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Zheng Yuanxun's ‘A Personal Record of My Garden of Reflections’

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 29; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14601170802426044

1943-2186

T. Campbell,

Japanese History and Culture

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. Alison Hardie, trans., The Craft of Gardens (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1988), p. 121. 2. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, Vol. 2, pp. 531–532. 3. ‘Ideal and Reality in the Ming Garden’, in L. Tjon Sie Fat and E. de Jong, eds, The Authentic Garden: A Symposium on Gardens (Leiden: Clusius Foundation, 1991), p. 203. 4. Zheng Yuanxun 鄭元勳 (zi Chaozong 超宗, hao 惠東; 1603–44), originally from She County in Anhui Province but a long‐term resident of River Capital (Jiangdu 江都), present‐day Yangzhou. For a biography, see Hang Shijun 杭世駿 (1696–1773), ‘Ming zhifangsi zhushi Zheng Yuanxun zhuan’ 明職方司主事鄭元勳傳 [Biography of Zhang Yuanxun, Secretary in the Bureau of Operations of the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty], Daogutang wenji 道古堂文集 [The Talking of the Past Hall Collection] (1776), 29: 1a–7b; I am indebted to my colleague Michael Radich for supplying me with a photocopy of this source. For a general treatment of the social and economic context of the Zheng family's wealth, and their manner of spending it, see Ping‐ti Ho, ‘The Salt Merchants of Yang‐chou: A Study of Commercial Capitalism in Eighteenth‐Century China’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 17/1–2, 1954, pp. 130–168; and Antonia Finnane, Speaking of Yangzhou: A Chinese City, 1550–1850 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004), esp. pp. 63–68, 80–84. Finnane comments: ‘There were gardens in Yangzhou before Zheng's time, but his Garden of Reflections (Yingyuan) marks the proximate beginning of salt merchant gardens in the city’ (pp. 64–65). Zheng Yuanxun's ‘Yingyuan ziji’ 影園自記 [A Personal Record of My Garden of Reflections] was first included in his Yingyuan yaohua ji 影園瑤華集 [The Jasper Flower Collection from the Garden of Reflections] (1640) and subsequently much republished in local gazetteers; this present translation is based on the text as reprinted in Chen Zhi 陳植 and Zhang Gongchi 張公弛, eds, Zhongguo lidai mingyuan ji xuanzhu 中國曆代名園記選注 [Famous Chinese Garden Accounts Through the Ages: Selected and Annotated] (Hefei: Anhui kexue jishu chubanshe, 1983), pp. 220–227. An earlier version of this present translation was published by the Asian Studies Institute of Victoria University of Wellington as part of the Institute's Translation Papers. I am most grateful to Alan Berkowitz, James Beattie, and Malcolm McKinnon for their comments on earlier versions of this paper. 5. A variety of the mudan 牡丹 (Paeonia suffruticosa), traditionally regarded as the ‘King of the Flowers’ (huawang 花王). For a traditional discussion of the cultivation of this flower, and a listing of its important varieties, see Chen Haozi 陳淏子, Huajing 花鏡 [A Mirror of Flowers] (1688; Beijing: Nongye chubanshe, 1962), pp. 94–100. From the Song dynasty onwards, Luoyang became the most highly regarded centre of tree peony cultivation and the Song historian Ouyang Xiu's 歐陽修 (1007–72) Luoyang mudan ji 洛陽牡丹記 [Record of the Tree Peonies of Luoyang], completed in 1034, was the single most celebrated monograph on their cultivation. For a discussion of the tree peony generally and of this work in particular, see Joseph Needham, ed., Science and Civilisation in China: Vol. 6: Biology and Biological Technology: Part 1: Botany (Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 394–409. ‘So things which possess extreme beauty or extreme ugliness are the results of an imbalance in the vital qi (皆得於氣之偏也)’, Ouyang Xiu argues, in Needham's translation (Romanisation altered), ‘The beauty of a flower, the grotesque ugliness of the twisted bulge of a gnarled tree, are indeed different, yet they are equal in their defectiveness, for each comes from an unbalanced quality in the vital qi … . Extraordinary things which cause harm to mankind we call calamities (zai 災), extraordinary but harmless things which only cause wonder and amazement we call marvels or monstrosities (yao 妖). The saying has it: “Heaven contravening the seasons means calamity, Earth conflicting with normal things means a marvel”. The tree‐peony is truly a bewitching marvel among the plants, and one of the wonders of the ten thousand things. Unlike the twisted bulge of a gnarled tree (its qi is unbalanced) only on the side of beauty — therefore it finds favour and blessing among men’ (p. 405). 