一部中國園林史由無數(shù)座名園個案連綴而成，宛如珍珠串起的項鏈，寄暢園是項鏈上一顆別致的明珠，因其精彩紛呈的歷史，獨(dú)到精湛的藝術(shù)，為人所津津樂道。

寄暢園的傳奇色彩首先來自其悠久的歷史。這座園林1527年由秦金建造，此后迭經(jīng)秦瀚、秦梁、秦燿、秦埈、秦伯欽、秦德藻、秦松齡、秦道然諸人之手，始終由秦氏保有，因稱“秦園”。寄暢園背后的秦氏家族，歷史還要更為久遠(yuǎn)，秦氏始祖是北宋文學(xué)家秦觀，距今已近1 000年。寄暢園所在的惠山山頂有一座秦觀墓，背靠三茅峰，前對太湖，氣象開闊，不僅在文字圖畫上，更在真景實(shí)物上，將這個綿延千年的傳奇家族展示在世人面前。

不過僅僅是古老，還不足以讓寄暢園享有如此盛名。寄暢園卓越的園林藝術(shù)，代表了古代造園的最高水平，幾乎符合計成《園冶》提出的各項重要原則：這座園林選址于《園冶》最推崇的山林地，與局促在城內(nèi)的宅園拉開了距離。中國園林以山水取勝，寄暢園假山出自“山子張”疊山世家之手，人工之巧自不必言；尤難得的是園外鄰近惠山，山脈延入園中，使假山與真山渾然一體。川流于假山間的八音澗從“天下第二泉”引水，成為惠山整體水系的一部分，使假水與真水也渾然一體；再加上寄暢園對錫山和龍光塔的借景，絕佳詮釋了《園冶》“巧于因借”的構(gòu)園理念，營造出“雖由人作，宛自天開”的渾融境界。

值得一提的是，寄暢園卓越的園林藝術(shù)并非唾手得來，而是隨著時光流逝，日雕月琢而成。寄暢園的前身只是惠山寺旁的14座僧房之一，到秦瀚手中成為無錫五大名園之一，萬歷年間躋身無錫兩大名園之一，排在愚公谷之后；但到康熙年間一躍成為無錫乃至江南的第一名園。寄暢園的園林藝術(shù)與歷史演變緊密相連，在一次次改造中愈改愈奇，最終從眾多園林里脫穎而出，這對今天的設(shè)計師而言，尤其值得借鑒和學(xué)習(xí)。

寄暢園還有許多獨(dú)到之處，每處都足以成為一項議題，因此有學(xué)者倡議成立“寄暢園學(xué)”。如何通過扎實(shí)的個案研究，構(gòu)筑一個開放的研究體系，使寄暢園與悠久的歷史脈絡(luò)、廣闊的地域空間、豐富的藝術(shù)人文聯(lián)系起來，是“寄暢園學(xué)”成敗的關(guān)鍵。事實(shí)上，寄暢園所取得的成就，一直與它的開放性有關(guān)，今天更應(yīng)繼續(xù)保持。

這種開放首先表現(xiàn)在時間上，不同時期的寄暢園始終在與歷史對話。這座園林里有莊子的濠上之樂，謝安的東山高臥；有陶淵明的孤松獨(dú)撫，王羲之的曲水流觴；有白居易的賞月之榭，李德裕的醒酒之石……中國數(shù)千年的隱逸文化幾乎都薈萃在園中，漫步其間如同展看一幅幅生動的隱逸畫卷，漢唐宋明一脈相連。這正是我們今天努力尋找的，如何與歷史親密對話，讓歷史照進(jìn)現(xiàn)實(shí)，活在當(dāng)下。

其次，這種開放表現(xiàn)在空間上，包括三個維度。寄暢園是惠山的有機(jī)部分，惠山有118座祠堂，為中國最大的古代祠堂群；寄暢園與其西的二泉書院辟小門相通，是園主秦金和名士邵寶友誼的見證；附近的聽松石床、竹爐山房、碧山吟社……都是園主和賓客的游息之所，這些景致構(gòu)成第一個維度。今天惠山的保護(hù)開發(fā)仍應(yīng)作為整體來規(guī)劃，這既是出于保護(hù)古鎮(zhèn)肌理的需要，也是基于景致間的內(nèi)在關(guān)聯(lián)。寄暢園與所借景的錫山龍光塔，秦觀墓所在的惠山構(gòu)成第二個維度，它們與無錫城遙相呼應(yīng)，成為整座城市最重要的文化守護(hù)和精神寄托。中國許多城市都有類似的場所，如蘇州虎丘、揚(yáng)州蜀崗、杭州西湖，這些場所在歷史上發(fā)揮的重要作用，今天仍需深刻體會，將它們重新打造為城市的精神錨點(diǎn)。第三個維度需要把視野放大到全國，康熙年間寄暢園所取得的突出成就，與它對杭州飛來峰、嘉興放鶴洲的取法有關(guān)，此后它又被侯杲亦園、乾隆惠山園所取法，這種開放的姿態(tài)將各地的景觀聯(lián)系到一起，構(gòu)成更大維度的有機(jī)整體。

