Master of the Nets Garden, Suzhou, China

The Master of the Nets Garden, located in Suzhou, China, is widely considered one of the finest examples of a Ming Dynasty-style scholar's garden and is a designated UNESCO World Heritage site.

Originally constructed during the Southern Song Dynasty as the "Fisherman's Retreat," the garden emphasizes the concept of "smallness" to create an illusion of expansive space. It is artfully divided into three distinct areas: the residential section, the central garden surrounding a tranquil pond, and a secluded inner courtyard. The layout uses precise architectural framing, winding corridors, and carefully placed rockeries to offer ever-changing perspectives, embodying the traditional Chinese aesthetic of harmony between man-made structures and the natural world.

The heart of the garden is the central pond, which serves as a natural mirror for the surrounding pavilions, ancient trees, and rock formations. Every element is designed to evoke a sense of poetic seclusion, reflecting the life of a literati scholar seeking escape from the pressures of official duties. The garden is particularly renowned for its nighttime cultural performances, where traditional Chinese music, opera, and dance are staged within the various pavilions. This immersive experience allows visitors to see the intricate woodwork and landscape design illuminated in a way that highlights the subtle textures and serene atmosphere that have captivated poets and painters for centuries.

Entering Master of the Nets Garden

Master of the Nets Garden Map

Sedan-Chair Hall

Old painting of Master of the Nets Garden

Mahogany Sedan Chair
«Sedan chair was one kind of transportation tool in the ancient time with a history over 4000 years. This old mahogany sedan chair with helmet top and exquisite carvings, is magnificent made and looks elegant. It is the masterpiece of all the sedan chairs through the age. Originally, it belong to the owner of the Qing Dynasty. It was almost damaged, after one and half years' renovation, keeps its former splendor. It is over 500 kilogram (kg).»

Sedan-Chair Hall Rear Door

Hall of 10000 Volumes

The Hall of 10000 Volumes
«The Hall of 10000 Volumes, the main building of the garden, is the magnificent reception hall with extraordinary furnishings and interior decoration, chiefly used by the garden owner for entertaining guests and dealing with family affairs. About 10000 volumes of books were once kept therein. Hence the name.»

Building of Gathering Elegance

The Building of Gathering Elegance
«Situated in the rear of the garden owner's living quarters and also known as Women's Private Sitting-Room, it is a noteworthy building of antiquity for gathering elegance.»

Moon Comes with Breeze Pavilion

The Moon Comes with Breeze Pavilion

Three Step Bridge

Small Hill and Osmanthus Fragrans Pavilion

The Small Hill and Osmanthus Fragrans Pavilion
«The idea came from the Elegies of Chu, the Small Reclusive Hill, the Osmanthus Fragrans Grove in the Dale and the quotation from the descriptive prose of the Withered Tree by Yu Xin, reading, "The small hill and osmanthus fragrans lure the visitor to stay." Enclosed from three sides by a roofed walkway which continues the visitor's sight-seeing route, and by tall latticed doors and windows on all sides, it is an amazingly four-sided viewing place. Indeed the visitor can view the surrounding garden scenes from a fixed position inside the pavilion and vice versa. To the south of the pavilion is a small garden with fascinating small hills of limestone and dark green osmanthus fragrans groves. When autumn sets in, the pure fragrance of osmanthus fragrans flowers will permeate the whole garden, affording great pleasure to the visitor. At the rear of the pavilion are archaic yellow rockeries seemingly hidden under cloud. Here the visitor seems as if he or she were in the deep valley of high mountains. To the east of the pavilion is an elegant arch-bridge of stone spanning the serene, steep gully.»

Peace And Tranquility Guest House

Peace And Tranquility Guest House
«This guest house is named after a Chinese Proverb: "To conduct yourself harmoniously and support the truth." It means peace and tranquility. This guest house and the saloon named little hill and osmanthus grove and the room named Music Room, all of them, formed a small living quarter, which can be used for housing receiving guests, giving a banquet and so on. The space is separated the corridor is zigzag, and the environment is deep and quiet. The scenery and the central location of the beautiful pond, and other landscape formed / showed a fresh, sharp contrast. In designing this garden the architect successfully used the classic formula: dark against light, small against large, artificial against natural.»

Hall of Dewy Grace

Panorama of the Main Pond, seen from east

Belvadere of Bright and Magnificent Waters

Prunus Mume Pavilion

The Prunus Mume Pavilion

Cold Spring Pavilion

The Cold Spring Pavilion

Peony Study

The Peony Study
«Fronting upon the graceful courtyard with a flower-bed of peonies which produce flowers in late spring, this small house adjacent to the large pavilion-type structure had been used as a study in olden days. Hence the name. It served as the model for the Astor Court and the Ming Room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.»

Zhang Daqian and the Master-of-Nets Garden

«In the 1930s, Zhang Daqian and his brother Zhang Shanzi lived for five years in the Master-of-Nets Garden, where they perfected their art of painting and made the garden a place of extensive exchanges in art and classics with many friends, notably Zhang Taiyan and Xu Beihong among them. "The Peony Hall" here was then used for reception as well as painting studio. Zhang Shanzi, a master hand in painting tigers, actually raised a tiger in the garden, named "Hu Er" (meaning tiger cub), and used the tiger as model to painted twelve tigers, while Zhang Daqian added the backdrop scenes, later known as the glamorous masterpiece "Twelve Tigers".

After the outbreak of Anti-Japanese War, the brothers left the garden and Zhang Daqian subsequently settled down in Taiwan with nostalgic yearning for their residence in the garden. In 1982, in memory of his brother and the tiger, Zhang wrote "The Tomb of My Brother's Tiger Cub" and sent the writing to Suzhou. The garden administration made the stone tablet with Zhang's writing and erected it here to remind visitors of the anecdote. Based on record, the garden was decorated and furnished to represent the outlook of the residence of the Zhang brothers with the aim to promote the garden's cultural heritage.»

Studio for Viewing Pines and Reading Paintings

The Studio for Viewing Pines and Reading Paintings
«This main hall is the centerpiece of the garden' s winter scenery. In the courtyard to the south of the studio stands an ancient cypress, believed to have survived from the Southern Song Dynasty when the Hall of Ten Thousand Volumes was built. It is the oldest and tallest tree in the garden: though its top has withered, its middle branches still hang gracefully, covered in lush green foliage. Other pines, including podocarpus, Japanese black pine, and lacebark pine, are also centuries-old specimens.As Confucius said, "When it turns cold, pines and cypresses are the last to fade". In the depths of winter, when all other trees lose their leaves, these evergreens stand out with resilient vitality. The phrase "reading paintings" means to deeply appreciate the poetic charm of this living landscape, as if savoring a scroll painting.»

Main Pond, seen from south