6. The guest list included: Chen Danzhong 陳丹衷, Jiang Chengzong 姜承宗, Mao Xiang 冒襄, Li Zhichun 李之椿, Gu Ermai 顧爾邁, Liang Yusi 梁于涘 Wang Guanglu 王光魯, Li Suiqiu 黎遂球, Cheng Sui 程邃, Wan Shihua 萬時華, and Mao Yuanyi 茅元儀, for which see Zhang Huijian 張慧劍, ed., Ming Qing Jiangsu wenren nianbiao 明清江蘇文人年表 [A Chronology of the Activities of the Literati of Jiangsu Province During the Ming and Qing Dynasties] (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1986), p. 550. In her A Bushel of Pearls: Painting for Sale in Eighteenth‐Century Yangchow (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001), pp. 27–41, Ginger Cheng‐chi Hsu discusses the importance of such gatherings with particular reference to Yangzhou during the early years of the Qing dynasty. Of particular relevance to our present context is her translation of a passage from Li Dou's 李斗 (fl. 1795) Aitang qulu 艾塘曲錄 [Aitang's (Li Dou) Catalogue of Song Titles]: ‘Among literary gatherings of Yangzhou, those taking place in Xiaolinglong shanguan [小玲瓏山館 (Little Translucent Mountain Lodge)] of the Ma [馬] family, Xiao Garden [篠園 (Garden of the Dwarf Bamboo)] of the Cheng [程] family, and Xiu Garden [休園 (Garden of Rest)] of the Zheng [鄭] family are most active and elaborate. At regular meetings, desks are set up for each guest. On each desk, there are two brushes, inkstones, a water jar, four pieces of writing paper, a note for rhymes, teapot and bowl, fruit and dessert containers, all meticulously arranged. The poems are sent to the carver for publication as soon as they are finished. There is a three‐day grace period allowing for participants to revise or edit, but as soon as the poems are in print, they spread to all corners of the city’ (p. 29; Romanisation altered; Chinese characters and translation of garden names added). This passage occurs also in Li Dou's Yangzhou huafang lu 揚州畫舫錄 [Record of the Painted Barges of Yangzhou] (1795; Yangzhou: Jiangsu Guangling guji keyinshe, 1984), p. 172, appended to his discussion of the various Zheng family gardens. 7. For a short biography of this man, see A. W. Hummel, ed., Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period, 1644–1912 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1943) [hereafter, ECCP], pp. 148–150. Qian Qianyi seems doubly condemned by history. Despite holding high official rank under the Ming, he was said to have been amongst the first to surrender to the Qing forces when they occupied Nanjing in 1645, offering his services to the new house; by 1647, however, he had been arrested by his new masters under suspicion of Ming‐loyalist activities. In a series of edits dating from 1769, the Qianlong emperor (r. 1736–96), whom seems to have harboured a particular and intense animus for Qian, proscribed his entire corpus, fortunately with little lasting effect. 8. In his preface to the collection, dated to the 6th month of 1640 and entitled ‘Yaohuang ji xu’ 姚黃集 [Preface, Yao's Yellow Collection], Qian Qianyi, picking up on issues treated by Ouyang Xiu in his monograph, discusses the extent to which the blooming of Zheng's peony could be constituted as either an ‘Auspicious Flower’ (huarui 花瑞) or a ‘Flower Monstrosity’ (huayao 花妖), for which, see Qian Zhonglian 錢仲聯, ed., Qian Muzhai quanji 錢牧齋全集 [Complete Works of Qian Qianyi] (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2003), Vol. 3, pp. 885–886. The contemporary bibliophile Huang Shang 黃裳 (b. 1919) owns a copy of this collection that was reprinted in 1762 and from which this preface had later been removed, for which, see his Qingdai banke yiyu 清代版刻一隅 [Perspectives on Qing Dynasty Printing] (Jinan: Qi Lu shushe, 1992), pp. 238–239. The collector's seals visible on the facsimile page reproduced in this source reveal that this copy of the collection had once belonged to, amongst others, Ma Yuelu 馬曰璐 (1697–1766?) (on whom, see ECCP, pp. 559–560), owner (with his brother Ma Yueguan 馬曰琯, 1638–1755) of another of the great gardens of Yangzhou, the Little Translucent Mountain Lodge, mentioned above. 