最后，這種開放還表現(xiàn)在人事上。寄暢園在古代首先屬于秦氏家族，秦氏子弟貢獻(xiàn)良多，可稱作“秦園”。同時，這座園林也屬于邵寶、鄒迪光、安紹芳、王永積、嚴(yán)繩孫等無錫人，他們都曾為其出謀獻(xiàn)策，可稱作無錫名園。再進(jìn)一步，為寄暢園繪圖的宋懋晉來自松江，撰寫《寄暢園記》的王穉登來自蘇州，主持寄暢園改筑的張鉽來自嘉興……所以它還是一座江南名園。最后，康熙、乾隆等帝王的游賞與仿建，使寄暢園突破了江南文士的圈子，進(jìn)入到皇家系統(tǒng)中。

名園個案研究常見的局限是只見樹木，不見森林，在一個封閉的話語體系里自說自話，與開闊的外部世界隔絕開來，越走越窄。這樣的名園研究難免成為一份凝固的化石標(biāo)本，可供欣賞卻喪失了活力。寄暢園研究希望能夠打破這種局限，提供多種對話的可能——?dú)v史與現(xiàn)實(shí)的對話，單體與環(huán)境的對話，地域與國際的對話……基于這一考慮，2017年寄暢園490周年紀(jì)念活動上成立了“中國古典名園研究中心”，設(shè)在北京林業(yè)大學(xué)園林學(xué)院，計劃借助這一平臺，將高校學(xué)者與地方學(xué)者、研究機(jī)構(gòu)與政府機(jī)構(gòu)、學(xué)術(shù)資源與社會資源結(jié)合起來，以點(diǎn)帶面，通過個案研究展開多方面的探索，引領(lǐng)人們體驗鮮活的歷史人文，構(gòu)建堅實(shí)的學(xué)科理論，指導(dǎo)現(xiàn)實(shí)的保護(hù)和實(shí)踐。

本期專題組稿人：黃曉

2018年11月1日

PREFACE

An Open Dialogue from the Garden Cases

The Chinese garden history is made up of numerous well-known garden cases like pearls of a necklace. The Jichang Garden as a unique pearl on the necklace with colorful history and distinctive art has been very popularly talked about.

The legendary color of Jichang Garden comes first of all from its long history. It was built by Qin Jin in 1527 and handed thereafter in Qin family to Qin Han, Qin Liang, Qin Yao, Qin Jun, Qin Boqin,Qin Dezao, Qin Songling, Qin Daoran etc. so also named “Qin’s Garden”. The Qin family that owned Jichang Garden is traced back to their ancestor Qin Guan the litterateur and writer of the Soft Tuneful School in Northern Song Dynasty about 1,000 years ago. The Qinguan tomb was located on the top of Hui Hill where the Jichang Garden was built. The tomb stands against the Sanmao Peak overlooking the Taihu Lake with a wide magnif i cent vision to present the thousandyear-long legendary family to the living world, practically with the real scene in addition to the artistic writing and painting.

The antiquity is however not enough to make Jichang Garden highly reputable. The outstanding garden art of Jichang represents the highest level of ancient gardening of China for that it conforms almost to all the garden principles put forward in Yuan Ye such as the principle of location at “hilly woodlands” to be distant from the narrow residential areas in downtown. Chinese gardens are characterized by the use of mountain (Shan) and water (Shui). The rockery of Jichang Garden was built by the well-known “Rockwork Zhang” representing very high landscaping level as indicated by the neat integration of the rockery with the natural Hui Hill outside the Garden. The Music Stream of the rockery draws water from the “Second Spring of the World” as part of the overall Hui Hill water system to make the artif i cial and natural water system integrated. The garden landscape is also supported with the scenery from Xi Hill and Longguang Tower coinciding with the Yuan Ye principle of “skillful design depends on basis of supporting”for works “although artif i cial, it appears natural”.

It is worth mentioning that the outstanding garden art of Jichang Garden is not originally so. In the very beginning it was only one of the 14 mortuaries neighboring the Huishan Temple. Jichang became one of the fi ve most famous gardens of Wuxi in the hands of Qin Han, and one of the two most famous gardens in Wuxi during the Wanli reign of Ming Dynasty by ranking next to the Yugong Valley.Up till the Kangxi reign of Qing Dynasty Jichang Garden became the most famous garden in Wuxi and southern China. The landscape art of Jichang Garden evolved with the history to become increasingly amazing and distinguished by times of reconstruction and innovation which is much worth learning from by nowadays designers.

