 |
| Chinese Covered Corridor |
|
The covered corridor represents a typical architectural style in
Chinese landscape gardening. A long, belt-like structure, it is
a roofed walk with low railings or long side benches. Providing
people with shade from the sun and protection from the rain, it
not only adds beauty of the general scenery but plays a useful role
as well.
Chinese covered corridors fall into many varieties, but roughly
they may be divided into youlang which links two or more buildings,
qulang (the zigzag corridor), huilang (the winding corridor),
hualang which is used for the display of potted flowers, and shuilang
which borders on lakes or goes over ponds.
It is the general consensus that at the top of all classical
corridors must be listed by any standards the Long Corridor in
Beijing's Summer Palace, a unique treasure in the art of gardening
arrangement. An exquisite winding structure of 728 meters, it
stretches its 273 bays between the hill and the lake, broken at
intervals by four double-eaved, octagonal pavilions, which represent
the four seasons of the year. All its beams are painted with colored
pictures of landscapes, human figures, flowers, birds and scenes
of historical and popular stories.
These paintings total more than 40,000 in number, and the visitor
would need eight hours just to linger two seconds before each
picture.
The Long Corridor, it is said, was built by Emperor Qianlong
of the Qing Dynasty in order that his mother might safely enjoy
the scenes of rain or snow over the lake. In effect it is a piece
of ingenious engineering which at once divides and links up the
hill and the lake of the Summer Palace. Whether one looks at the
lade from the hill or at the hill from the lake, the Long Corridor
is always there, not only a pretty frame border for a nice picture
but a colorful belt to bind the two parts together.
Famous private Chinese gardens, located mostly in the southern
province, likewise, are often ornamented with corridors. In Suzhou's
Zhuozhengyuan (The Humble Administrator's Garden), part of the
winding corridor is erected over a pond and has been described
as a "rainbow over water". With its reflection in the
water, sometimes ruffled by a breeze, it is a favorite spot for
visitors to take snapshots of themselves. In Liuyuan (Garden to
Linger In), another well-known garden of Suzhou, the buildings-pavilion,
terrace, hall, tower, etc.-break, and at the same time are linked
by, a 600-meter-long corridor. Its walls have fancy cut-through
window which reveal scenes no the other side, and they are also
inset with 300 stone-engravings of calligraphical works and poems
by famous masters; both the windows and the engravings are regarded
as masterpieces of their respective kinds. Visitors come here
either to feast their eyes on the natural view or on the works
of art and poetry, all at their choice.
|
|