9. Zheng Yuanxun seems also to have been something of an inveterate joiner of societies; in 1629, for instance, he joined the Fushe 復社 [Restoration Society], established the previous year by Zhang Pu 張溥 (1602–41). For a short biography of this figure, see ECCP, pp. 52–53; on the society generally, see William S. Atwell, ‘From Education to Politics: The Fu She’, in W. T. de Bary, ed., The Unfolding of Neo‐Confucianism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1975), pp. 333–367. Zheng had previously helped his friend Mao Xiang establish a society in Yangzhou in 1627, another one there in 1636, and in 1642 had sought to revive the fortunes of the Restoration Society at a gathering on Tiger Hill in Suzhou, for which see Zhang Huijian, Ming Qing Jiangsu wenren nianbiao, pp. 492, 482, 526 and 564, respectively. Writing sometime before 1630, Dong Qichang 董其昌 (1555–1636), a man who played a crucial role in the creation of Zheng's garden, had claimed that: ‘Actually, nine out of every ten who withdrew to the mountains were extravagant men who lived lavishly’, for which see Ronald Egan, ed. and trans., Limited Views: Essays on Ideas and Letters by Qian Zhongshu (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998), p. 86. 10. On Gao Jie, see his biography in ECCP, pp. 410–411. 11. For a brief account of Gao Jie's role in the complex circumstances of the times, see Lynn A. Struve, The Southern Ming, 1644–1662 (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1984), pp. 23–26. 12. On whom, see the biography in ECCP, pp. 701–702. 13. Dai Mingshi, Dai Mingshi ji 戴名世集 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1986), p. 351. With reference to local biographical accounts of Zheng Yuanxun, Li Dou presents a far more nuanced and sympathetic account of Zheng as a man much involved in local activities such as famine relief, for which see Li Dou, Yangzhou huafang lu, pp. 169–170. In her masterful treatment of the history of Yangzhou, Antonina Finnane addresses the historiogaphical issues at play here: ‘In place of an arrogant, self‐serving Yuanxun selling out the city, the local accounts … have a gentry leader of impeccable credentials endeavoring to serve the city, his actions fatally misunderstood by the city mob. Both versions are essentially loyalist, Dai Mingshi's famously so, but the local chroniclers defended the name of a leading member of the local gentry and his family. The different accounts, including Dai's, are premised on popular lore. Dai Mingshi's account is consistent with popular rumor at the time of Zheng Yuanxun's death and held sway because Dai was eventually celebrated as a Chinese martyr. The Yangzhou literati, however, took issue with these rumors and ensured in the wake of the fall of Yangzhou that Zheng Yuanxun would be honored. Yangzhou scholar Jiao Xun (1763–1820) recorded that he had been killed by “evil people”. Li Dou, whose potted biographies of Yangzhou people rarely amount to more than a few lines, accorded the Zheng family and its gardens several pages and recorded the entire story of Zheng Yuanxun's death, based on information in the local gazetteers' (Speaking of Yangzhou: A Chinese City, 1550–1850, pp. 83–84). 14. For a discussion of the implications of a ‘tour’ rather than a ‘map’ of the represented garden, see Craig Clunas, Fruitful Sites: Garden Culture in Ming Dynasty China (Durham: Duke University Press, 1996), pp. 139–144. In his The Afterlife of Gardens (London: Reaktion, 2004), John Dixon Hunt discusses some of the implications of such descriptions as that given below by Zheng Yuanxun of his garden, intended as it seems to have been to ensure that ‘ … the layout was accorded a reception worthy of and fully alert to his design invention’: ‘One important task of every guidebook is to ensure that we miss nothing of importance. But their use also has the effect, even today, of ritualizing a garden visit, although few such publications derive from their creators … or patrons … . Guidebooks lead and instruct, ensuring that the majority of visitors will follow the same route, observe and understand the same things, and so begin to constitute something like a ritual visitation … . Guidebooks are essentially a modern product, responding to the growing taste for tourism and its ritualistic aspects But something equivalent did exist in the Renaissance, and these poetical celebrations and descriptions would have promoted the reputations and prestige of princely and aristocratic owners who clearly wanted their gardens to speak fully and appropriately to visitors as well as those who would read them as armchair travellers; one consequence would be that all visitors who used these texts would share a response’ (pp. 154–155). 