Yiyuan Garden

Yiyuan Garden

Yiyuan Garden was originally located along Baiyun Stream at its northern bend, facing Yingchun Bridge to the north and overlooking Baiyun Ferry to the west. It now stands at Nos. 10–14 Houbeian Embankment. The site was once the garden of Zhao Xiongzhao, who attained the highest imperial examination degree (zhuangyuan) in the 48th year of the Kangxi reign during the Qing Dynasty (1709). He achieved this distinction at what is now No. 37 Xianxue Street. In those days, the Zhao residence comprised 28 courtyards extending across half of Xianxue Street, featuring structures such as the Kuixing Pavilion, Yanguishan House, Scripture Storage Tower, and front and rear gardens — all grand and exquisitely built. Zhao Huaiyu, one of the “Seven Scholars of Piling” and a descendant of Zhao Xiongzhao, later constructed scenic spots here including Fangyutang, Yunwo, waterside pavilions, and terraces. After the Taiping Army captured Changzhou, they established a state treasury (Sacred Treasury) here, where the British King Chen Yucheng once stayed. In the third year of the Tongzhi reign (1864), Qing forces seized Changzhou, looted the Sacred Treasury, and burned down the buildings, leaving only the main gate, main hall, and the Kuixing Pavilion in the garden. In the twelfth year of the Guangxu reign (1886), Shi Ganfu, who had retired to his hometown after serving as a county magistrate in Hubei, purchased this war-torn ruin and renovated it. He redesigned the landscape, collected the four characters “以意为之” (“Created with Intention”) inscribed by Cai Xiang, a calligrapher of the Northern Song Dynasty, and used them as the garden’s name plaque, thus naming it “Yiyuan Garden” (Garden of Intention). The garden was enclosed by walls and divided into inner and outer sections by a dragon-patterned flower wall. The inner garden features a floral hall and twin pavilions, with rockeries representing the four seasons — spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The outer garden includes the Kuixing Pavilion, Yanguishan House, as well as a small pond with an arched bridge, pavilions, and corridors. Lush flowers and trees, along with dense bamboo, shade the garden, while outside lies Baiyun Stream, with its long embankments covered in fragrant grass, willows lining both banks, clear waters and open skies, and painted pleasure boats coming and going — a scene of natural beauty that made it a famous scenic spot known as the Wangyun Waterside Pavilion at the time. The corridor walls were inlaid with more than ten stone engravings of calligraphy by renowned artists from various dynasties, including Mi Fu and Cai Xiang of the Song Dynasty. Yiyuan Garden is quaint and elegant, small yet exquisite, with well-conceived layout. In December 1987, it was designated as a municipal cultural relics protection unit. The buildings in the inner and outer gardens, as well as the Kuixing Pavilion, remain largely intact, and some calligraphy stone engravings can still be found. The rockery has been moved to People’s Park, the small pond has been filled in, and the pavilions no longer exist — the site is now residential housing.