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Culture is the distinctive marker of any city. Yesterday, the first International Academic Forum Week on Cultural Art and Preservation Technology was launched. The focus of yesterday's discussions was Shanghai's classical gardens as well as the influence of the proverbial “Shanghai School” of culture 【known as  the“international school” because of the city's global nature】.   

Lu Shaoming, a professor at Shanghai Jiaotong University and director of the Center for Research of Urban Spatial Culture and Science received a great deal of interest for his thesis that, influenced by the Shanghai School, Shanghai's classical gardens developed in a unique way. Lu proposed that after the late Ming and Qing dynasties, the gardens gradually transcended the old model of Suzhou gardens, which were known for conveying an ascetic and reclusive aesthetic. What emerged was a public and commercial openness within the gardens. Such ideas are expressed in Lu Shaoming’s book, “A Landscape Narrative: Decoding the Classical Garden of the Shanghai School.” 

In contemporary Shanghai, the city’s classical gardens have played a unique role in the city's economy, in politics, in social life, and in cultural life. In such a way, the gardens have vividly and concretely embodied the spirit of the Shanghai School of Culture—characteristically“practical, efficient, and with an emphasis on fashion." But this particularity has often been overlooked in the past.

Professor Lu Shaoming

When speaking of Shanghai culture, historians will talk about the archaeological findings of Maqiao Town. Writers will recite literary verses such as "In the old Huangye Village in the region south of the Yangtze River, when the chrysanthemum flowers, the rains fall.”And the eyes of architects will turn to the Yuyuan (the Yu Gardens).

Chinese people have special feelings for gardens. Maintaining a piece of “pure” earth, at a distance from the affairs of man has been the obsession of literati, both ancient and modern. It is also the impression left of the traditional Chinese gardens broadly. However, for those who have been to the Yu Gardens, there is a risk that this traditional understanding may be undermined. Different from the simple and subtle beauty of Suzhou gardens, the garden buildings in the Yu Gardens are widely known and spectacular. Many buildings there are three stories tall, exceeding the usual two floors of Suzhou gardens. In addition, dragon figurines, a symbol of imperial power, grace many courtyard walls. The “traditional” lakeside pavilion adjacent to the Bridge of Nine Bends (or “Jiuqu Bridge”) is the first sort of "skyscraper" in the city. The traits of these buildings seem to be far removed from the sensibilities of introverted scholars.

In the existing Shanghai classical gardens, in addition to the Yu Gardens, there are also Sui Baichi, Qushui Park, Qiuxia Temple, and Guyi Garden. Investigating the location of these representative gardens will reveal that they are near to Shanghai's City God Temple (the Chenghuang Temple, also located adjacent to the Yu Gardens). This kind of site selection takes into account publicity and privacy, public welfare and commerce. Historically, in addition to serving as a meeting place for traditional scholars and literary associates as well as the privileged meeting place for the rich and powerful, the gardens also boasted teahouses and pubs. Merchants were able to host various gatherings during festivals. Hence they became bustling areas of ​​the city during these times. Taking the Yu Gardens as an example, during the Jiaqing and Daoguang years of the Qing Dynasty, along with the rapid development of Shanghai's commerce, a large number of industrial associations used the West Garden Hall for administrative work. In the seventh year of the Tongzhi regime (1868), an official of Shanghai Zhi County divided six acres of the Yu Gardens into sites for the operation of 21 industries. After this, the Yu Gardens was further opened to the general public: During the month of January it would hold a Lantern Festivals as well as meetings of a Plum Blossom Club. In April it would host orchid festival. During June, it would hold garment festivals, and in Septembers, chrysanthemums festivals. During these times, citizens of different classes were able to visit the area.  

To this day, the historical memory of space has continued in the daily life of the city's residents: playing drinking games in Qushui, frolicking to  pavilions, and when tired, retreating to tea houses to listen to Kunqu Opera before finally going to the nearby City God Temple（Chenghuang Temple） to consume old-style snacks.”

                                                                                      The Shanghai School classical garden architecture in the Yu Gardens shows an open and commercial character.                                   

"Doing Taoist Rituals in a Snail Shell"

Like the saying of "Doing Taoist rituals in a snail shell," (like the effect of building a ship inside a bottle) this ultimate utilization of space highlights the practical life wisdom of the Shanghai people.

