Jiezhou Garden

Jiezhou Garden

Jiezhou Garden is a cultural heritage site protected at the municipal level in Suzhou.

Jiezhou Garden is located in Qinjiabao, Dongcai Village, and was the former residence of the Qin family, commonly known as the Qin Family Garden. Qinjiabao got its name because Qin Zongmai, the sixth-generation descendant of Qin Guan from the Southern Song Dynasty, settled here. The Qin family is descended from Qin Shaoyou, one of the Four Great Masters of the Song Dynasty. In the late Song and early Yuan dynasties, Qin Guan, a Hanlin Academician Directing the Dragon Diagram Pavilion, moved to West Taihu Island due to his love for the scenery of Dongting West Mountain. The Qin family became renowned for medicine, especially in treating typhoid and gynecological conditions. Over ten generations, they earned the fine reputation of "Qin's One-Dose Cure." Jiezhou Garden was once the home of Qin Kuaiyuan, the tenth-generation hereditary physician; Qin Shaopo, the ninth-generation hereditary physician; and Qin Jiequan, the eighth-generation hereditary physician.

Jiezhou Garden was built during the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty. The plaque inscribed with the name "Jiezhou" (meaning "Mustard Seed Boat") was written by Gu Guangxu, a Qianlong-era Jinshi scholar from Wuxi. The term "Jiezhou" is derived from Zhuangzi’s “Free and Easy Wandering,” which describes “placing a cup of water in a hollow on the ground, with a mustard seed as a boat.” The concept of the Mustard Seed Boat lies in the imaginative act of pouring a cup of water into a small low-lying area and using grass as a boat to sail upon this “lake,” evoking a carefree and unrestrained spirit wandering freely between heaven and earth. Though the garden is not large—covering only about two fen (approximately 0.2 acres)—it is exquisitely small and refined. In the southern part of the garden stands a yellow-stone rockery with peculiar peaks and caves cleverly arranged within just a few feet. Surrounding the rockery are plants such as heavenly bamboo, loquat, evergreen, and podocarpus, including an 800-year-old podocarpus tree with a trunk diameter exceeding seventy centimeters that remains vigorous and gracefully upright. To the east of the garden, a small vat is buried underground, with its mouth covered by oddly shaped rocks, forming a miniature pool. Though small, the pool complements the rockery, adding to the garden’s poetic charm. In the western section of the garden, there is a stone-built zither table, and in front of it stands a lingzhi-shaped Taihu rock inscribed with the verse: “The waves of Dongting Lake lie still as autumn waters ripple; sparse woods of the Chu plains reveal distant mountains.” The inscription is dated “written on a summer day in the year of Bingxu,” with Bingxu referring to the 31st year of the Qianlong reign (1766).