chapter 10 continued
suzhou for tourists
blue wave pavilion
The Blue Wave Pavilion (Cang Lan Ting) is, I think, my favorite garden in Suzhou.
Just off Ren Min Lu, the main street in Suzhou and quite close to Suzhou Medical College, it combines all the elements of the "typical" Chinese garden - hills, pavilions, water, rockery, bamboo, and foliage into a peaceful setting.
I first discovered Blue Wave Pavilion in the summer of 1998. I visited it twice. When I returned to Suzhou in 1999, it was one of the first places I re-visited. I re-re-visited 3 or 4 times in 1999 because I loved the setting-the solitude; the sentience that strolling through Blue Wave's setting imparts.
And that was before I discovered "Six Chapters... "!
Too, Blue Wave figures prominently in one of my favorite Chinese books - Six Chapters of a Floating Life.
I stumbled across this book by chance in a bookstore. It was written in English and so I bought it. (Such is the rarity of buying English language books in China.)
As I started reading it, I soon learned that part of the earliest sections of the book were set in the Blue Wave Pavilion. I had already decided that "The Blue Wave" was one of my most favorite gardens in Suzhou. After reading Six Chapters... it was cemented. Blue Wave Pavilion is my most favorite garden in Suzhou. (But don't tell anybody; it's not one of the most
"famous" gardens. Let's keep it our secret, shall we?
Six Chapters of a Floating Life was written around 1800 by a guy named Shen Fu. It was translated into English (the copy I read) by Lin Yu Tang who would go on to write his own, brilliant stuff in English. (Moment in Peking; My Country, My People; The Importance of Living)
In Six Chapters... much of the early story focuses on the peaceful, idyllic, simple life that Shen and his wonderful wife lived in their house outside Blue Wave Pavilion (Cang Lan Ting). Shen was a struggling artist and she was totally supportive. It is an uncommon and unlikely story for Qing Dynasty China; even less likely in the rat-race that 21st century China
has become.
The opening paragraph:
"I was born in 1763, under the reign of Qian Long, on the 22nd day of the eleventh moon. The country was then in the heyday of peace and, moreover, I was born in a scholar's family, living by the side of Cang Lan (Blue Wave) Pavilion in Suzhou. So altogether I may say the gods have been unusually kind to me. Su Dong Po [Chuck's note: a famous Hangzhou poet] said,
"Life is like a spring dream which vanishes without a trace." I should be ungrateful to the gods if I did not try to put my life down on record."
Shen Fu didn't have the Internet. Nor, for that matter, did Lin Yu Tang in 1935 when he published the English translation of Six Chapters... Luckily for us, Shen (through Lin) DID put his life down on record. And the result is a fascinating tale of the common life of a common man (Shen Fu) and his uncommon wife (Yün).
If you are coming to Suzhou, I highly recommend finding Lin Yu Tang's translation of Shen Fu's Six Chapters of a Floating Life.
(Publisher: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press; ISBN7-5600-1595-6)
Then bring your copy with you and go spend a lazy afternoon in the peace and solace of Cang Lan Ting - The Blue Wave Pavilion Garden. It's a Garden filled with many beautiful spots.
If you do both - you MAY discover that Paradise on Earth does, indeed, lie in Suzhou. Specifically, in Shen Fu's Blue Wave Pavilion.
By the way, here's a picture of the Pavilion it's named after:
Click on it to get a great piece of wallpaper for your desktop
Chapter Ten - Suzhou Tour:
master of the nets
blue wave pavilion
canals
bridges
zhou zhuang
More Suzhou Pictures at the Photo Gallery
To learn more about all of Suzhou's Gardens, check this site:
http://www.szgarden.com.cn/en/garden/right.htm | 