15. Ji Cheng 計成 (zi Wupi 無否, hao Foudaoren 否道人, b. 1582), from Wujiang 吳江 in Suzhou Prefecture. For a short biography (by Lienche Tu Fang) of this most famous of Chinese garden designers, see L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds, Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1368–1644 (New York & London: Colombia University Press, 1976), Vol. 1, pp. 215–216. The best modern edition of Ji Cheng's Yuanye 園冶 is Chen Zhi, ed., Yuanye zhushi 園冶注釋 (Beijing: Zhongguo jianzhu gongye chubanshe, 1981); for a fine translation of this work, see Alison Hardie, trans., The Craft of Gardens. 16. Chen Zhi, ed., Yuanye zhushi, pp. 31–35; Alison Hardie, trans., The Craft of Gardens, pp. 29–31. 17. Li Dou, in his account of the Garden of Reflections (Yangzhou huafang lu, pp. 167–169), although he bases himself on Zheng Yuanxun's own account, makes this dimension of the garden even more explicit when he tells us that the garden was sited on an ‘elongated islet’ (changyu 長嶼) in the midst of South Lake (Nanhu 南湖). 18. Elsewhere in his book, Li Dou describes the effect of such conceits: ‘Touring this space one feels oneself to be like an ant crawling through the twisting eye of a pearl, or to have encountered a screen of tinted glass, for every new twist and turn leads one on to yet another splendour’ (遊其間者如蟻穿九曲珠又如琉璃屏風曲曲引人入勝), for which see his Yangzhou huafang lu, p. 139. 19. In his The Craft of Gardens, Ji Cheng argues: ‘To borrow from the scenery means that although the interior of a garden is distinct from what lies outside it, as long as there is a good view you need not be concerned whether this is close by or far away, whether clear mountains raise their beauty in the distance or a purple‐walled temple rises into the sky nearby. Wherever the view within your sight is vulgar, block it off, but where it is beautiful, take advantage of it; never mind if it is just of empty fields, make use of it all as misty background. This is what is known as skill in fitting in with the form of the land. However, even if the form is fitting and the design follows the lie of the land, but the owner still does not get the right person to carry out the work, and in addition is reluctant to spend money when necessary, then any work which may have been done previously will be wasted along with his present efforts’. See, Chen Zhi, ed., Yuanye zhushi, pp. 41–42; Alison Hardie, trans., The Craft of Gardens, pp. 39–40. 20. All three of Zheng Yuanxun's brothers owned celebrated gardens. Writing in the 1790s, Li Dou notes that the plaque that had once hung above the main gate of the Garden of Reflections had long been lost and even the local gazetteers served to perpetrate some degree of confusion about the actual site of the former garden. All that remained of the garden, he tells us, was a single rock, now inlaid within the door of Old Man Xiao's shop along Buying and Selling Street, for which, see his Yangzhou huafang lu, pp. 168–169. In 2004, a plan for the recreation of the Garden of Reflections, on its original site in Yangzhou, was announced; I am unsure what progress has been made in this respect. 21. See Fang Xiangying, ‘Chongqi xiuyuan ji’ 重葺休園記 [A Record of the Restoration of the Garden of Rest], in Chen Zhi and Zhang Gongchi, eds, Zhongguo lidai mingyuan ji xuanzhu, p. 315. Zheng Xiaru (zi Shijie 士介, hao Sian 俟菴) was Zheng Yuanxun's youngest brother. Li Dou, however, writing sometime before 1795, tells us that after the passage of more than a century the ruins of the Garden of Reflections remained (yizhi youcun 遺址猶存) and that just to the south of where the garden had once been stood the shrine dedicated to Zheng Yuanxun and his brother Zheng Yuanhua 鄭元化 (zi Zanke 贊可), former master of the Garden of the Fine Trees (Jiashu yuan 嘉樹園). 22. ‘Longing and Belonging in Chinese Garden History’, in Michel Conan, ed., Perspectives on Garden History (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1999), pp. 205–219. 23. Chen Jiru 陳繼儒 (zi Zhongchun 仲醇; hao Meigong 眉公, Meidaoren 糜道人; 1558–1639). For a short biography (by Fang Chaoying) of perhaps the pre‐eminent cultural figure of this age, see ECCP, pp. 83–84. 