Gaoyi Garden is located at the southern foot of Tianping Mountain, originally constructed during the Tang Dynasty’s Baoli era, and was initially the ancestral hall of the Song Dynasty’s Fan Zhongyan. The garden consists of five sections, built against the mountain, with the ground level rising progressively, and spans a depth of approximately 70 meters. Upon entering the first gate, one passes through the ceremonial gate and reaches the third section, which is currently named ‘Le Tian Lou’, originally known as the Imperial Script Building, or ‘Chen Han Building’. It is a grand and exquisite double-eaved building with a hip-and-gable roof. The building is 15 meters wide and 10 meters deep, with three bays both up and down. The lower part is a four-sided hall surrounded by a corridor, while the upper part is an open pavilion with windows on all sides.
The fourth section is the ‘Xiao Yao Hall’, which is elevated and faces the ‘Le Tian Lou’; the pavilion is also of a hip-and-gable style, with two wings extending on the sides like twin watchtowers, giving it the appearance of a multi-storied building. The backyard is the main hall of Gaoyi Garden, featuring a single eave hip-and-gable structure, with three bays. Inside, there is a blue and gold dragon plaque with the inscription ‘Gaoyi Garden’, written by Emperor Qianlong in the 16th year of his reign (1751), along with two stone tablets inscribed with his poems ‘Sixteen Rhymes on Visiting Tianping’. On both sides of ‘Le Tian Lou’, there are small courtyards that utilize mountain cliffs and pebbles to form pools, complemented by lush bamboo and trees, adding a natural and lively charm to the symmetrical architecture. The eastern courtyard is larger and features a square pavilion named ‘En Lun Ting’. The White Cloud Ancient Temple, located to the west of the garden and originally built in the Tang Dynasty’s Baoli era (826), was initially called ‘White Cloud Hermitage’ and was named after the White Cloud Spring. In the Northern Song Dynasty’s Qingli era (1044), Fan Zhongyan requested it to be designated as the Fan family’s meritorious incense and fire temple due to the location of his ancestors’ graves. Emperor Renzong Zhao Zhen inscribed it as ‘White Cloud Zen Temple’, also known as Tianping Temple. It was destroyed at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and rebuilt during the Ming Dynasty’s Hongwu era. The existing temple buildings were reconstructed in the late Qing Dynasty, with only three hard mountain-style main halls and two side rooms, as well as the mountain gate remaining, with the main hall’s platform and lotus petal-encircled column bases being antiques. The Fan Canyueci is located to the east of the garden, consisting of a memorial gate and a hall in two sections. The hall is currently named ‘Sui Han Hall’, featuring a hard mountain-style structure, with three bays and two side rooms on either side. The ‘Lai Yan Xie’ is located to the east of the temple, with an ‘Fan Jing Tai’ adjacent to the Ten Scenery Pond, and an inward-shaped fish pond named ‘Yu Le Yuan’ inside. The northern part of the pond protrudes with a square pavilion named ‘Ting Ying Ge’, which overlooks the fish in the pond from three sides. The pavilion is connected to the ‘Wu Yan Hall’ at the back. The hall is five bays wide, with two side rooms as chambers. The pond is surrounded by a corridor, with the southern corridor having a door inscribed with ‘Lai Yan Xie’. Further east is the ‘Zhou Bo An’, next to the stone archway of Fan Sui’s tomb and the Peach Blossom Stream, consisting of three sections. The second section is a small three-bay room with walls embedded with stone carvings ‘Shan Shi Jian’ and ‘Fo Zai Zhe Li’, and the third section is a Buddhist hall. The garden is open all year round from 08:00 to 17:00.Gaoyi Garden
Gaoyi Garden is located at the southern foot of Tianping Mountain, originally constructed during the[...]
