Is Shiwa Garden, a famous northern garden, really only as big as ten Wat boards?

Legend has it that during the Tang Dynasty, some envoys went to Tianzhu and visited the former residence of the layman Vimalakīrti in the Buddhist classic "Vimalakirti Sutra". They saw the residence of the layman described in the Buddhist scriptures that could accommodate the public. It's just a small small room. The envoy used the Wat Board (a tool held by ancient ministers when meeting the king to record the content to be reported. It is also called the Shouban or the Jade Board) to measure it and found that the small room was only ten Wat Boards apart.

< p> Later, people used "Shihu" to describe a small but wide-accommodating space. In Weifang City, Shandong Province, the famous hometown of kites in my country, there is a famous garden called "Shihu Garden". It is small, exquisite and beautiful, but there is something special inside. So, how big is Jukotsuen Garden? What's it like inside?

Shihu Garden was built in the Ming Dynasty and was originally the residence of official Hu Bangzuo. During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, this small garden was purchased by Ding Shanbao, the richest man in Weixian County, and was called the "Ding Family Garden". The Shihu Garden covers an area of ??only 2,000 square meters, which is nearly two-thirds smaller than the Suzhou Master of the Internet Garden, which is known as the "most small garden"! However, although Shiwa Garden is small, it has many houses and exquisite buildings, including rockeries, ponds, pavilions, courtyards, flowers and plants, etc.

The various buildings in a limited space are compact and well-proportioned, and the structure is rigorous but not crowded. It reflects the gardener's sophisticated design thinking and superb architectural skills. It can be said that it is rare in northern gardens. Excellent product. When filming "Journey to the West" in the 1980s, Shihu Garden was chosen as the prototype of Gao Laozhuang. Experts praised Shiwa Garden as "a small garden in the northern country, which is the best for those who can conquer water and stone"!

If we just praise the garden for its small size and exquisiteness, it cannot summarize the entire essence of Shikotsu Garden. What's more important is that Shiwa Garden is actually a masterpiece that combines the essence of southern and northern gardens.

Shihu Garden is a rectangular garden. From south to north, the main buildings such as Shihu Thatched Cottage, Sizhao Pavilion and Yanxiang Tower are located on the central axis, and there are more than 30 other buildings* There are nearly seventy rooms in total, all of which are roughly symmetrically distributed along the central axis, reflecting the upright and stable characteristics of northern gardens.

The two courtyards in the north and south are arranged in an orderly manner, especially the rockeries, covered bridges, and pavilions, which are graceful and subtle, and have the style of southern gardens with winding paths, secluded paths, and deep beauty. Some buildings in the garden, such as the Sizhao Pavilion in the center, adopt the construction method of northern pavilions, but the decoration and layout reflect the interest of southern architecture. What's rare is that the two styles blend naturally and appropriately, without looking mixed and messy at all. Summary:

Due to space limitations, the scenic spots and buildings in Shiwatuan Garden are not large, reflecting a compact and exquisite beauty. There is a couplet in the garden, "Every visitor here forgets to worry about his guests, and when he enters the garden, he becomes the person in the painting", which is a vivid description of the scenery in the garden.