Many of you may think that the ancient royal gardens were off-limits to the common people, who had absolutely no opportunity to go in and enjoy them. In the Qing Dynasty, the Yuanmingyuan and other woodland gardens belonged exclusively to the royal family, and the beautiful landscapes in the gardens had nothing to do with the common people. But the royal forest of the Song Dynasty, it is regularly open to the public, and established as a system in the form of an edict.
The Royal Forest Garden of the Northern Song Dynasty was a zoo, and at that time, the tribute from the various countries of the Fann States was kept in the Garden of Jade jin, and in 1012, the Song Emperor issued an edict that “the lions, domesticated elephants, and strange beasts of all countries were listed in the outer garden, and the Oracle’s ministers had a banquet in the garden. ” The outer garden is called Yujin Park. The animals kept in Yujin Garden included the tame elephant (Pheasant Bull), Champaign Golden Lion (Pheasant), Chinese mythical goat (Mythical deer), rhinoceros (Rhinoceros), mythical animal (Mythical pheasant), peacock (Peacock), silver pheasant (Pheasant), elephant (Pheasant), bison (Pheasant), and white camel (Pheasant). In order to provide sufficient forage for the elephants, the imperial court “ordered that fifteen hectares of Osmia grass be planted in Yujingyuan”.
Although the Yujin Garden was a royal forest garden, it was open to the courtiers, and “the court ordered the courtiers to have a feast in the garden”. The scholar and nobleman could enjoy the banquet in the garden. More importantly, in March and April each year, Yujin Garden was also open to the public. During the Yuanfeng years of Song Emperor Shenzong’s reign, Zhou Bangyan made the “Biandu Assignment,” which mentioned that “the above wanted to have fun with the people, opened the gardens, where the yellow house of rest, the chariot of the Luang chariot stationed, all have to be poor and extremely appreciated, the order of the Secretary is not impeachable. The Song Emperor Hui Zong’s Li Changmin’s “Guang Biandu” also said, “life skimp and opened forbidden areas, and the city people to visit.” These royal forest gardens, which were open to the public, naturally included the Yujin Garden. The Song dynasty’s “Yi Jian Zhi” recorded that during the year of Emperor Huizong’s reign, the rich brothers from Suzhou went to Beijing to take the exams, “because they had time to go out to the Yuzhin Garden. This means that ordinary people in the Song Dynasty were allowed to visit Yujin Garden. As long as one was a citizen of the Song Dynasty, one could enter the garden during the open season without charging an admission fee.
The “Golden Myung Pond” and the “Kyohrin Garden” are the largest and most prosperous royal forest gardens in Tokyo. From March 1 to April 8 each year, these two gardens are open to the public, “allowing the commoners and plebeians to parade,” and “their official duties (i.e., government departments) in the capital, as well as business, to feast and tour as they please. In other words, for more than a month each year, these two royal gardens became parks open to the public, and any citizen of the Song Dynasty could come in and visit them, as long as they did not interfere with government offices. Therefore, it became a custom for the citizens of Bianliang to visit the Royal Forest Garden during the Qingming Festival every year, “even in spite of the wind and rain, there are still visitors, so there is no wasted day. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the Royal Forest Garden was also “open to visitors in spring every year”.
During the opening period, the Song government would organize and hold grand gambling shows, water plays, and dragon boat races in the “Jinming Pond,” which attracted countless citizens. The government of the Song Dynasty also organized and held grand gambling shows, water plays, and dragon boat races at the Jinming Pond, attracting numerous citizens to watch. The Baotin Building on the Jinming Pond was a place where the emperors enjoyed opera performances and banquets, and “it was forbidden to enter or leave the building. In the imperial pond, the Huang Gai cracked his whip like a ceremony. Every time a big dragon boat out, and the Imperial Horse pool, the visitors will be doubled.
There are businesses in the Linyuan, “restaurants, Bo Yi field households, artists hook shop, quality library”, only do business during the tourist season, “only to close the pool, they will not sell”. On the west bank of Jinming Pond, it is relatively quiet, with “no houses, but weeping poplars, tobacco and few visitors”. But the clever merchants have their own tricks to do business, launched a “paid fishing” business project: “anglers, will be in the garden of the pool to buy a brand, the party allowed to catch fish, visitors get fish, times its price to buy, chopped food in the water, to recommend the bottle, is a good taste.” After catching fish, visitors could buy them for twice the price of the outside market and have them made into delicious food by merchants with the “chopped meat and ballast” of the water. In today’s parks, there are also fishing and shrimp fishing programs, aren’t there? A thousand years ago, the Song people were playing the same gardening programs as today, which makes us wonder about the “modernity” of Song citizens’ lives.