In Shanghai, land is worth its price in gold. In this situation, there have been many architectural innovations accommodating changing needs such as Shikumen buildings and Li Lane houses. However, the Shanghai School of classical gardens has also developed a unique way of responding to local conditions. For example, the Yu Garden, which covers an area of ​​only 18,000 square meters, has more than 50 courtyards and more than 500 green spaces, and has built unique landscapes in many almost impossible spaces: such as between the Yu Garden's  Sansui Hall, and Juanyu Building where a small courtyard with a flower-pot bearing door carefully occupies a passage of only two meters-wide. Even more of an outstanding example is the “Courtyard within a Courtyard,”which, with an area of ​​only one third of an acre, contains pavilions, clay sculptures, historic ancient trees, and small-scale stone-arched bridges.

"This extreme utilization of space highlights the life wisdom of Shanghai people, passes on the spirit of Shanghai culture, and demonstrates the ability ‘to do Taoist rituals in a snail shell,’" Lu Shaoming commented. The most commendable thing is that the compact space layout does not sacrifice the artistic conception of the garden, but instead achieves the complexity and artistry of the classical gardens of the Shanghai School – including landscapes within landscapes, paintings within paintings, pictures within pictures, and stories within stories.

 "Like cell division, there is a ceaseless production of new units of space, and the ceaseless evolution of new identities,” said Lu. The famous garden scholar Chen Congzhou often said, “Creating a garden is like composing a story.”Visiting a garden is like reading a text or watching a play. “The garden has a certain route for its admirers to follow. Just as an essay has its starting point, and a scroll has a leading part, a contained volume, and an end—no one point can be referred to as the whole.”Using the analogy of literature, according to Lu Shaoming, the Shanghai School of classical gardens is like a novel of the sort of the Chinese classic Dream of Red Chambers. Every chapter is relatively independent, but also serves as an important component of the whole. Gardens are the same, every garden is composed of smaller gardens, every part has a different story as well as unique artistic and literary references. Therefore, compared with Suzhou gardens, the Shanghai School is more three-dimensional, diverse, and open. It allows people to choose from multiple entrances and paths, and allows people to experience the metamorphosis of different plots and to see different stories. 

Speaking of The Story of Space and Its Context

Architecture is the solidification of history.  We can use the perspective provided by architecture to search for our past. Today and tomorrow, where is Shanghai？The Shanghai School of classical gardens beckons us to root ourselves within the deep cultural pride and feelings of Shanghai's local memory. With 800,000 words, more than 1,270 pictures, and more than 500 references, Lu Shaoming and his research team produced the “Spatial Narrative” series, rooted in a local cultural context, a testament to the architect's wealth of cultural knowledge. 

In this series of books, we can see that Shanghai exists in the hall of the famous third century scholar official Erlu known as the“Hero of the Taikang,” (located in the nearby city of Kunshan). She exists in the Danfeng Building belonging to the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) poet Yang Weizhen. She exists in the cluster of western buildings in the Bund, in Shikumen structures, and in the futuristic effect of seeing the many skyscrapers in Lujiazui. But of course, she early on was integrated into the frequently used public spaces of Shanghai School classical gardens.

In Shanghai School films, publishing, literature, and collections, Shanghai culture maintains a formal existence. The significance of this work is to successfully launch the “Shanghai Culture” brand, seek it out from many different angles, and explain and pass down the genes of Shanghai School culture.

Space can also tell stories. We already can see the living essence of Shanghai School classical gardens from much of the architecture around us.  For example, we can see it in the design of the Shanghai City Center by the renowned American architect John Portman, located in the vibrant commercial center on West Nanjing Road in Shanghai. The design borrows the traditional courtyard style used in the region south of the Yangtze River, and under high density conditions and within the large area spanned by the building, uses traditional rock sculptures, ponds, plants and groves to integrate the space of the modern city.

By passing on historical wisdom, in the future our city will have even more heart-warming stories, and sites that stir our emotions.

 Source: Shanghai's Wenhui Bao, November 26, 2018, Reporter Chen Yuji, Translated by Abraham Zamcheck