24. Stanislaus Fung, trans., in his ‘Longing and Belonging in Chinese Garden History’, pp. 214–215. For the original text, see Wei Yong, Bingxue xie (Shanghai: Zhongyang shudian, 1935), Vol. 1, pp. 1–2. 25. A reference to ‘The Turning of Heaven’ chapter of the Zhuangzi 莊子: ‘Benevolence and righteousness are the grass huts of the former kings; you may stop in them for one night but you mustn't tarry there for long’ Burton Watson, trans., The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu (New York: Columbia University Press, 1968), p. 162. 26. For a suggestive discussion of this general issue, see Pierre Ryckmans, The Chinese Attitude Towards the Past (Canberra: The Australian National University, 1986). 27. For a biography of this man, see ECCP, pp. 203–205. 28. Quan Zuwang, ‘You gu shuibu Zheng jun xiuyuan, yong Xiegu jiuyun’ 遊故水部鄭君休園用嶰谷舊韻 [A Tour of the Garden of Rest of the Late Master Zheng of the Ministry of Works, to the Rhyme Formerly used by Ma Yueguan], Quan Zuwang ji huijiao jizhu 全祖望集匯校集注 (Shanghai: Guji chubanshe, 2000), Vol. 3, p. 2098. 29. The phrase ‘handfuls of stone’ (yiquanshi 一拳石) occurs in the ‘Zhongyong’ 中庸 [Doctrine of the Mean]. In a recent translation by Roger T. Ames and David L. Hall, the complete passage reads: ‘As for mountains, they are just an accumulation of handfuls of stone, and yet given their expanse and size, grasses and trees grow on them, birds and beasts find their refuge in them, and deposits of precious resources are replete within them’, for which, see Focusing the Familiar: A Translation and Philosophical Interpretation of the Zhongyong (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001), p. 108. 30. Dong Qichang (zi Xuanzai 玄宰; hao Sibai 思白, Xiangguang 香光), painter, calligrapher, and pre‐eminent art historian. For a short biography (by Fang Chaoying), see ECCP, pp. 787–789. Zheng Yuanxun had paid a call on Dong in Songjiang during the winter of 1628, only to find him detained elsewhere, for which see Wang Shiqing 汪世清, ‘Dong Qichang de jiaoyou’ 董其昌的交游 [Dong Qichang's Circle], in Wai‐kam Ho, ed., The Century of Tung Ch'i‐ch'ang, 1555–1636 (Seattle & London: The University of Washington Press, 1992), Vol. 2, p. 481. The previous year, Zheng Yuanxun had included in an anthology that he compiled and published an early statement of Dong's influential theory of the Southern and the Northern Schools of painting, on which topic, see James Cahill, The Distant Mountains: Chinese Painting of the Late Ming Dynasty, 1570–1644 (New York: Weatherhill, 1982). 31. Built by Emperor Yang of the Sui dynasty (r. 605–617) once he had established his southern capital at Yangzhou, Labyrinth Tower (Milou 迷樓) came to symbolise both the decadence and extravagance that characterised his reign and its inevitable consequence — dynastic collapse. Emperor Yang was murdered within his tower. 32. The lasting fame of Level with the Mountains Hall (Pingshantang 平山堂) was a result of its association with the great Song dynasty scholar Ouyang Xiu who had once served in Yangzhou and whose monograph on the peony was mentioned earlier. On this site and its restoration during the Qing, see Tobie Meyer‐Fong, Building Culture in Early Qing Yangzhou (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2003). 33. In allusion to the iconic Chinese representation of a place of refuge, Tao Yuanming's 陶淵明 (365–427) ‘Taohua yuan ji’ 桃花源記 [The Peace Blossom Spring], for a translation of which (by J. R. Hightower), see John Minford and Joseph S. M. Lau, eds, Classical Chinese Literature: An Anthology of Translations: Volume I: From Antiquity to the Tang Dynasty (New York: Columbia University Press and Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2000), pp. 515–517. 34. The ‘yellow’ here refers not to the colour of the rocks but to their original geographical provenance, as Ji Cheng makes clear in his Yuanye, the relevant section of which reads, in Alison Hardie's translation: ‘Huang Rocks [黃石 (yellow rocks)]. Huang rocks are obtainable all over the place. Their texture is firm and does not admit the adze or chisel, and the striations in the stone are rough and coarse. Places such as Huangshan near Changzhou, Yaofengshan near Suzhou, Tushan near Zhenjiang, and all along the Yangtze to above Caishi all produce these rocks. Vulgar people are aware only of their hefty appearance and not of their subtle attraction’, see Alison Hardie, trans., The Craft of Gardens, p. 116. In a footnote to this section, Hardie adds: ‘Although strictly speaking the term “Huang rocks” should refer to rocks from Huangshan (whichever Huangshan this may mean), it is generally used to refer to rocks which are of a fairly regular shape, with comparatively flat surfaces, by contrast with the fantastic forms of Great Lake rocks’ (p. 137). 35. Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037–1101), the great poet of the Song dynasty. For a short biography of this man, see Herbert Franke, ed., Sung Biographies (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1976), Vol. 3, pp. 99–968. 36. For an illustration of this pattern, see Chen Zhi, ed., Yuanye zhushi, p. 175. 37. On the first two of these qualities, see John Hay, ‘Structure and Aesthetic Criteria in Chinese Rocks and Art’, RES (1987), 13, pp. 6–22. 38. A reference to a rhapsody so titled (‘Zhao yinshi’ 招隱士) attributed to a poet at the court of Liu An 劉安 (?179–122 bce), Prince of Huainan. In the translation of David Hawkes, the first lines of this poem go: ‘The cassia trees grow thick/In the mountain's recesses,/Twisting and snaking,/Their branches interlacing./The mountain mists are high,/The rocks are steep./In the sheer ravines/The waters' waves run deep.’, for which see David Hawkes, trans., The Songs of the South: An Ancient Chinese Anthology of Poems by Qu Yuan and Other Poets (Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1985), p. 244. 39. Ni Yuanlu 倪元璐 (zi Yuru 玉汝; hao Hongbao 鴻寶; 1594–1644). For a short biography (by George A. Kennedy), see ECCP, p. 587. 40. The conceit of this name is impossible to convey fully in translation. To the character mei 眉 (eyebrow), Zheng adds the ‘Water Radical’, giving mei 湄 (the margin of a lake). In an architectural context, the character rong 榮 (glory, splendour, etc.) gives the technical meaning of ‘overhanging eaves’. 41. Chen's style name (Meigong 眉公) translates as ‘Duke Eyebrow’, hence the name ‘Drenched Eyebrow's Prominence’ above. This belvedere lent its name to a collection of occasional prose of the Ming dynasty that Zheng Yuanxun compiled with Chen Jiru's help sometime in the early 1630s: Meiyouge wenyu 媚幽閣文娛 [Literary Amusements from the Belvedere of the Love of Solitude]. In his ‘Preface’ to this work, Chen describes Zheng as: ‘a true hero, both upright and fearless’ (leiluo xia zhangfu 磊落俠丈夫), for which see Hu Shaotang 胡紹棠, ed. Chen Meigong xiaopin 陳眉公小品 [Essays of Chen Jiru] (Beijing: Wenhua yishu chubanshe, 1996), p. 25. 42. Li Bo 李白 (701–62), the great Tang dynasty poet. This line comes from his poem entitled: ‘Xunyang zijigong gan qiu zuo’ 尋陽紫極宮感秋作 [Written When Moved by the Autumn in the Purple Extremity Palace of Xunyang], for which see Li Taibai quanji 李太白全集 [The Complete Works of Li Bo] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1977), Vol. 2, p. 1114. 43. Wang Chun 王醇 (zi Xianmin 先民; d. 1627), from Yangzhou. See Mingren zhuanji ziliao suoyin 明人傳記資料索引 [An Index to Ming Dynasty Biographical Sources] (Taibei, 1965–66), Vol. 1, p. 69. 44. Ji Cheng begins his The Craft of Gardens by addressing the issue that Zheng Yuanxun alludes to here: ‘Generally, in construction, responsibility is given to a “master” who assembles a team of craftsmen; for is there not a proverb that though three‐tenths of the work is the workmen's, seven‐tenths is the master's? By “master” here I do not mean the owner of the property, but the man who is master of his craft’. See, Chen Zhi, ed., Yuanye zhushi, p. 41; Alison Hardie, trans., The Craft of Gardens, p. 39. 45. This is perhaps a veiled allusion to the most famous of ‘Yangzhou dreams’, that of the late Tang dynasty poet Du Mu 杜牧 (803–852) in his poem ‘Qianhuai’ 遣懷 [Easing My Heart] which, in A. C. Graham's translation, reads: ‘By river and lakes at odds with life I journeyed, wine my freight:/Slim waists of Chu broke my heart, light bodies danced into my palm./Ten years late I wake at last out of my Yangzhou dream/With nothing but the name of a drifter in the blue houses’, for which see John Minford and Joseph S. M. Lau, eds, Classical Chinese Literature: An Anthology of Translations: Volume I: From Antiquity to the Tang Dynasty, p. 915. 46. Hanjiang 邗江 is an archaic name for Yangzhou.