★ Tourist location: Suzhou Canglang Pavilion

Canglang Pavilion is located in the south of Suzhou City. Although it is listed as the four major classical gardens in Suzhou together with Lion Grove, Humble Administrator's Garden and Lingering Garden, its area is the smallest among them. The reason why it may be juxtaposed with the other three famous gardens is because of its ancient history. These four gardens are arranged according to time. They were built in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Canglang Pavilion is the oldest garden in Suzhou.

Although it is named Pavilion, Canglang Pavilion is not just a pavilion, but a garden with Canglang Pavilion as a component. As early as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Sun Chengyou, the brother-in-law of Qian Chu, King of Wu and Yue, once built a villa. Another explanation is the pool hall owned by Qian Yuanzhen, King of Guangling. However, it is generally said that the garden was built during the Qingli period of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Walking through the stone archway, there is a green water outside the park, and then the foyer of Canglang Garden. There are water pavilions and lotus flower pavilions on both sides of the foyer. Needless to say lotus lotus roots, this is a place to enjoy lotus flowers. The Mianshui Pavilion was originally a place for viewing fish. In the 12th year of Tongzhi, Governor Zhang Shusheng changed its name to the Mianshui Pavilion after it was rebuilt. It was based on Du Fu's poetry that "all the pavilions are covered with water, and the old trees are covered with frost." Fish viewing is at the easternmost end, also known as Jingyin.

Facing you is a small earthen mountain with a Canglang Pavilion built on the top of the mountain. The couplets engraved on the stone pillars on both sides read: "The clear wind and the bright moon are priceless, and everyone near the water and the distant mountains are affectionate." This pavilion was built by literati Su Shunqin in the fourth year of the Qingli calendar of the Song Dynasty. At that time, he was demoted to live in Wuzhong. When he saw the abandoned land of the Sun family, he bought it for 40,000 yuan. He built the Canglang Pavilion and drove a boat to play. He called himself Canglang Weng, and wrote "Canglang Pavilion Notes". At that time, Ouyang Xiu, Mei Shengyu and others wrote poems with him, and the name of Canglang Pavilion spread. Although it is just a pavilion, it is tall and spacious, quaint and magnificent. There are several tall trees around them that are over a century old. You can view the whole garden from the pavilion. The view was better in the past.

After Su Shunqin's death, he changed his owner many times and was also expanded. In the early years of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty, it was the residence of Han Shizhong, a famous anti-Jin general, and was renamed Han Garden. During the Yuan Dynasty, monk Zongjing built Miaoyin Nunnery on the Canglangting ruins, and Dayun Nunnery on the east side. During the Ming Dynasty, Shen Zhou and Yang Junqian often lived here. During the Hongwu period, Monk Baotan merged the two temples to Nanchan Jiyun Temple, which was destroyed in a fire during the Chenghua period. In the 13th year of Jiajing, county magistrate Hu Zanzong converted the nunnery into the Temple of King Han Qi to worship Han Shizhong. In the twenty-fifth year of Jiajing, monk Wen Ying rebuilt the Canglang Pavilion.

During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, Wang Xinmin, governor of Jiangning, ordered the construction of Su Gong Temple in the site. Later, when Song Luo comforted Wu, he rebuilt Canglang Pavilion on the top of the mountain and obtained the words "Canglang Pavilion" in the official script of Wen Zhengming. During Qianlong's southern tour, he once stationed in this garden many times. There was once a royal road in the south of the garden. During the Daoguang years, Liang Zhangju rebuilt Canglang Pavilion again. Canglang Pavilion was destroyed by fire during the Xianfeng period. During the Tongzhi period, Governor Ying Baoshi and Governor Zhang Shusheng rebuilt it again and built Mingdao Hall. During the Guangxu period, the Westernization Affairs Bureau borrowed it, and there were at most seven bureaus.

During the Republic of China, Suzhou Fine Arts School was established here. Wu Zishen, a painter from Wujun, paid 4,000 yuan to renovate the garden and later established an art museum. When Suzhou fell, the Japanese headquarters was occupied and was severely destroyed. Gao Guanwu, chairman of the puppet government of Jiangsu Province, raised funds for repairs. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the art school reopened here, but the garden was already deserted. When Henan University moved south, the College of Liberal Arts was located in Canglang Pavilion. After liberation, it was renovated and opened to the public for sightseeing. When Zhu De visited Suzhou in 1964, he presented ten pots of Sichuan orchids and "Orchids", and added orchids to the park. During the Cultural Revolution, it was once renamed the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Park. A large number of cultural relics were destroyed and were not gradually restored until 1978.

There is a small pool at the foot of the mountain, connected by a complex corridor between the mountains and rivers. Although Canglang Pavilion is not large, this complex corridor is known as one of the three famous corridors of Suzhou's classical gardens. It is the existence of this complex corridor that creates the effect of mountains and rivers borrowing each other's scenery, and also makes up for the lack of water in the garden. It forms a unique open pattern among Suzhou's classical gardens. It is highly praised as "without a word, it is romantic." There are flowered windows built on the side of the corridor, and each leaking window has a different pattern. It is said that there are 106 flowered windows in Canglang Pavilion, but there should be 108.

The stone tablet in the Imperial Stele Pavilion next to the pool is engraved with poems written by Emperor Kangxi's royal pen. However, Kangxi should not have visited Canglang Pavilion during his southern tour. This was given to Wu Cunli, the then governor of Jiangsu, during his southern tour.

Mingdao Hall is located to the southeast of the rockery. It is the main building in the garden. It has a width of three rooms and a construction area of 600 square meters. It was created by Zhang Shusheng, governor of the 12th year of Tongzhi of the Qing Dynasty. It is taken from the sentence "observing and listening to innocence, then Tao will be clear" in Su Shunqin's "Canglang Pavilion". This is the place where literati of the Ming and Qing dynasties gave lectures.

On the west side of Mingdaotang is the Temple of Five hundred sages, created by Tao Shu in the seventh year of Daoguang. On the three walls of the temple are 594 flat carved stone statues of figures related to Suzhou history. They were carved by Gu Tingzhou, a famous Qing Dynasty scholar. It was destroyed by war during the Xianfeng period and rebuilt during the Tongzhi period. When searching for statues, most of them survived. Later, he found rubbings and re-engraved 140 people.

Qingxiang Pavilion is located north of Mingxian Temple, also known as Xianglu Pavilion. It is said that it was inscribed during Han Shizhong's days, taking from Li Shangyin's poetry of "Be attentive to the fragrance, but the alloy fish locks the osmanthus bush." There are still several cinnamon trees planted in front of the museum. I don't know when they were planted, but the original cinnamon trees are definitely gone now.

Cui Linglong is also called Bamboo Pavilion. It has three rooms wide and several side rooms. This was also available in Han Shizhong's days. It is based on Du Fu's poetry of "autumn color enters the forest, red is dim, and the sun wears bamboo green and exquisite". Bamboo is cultivated before and after, and it has always been a place where literati and literati travel and paint.

Guanshan Tower is located on top of the rockery cave house, located at the southern end of the garden. It is named after Luji's poetic poem,"When guests come to seek wine, they will sleep and watch the mountain without saying anything."

Next to it is the Yaohua Wonderland, also called the Yaohua Realm. It turned out to be the place where the owner of the garden received guests. Yaohua is the legendary fairy flower. In its name, the environment here is like a fairyland. I don't know what it looked like before, but now it seems a bit far away from the level of fairyland.

The clear wind and bright moon are priceless, and the dew is light when you walk through the corridors.

When guests return, they must indulge in alcohol, and the towers and water pavilions are always full of emotion.

--Seven Wonders