What is even more surprising is that the Jinming Pond and Qionglingyuan allowed people to gamble during the hours they were open to the public. Gamble, or Gamble in English, was called “Guan Pou” in the Song Dynasty, with a similar pronunciation. In the Yuan Dynasty, it was still called that. I’m a little suspicious that the English word gamble is the transliteration of “guan-woo,” which was brought to Europe from China by Marco Polo. The Song people were very fond of the game of guan-po, somewhat similar to today’s prize competitions and gambling activities. Whenever the Royal Forest Garden was open, “in addition to restaurant artistes occupied the pool garden, more than color curtain pay complex, laying jade, strange play, horse and silk, movable (daily utensils), tea, wine, utensils Guan Pou”. It means that the merchants in the Royal Garden around the color curtain to sell goods, with a small game of gambling to attract visitors to patronize. The best thing for a visitor to the Royal Forest Garden was to go home with something they had won from the guan-fu – “the bamboo poles on which visitors often hung the goods they had won from the guan-fu all day long.
A part of the palace also “does not prohibit visitors, hall up and down the corridor, all Guan Pou money, food and drink. The entertainers made field, hooks listed around. On both sides of the bridge, with a tile basin within the throwing head money, off pounce money, clothes, move to make. Tourists also go, look at the Dutch cover”. These open palaces are filled with visitors, entertainers who come here to perform, and merchants who set up food stalls and guanbao goods. Even the “carriages, horses, houses, courtesans, and dancers” were all gambled on at a price. In our imagination, we thought that even the seriousness of the royal palace did not dare to breathe out, but it turned out to be full of the city atmosphere of fun with the people where.
During the Song Dynasty’s most grand festival, the Lantern Festival, some of the palaces in the Imperial City would also be open to the public: “(Imperial City) Jinglongmen, the ancient sour date door also. East from the left side of the tuck gate for the city’s North-South Road, north of the King’s Dragon Gate, since the waxing moon on the 15th release of lights, vertical people night tour.” During the time of Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty, an interesting story happened: on the first night of the Lantern Festival, a woman went to the imperial city to have fun, ate a cup of “Jinou wine” given by the imperial family, because she was worried about her face having a wine face, and went home for fear that her husband would blame her, so she stole a golden cup, ready to take it home as proof, see, the wine was given by the emperor to drink. Who knew that he was caught by the guards when he stole the cup, but Song Huizong generously gave the golden cup to the female citizen – “Women travelers, invited to stay under the bead curtain, and drank with the gold ou wine. A woman after drinking wine, readily pregnant with gold ou. Around the call, the woman said: concubine’s husband sex strict, now with wine capacity, how to self-explanatory? I cherish this golden bowl as a proof. Through the curtain I heard a laughing voice saying, “With it. The person behind the curtain who said “with it” was Song Huizong. This story was adapted into the book “Xuanhe Legacy”, but also more dramatic: “Xuanhe period, Shang Yuan Zhang lanterns, Xu Shi girls look around, each give wine a cup. A woman stole the gold cup of drinking, the guards saw, and escorted to the imperial front. The woman recited “Partridge Sky”: ‘Moonlight is full of splendid lamps, with the Lang hand in hand to the end door. Greedy to see the crane formation, Sheng song lift, do not feel the mandarin ducks lost group. Day dawn, sense of imperial grace. Pass the word to give a cup of wine patrol. Home for fear of being Weng Nun blamed for stealing the gold cup as proof.” Hui Zong was delighted, the gold cup as a proof. Emperor Huizong was delighted, to give the gold cup, the guards sent home.”
It can be said that the Song dynasty imperial court and even part of the palace of openness, is any other dynasty is difficult to compare. In ancient China, there seems to be no concept of “park”, but apparently, the royal forest of the Song dynasty already has the nature of a “park”.
(From Wu hook, “Rediscovering the Song Dynasty,” Kyushu Publishing House, 2014-4)
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