Looking at the water leads to Zen, and smelling the fragrance can irritate the mind - Overview of Suzhou Lion Forest Feng Shui

I traveled to Suzhou during the Dragon Boat Festival. I was pressed for time, so I briefly visited the Lion Forest and the Humble Administrator’s Garden. I went to Hangzhou with my girlfriend at noon that day.

Suzhou gardens have always been famous, and they are indeed well-deserved. I was very impressed after visiting them. In particular, the lion forest is surrounded by high walls, deep houses, rockeries, and winding corridors. The layout of the whole garden is compact, and it really has an artistic conception of "a mountain and a forest close to your feet".

I had a very busy schedule that day and walked very quickly. I only had a cursory stroll around. My deepest feeling was that the Feng Shui layout of these gardens was really good.

Feng Shui has a profound influence on the Chinese people. The traditional urban planning and design of the past dynasties all contain the concept of Feng Shui. The conventions of Feng Shui can be seen in the vast settlements and residential buildings in various places.

It is said that the Lion Grove Garden was built by a disciple of the eminent monk Tianru Zen Master in the Yuan Dynasty. In order to commemorate the Buddhist mantle and the relationship between master and teacher, it takes the meaning of Leo in Buddhist scriptures.

The Buddha is a lion among men, and the lion seat is where the Buddha sits. It generally refers to the seat of eminent monks, and the forest is the Zen temple. Therefore, Lion Grove itself is a religious term. Zen monks take Zen meditation and Doujifeng as their way to attain enlightenment, but do not recite Buddha's name or worship it. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, there was also a school of crazy Zen thought, which believed that walking, standing, sitting and lying down, responding to opportunities and receiving things, dressing and eating, etc., could not be Buddhism. Therefore, there is no need to cultivate the Tao. Worshiping the Buddha and reading scriptures are useless. Even the thought of seeking the Tao and becoming a Buddha is wrong. It has even developed to the point of deviating from the scriptures and teachings, and scolding Buddha and ancestors.

Therefore, there is no Buddhist temple in the Lion Forest. Since then, the Lion Forest has changed owners many times. The temple, garden, and residence were separated and combined. Traditional gardening techniques and Buddhist ideas were integrated with each other, as well as the modern Bei family. Western gardening techniques and ancestral temples were introduced into the garden, making it a temple garden that integrates Zen principles and the joy of gardening.

There is a locust tree planted in the courtyard in front of the Lion Forest Gate. There is a saying that "there is a locust tree in the middle gate, which means you will be rich for three generations. There is an elm tree in the back of the house, and a hundred ghosts will not come near." There are golden osmanthus and magnolia in the front and back of the hall, which means "the hall is full of gold and jade". There is a sculpture of three stars of fortune, luxury and longevity on the roof ridge, which means "three stars shine high".

The base of the screen wall in front of the foyer is carved with Jinshan stone, which is used by the Eight Immortals in myths and legends. This is called the Dark Eight Immortals. The vases and peonies are used on the hanging to represent wealth and peace, and the pictographic leaves (representing the Bay-leaf Sutra) are used to indicate that the owner is a disciple of Buddhism. There are "five bats holding longevity" on the ground, which represent fortune, wealth, longevity, jubilee and kao. When building the rockery, the pictographic twelve zodiac signs, carp jumping over the dragon gate and other peak stones were used.

There are also three connected lakes and stone peaks in the courtyard of Li Xuetang, which symbolizes the wish to achieve the third level of success.

Lion Grove Garden is the master of ancient gardening art and the master of Feng Shui.

Good Feng Shui is surrounded by mountains and rivers. Ding Shui, the owner of the mountain, controls wealth. If the mountains and rivers work well together, the descendants of the owner will be rich and powerful. The distant owner, Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, had a monk named Yao Guangxiao, who was probably the most well-known, and he was also the owner here. Recently, Pei Runsheng, the paint tycoon of the Republic of China, bought this house, and later it also produced architects like I.M. Pei.

This shows the feng shui here.