo","Painting Zen Temple" and "Zhenqu". Anyway, the plaques and poems written by this emperor are not too few. Later, the temple and the garden were separated, and Huang Xingzu bought it and named it Sheyuan. Huang Xingzu's son, the top scorer in high school, renovated the courtyard of the mansion again. Because there are five pine trees in the park, it is also called the Five Pine Garden. By the middle of Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, the Huang family was in ruins and the gardens were in ruins. However, rockery was not afraid of wind and rain and was not affected.

In 1917, pigment comprador businessman Bei Runsheng purchased the garden for 800,000 silver yuan. After seven years of construction and expansion, it was still named Lion Forest, which temporarily dominated the city of Sioux. After liberation, descendants of Bayes donated the garden to the country and opened it to the public in 1954.

The inscription on the forehead of the first door says "Shizilin" instead of "Lion Forest". This teacher refers to the meaning of a teacher. It means that Lion Forest Temple was built by Master Tianru Shenshi in memory of his teacher Zen Master Zhongfeng. On the top of the ticket counter is the real three words "Lion Forest", written by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty.

Entering the door is the Bei family ancestral hall, and the plaque in the middle is Gu Tinglong's calligraphy, praising the design of the Lion Forest for its tranquility and tranquility. The wooden railings on both sides of the corridor have patterns of peony, phoenix and longevity characters, all of which are very auspicious connotations. If we hadn't encountered a tour guide explaining, we would have missed the most special part of the ancestral hall. On the roof, there are statues of three immortals, Fu Fu, Lu and Shou, and a child. Many gardens in Suzhou have such clever ideas, and the exquisiteness is hidden in inadvertent places. This is a kind of low-key luxury.

Yanyu Hall is the main hall of Lion Grove. It has a high building and luxurious furnishings. The name of the hall comes from the book "The Book of Songs·Xiaoya·Cheyi","It is like Yan and famous, but good but not shooting." This is the place where the garden owner holds a banquet. It takes the form of a mandarin duck hall. It is called the hall in the front and the hall in the back. The front hall is used to receive distinguished guests or male guests, while the back hall is used for gathering women. The ancients paid attention to the precautions of men and women. After the age of seven, men and women could not sit at the same table, so male and female guests naturally had to be separated. The screen in the middle hall is engraved with "The Story of Rebuilding the Lion Forest" on one side and "The Lion Forest Picture" on the other side.

Next to it is the small square hall of "Garden Shading Salvation", named because its square hall. There are large flowered windows on both sides, and at the east pass is the plain core wintersweet, which is now growing luxuriantly. Outside the west window is an urban rockery, which is also a way of landscaping in the garden. The flower windows are used to create a natural picture scroll.

Out of the square hall, you can see the Nine Lion Peak, where nine lions in different shapes are built up from lake rocks and rockery rocks. There are four missing paintings behind the peak, namely piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. There is a crabapple shaped door opening on the west side with brick carvings embedded on it.

Zhibaixuan is a two-story building. It used to be a place where monks taught scriptures. It is said that when the Tang Dynasty Zen master Congshen taught the meaning of Zen, no matter what his disciples asked, he always replied uniformly: "Baishu Zi in front of the court", which means you feel it yourself. This is the allusion used to refer to Baixuan, which is also the place where relatives of the Bei family gather. Above the hall is hung a plaque "Yi Feng refers to cypress", which refers to Buddhist allusions. Yi Feng is a poem made from Song Dynasty rice Fu and love stone. He bowed when he saw Shi Feng.

There is a bamboo garden to the west of Baixuan is the Five Pine Garden. Because there were originally five ancient pine trees here, Lion Forest once used the Five Pine Garden as the name of the garden.

You can enter the rockery from Zhibai Xuan. In fact, you can also reach the rockery by standing on the stone arch bridge in the small pool in the south of the hall. This is the most essential part of the Lion Garden. The rockery is entirely made of lake stone and covers an area of less than two acres. It is divided into upper, middle and lower floors. There are nine mountain roads and twenty-one holes. The caves and ravines are winding, the stone paths are winding, and the ups and downs go back and forth. When people enter them, it is as if they have entered a maze. How can they distinguish the east, south, west, and west? Sometimes I can clearly hear my little friend's voice in my ears, but I only hear the voice and don't see the person. Sometimes they are clearly coming in opposite directions, but as they walk, they find that they are actually in the opposite direction. Sometimes I see the end of the road, but as I walk, I find another village with dark willows and bright flowers.

If you have the leisure and patience, you can also admire the various lake stones here and count how many lion-like stones there are. It is said that there are more than 500 lion pictograms. I really wanted to count it, and commented with great interest: "This is a furious lion. Look how big its mouth is! This is a sleeping lion, lying lazily. Oh, this is two lions fighting for the lion king, right? It looks like it's lions here too, maybe it's a little lion playing..."But as I walked, I got lost, and sometimes I walked back, and naturally the numbers were chaotic.

It is said that you can still find hieroglyphics of the twelve zodiac animals here, but I gave up directly. It is too difficult. Everything looks like it but nothing looks like it. Anyway, it means whatever it means, and there is no inconsistency to ten points. When I was young, my father took me to lead the Lion Grove. I also played in the rockery until I left the garden. Later, the only thing I couldn't forget about the Lion Grove was the rockery, and it became the white moonlight in my heart. Even though Wuxi Liyuan is famous for its rockery, it is still not as good as Lion Grove in my heart.

There are five famous peaks on the top of the false mountain, including Lion Peak in the middle, Hanhui Peak in the east, Tuyue Peak in the west, and Liyu Peak, Angxiao Peak and dozens of small peaks on both sides. The rockery in Lion Grove simulates images related to Buddhist stories and metaphors Buddhist principles in them to achieve the purpose of rendering the Buddhist atmosphere. Unfortunately, we had a great time shuttling back and forth in the rockery, but we didn't feel the breath of Buddhism at all. It can be seen that my friend and I have no Buddhist fate.

The wind is clear and the sun is bright, and the dream of Jiangnan is unforgettable.

Look for elegance in front of Yan Yutang, and look for innocence outside Wusong Garden.

--Seven Wonders