Jichang Garden has many unique qualities with each suff i cient for thematic research so some scholars have proposed to set up the “Ji-Chang Studies”. Whether this can be achieved depends largely on the success or failure of in-depth case study for an open research system to link Jichang with the long history, broad geographical space and rich humanities. In fact, the achievements of Jichang Garden in the past has been partly due to its openness which should still be maintained for expansion today.

This openness lies firstly in time as Jichang Garden has always been in certain dialogue with history. With Zhuangzi’s Joy on Moat,Xie’an’s Retirement with High Ease, Tao Yuanming’s Solitary Care of pine, Wang Xizhi’s Wine Cup Floating on Winding Water, Bai Juyi’s Moon-watching Pavillion, Li Deyu’s Sober-up Stone and so on, the thousands of years of seclusion culture are wholly consolidated in the Garden so that strolling through Jichang Garden means watching a vivid reclusive handscroll of painting with Han, Tang, Song and Ming dynasties closely linked. We look for ways today to engage in close dialogues with history, so let history shines into reality to allow us treasure the current moment.

Secondly, the openness is manifested in space with three dimensions. Jichang Garden as one of the 118 ancestral halls of the Hui Hill, composing the largest ancient ancestral temple complex in China, is an integral part of the Hill landscape. Jichang Garden has a small door to its western Erquan Academy, a witness to the close friendship between the Garden owner Qin Jin and the famous literati Shao Bao. The nearby Tingsong Stone Bed, Bamboo Stove Cottage,the Bishan Yinshe Villa combined as the first dimension of the integrated landscape to offer leisure service for the Garden owners and their guests. The protection and development today of the Hui Hill needs to be planned as a whole to form integral residence-tourism space for both conservation of the texture of the ancient town and for inherent linkages among the landscape. Jichang Garden in addition to far-visioned Longguang Tower of Xi Hill and Qin Guan Tomb backgrounded Hui Hill combine to constitute the second dimension to echo the Wuxi City as its prime cultural guardian and spiritual sustenance. Many cities in China have places like Hui Hill such as Tiger Hill in Suzhou, Shu Hill in Yangzhou, and West Lake in Hangzhou.These places that have played an important role in history still deserve our deep understanding so that they can be further utilized as spiritual anchors of the cities. The third dimension needs to be expanded to the perspective of whole country. The outstanding achievements of Jichang Garden during the reign of Emperor Kangxi of Qing dynasty are related to the adoption of the landscaping methods for Flyover Hill (Feilaifeng) of Hangzhou, Crane Freeing Island (Fanghezhou)of Jiaxing, and the later Yi Garden by Hou Gao, Huishan Garden by Emperor Qianlong were further inf l uenced. The openness approach connect the landscapes of various places of the country to form an organic whole in a larger dimension.

Finally, the openness is manifested in human figures. Jichang Garden belonged in ancient time to the Qin family whose members contributed as owners of “Qin’s Garden”. At the same time, Jichang Garden belonged to some local personage of Wuxi such as Shao Bao, Zou Diguang, An Shaofang, Wang Yongji, Yan Shengsun etc. who made suggestions for the famous gardens in Wuxi. Furthermore, Song Maojin from Songjiang made drawings for Jichang Garden, Wang Zhideng from Suzhou wrote the Jichang Garden Records, Zhang Shi from Jiaxing hosted the reconstruction project of Jichang Garden… Thus it is also a famous garden among the river south of China. Last but not the least, the emperors such as Kangxi and Qianlong toured south, brought garden art like Jichang from southern China into the royal system.

One common limitation of the garden case studies is that they tended to see trees instead of forests so that the self-talking in closed discourse system to narrow the open external world. Case studies to famous gardens thereby inevitably become solidified fossil which can only be appreciated as invigorous specimen. It is recommended that the research of Jichang Garden should break this limitation by providing multiple dialogues between history and reality, the individual and the environment, the region and the world etc. Based on this consideration, the “Chinese Classical Garden Research Center” was established at the 490th anniversary of the Jichang Garden in 2017,based on the School of Landscape Architecture of Beijing Forestry University. The plan is to combine university scholars with local scholars,research institutions with government institutions, academic resources with social resources with this wide platform. So that such studies may promote researches in all areas by drawing upon the particular cases,may guide the public to experience fresh history and humanities. With these solid academic theory, it may guide today’s garden protective development and landscape practices.

Translator: WANG Xiyue

Acquiring Editor of the current issue: HUANG Xiao

November 1st, 2018