Even if you haven’t been following the hit drama “Meng Hualu” recently, you should have heard or yearned for the “Song-style life aesthetics” vividly displayed in the play? In “Meng Hualu”, Zhao Paner’s “Beijing drifting career”, the story mainly unfolds in Bianjing (now Kaifeng, Henan), the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. However, if you think about which city best retains the ancient rhythm of the Song Dynasty, it must be Zhao Pan’er’s hometown – Qiantang (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang).
The prosperous dream of the Southern Song Dynasty left Hangzhou with a profound cultural charm. The “Ten Sceneries of the West Lake” created in the Southern Song Dynasty, the relics of the palace gardens in the Phoenix Mountains, the Flower Festival that has been passed down to this day, and the life aesthetics that Hangzhou people have always believed in… Today, LP will take you to “search for the Song Dynasty” in Hangzhou, and dream of returning to the elegant Song Dynasty.
If you can travel back to a city in the Song Dynasty, welcome to Hangzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty, and return to one of the most elegant, leisurely and desirable dynasties in China. The famous British historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee once said that if he had the choice, he would be willing to live in the Song Dynasty in China. Time has passed and dynasties have changed. The once glorious Southern Song Dynasty palace and the once noisy Washe Goulan have long been dissipated in the long river of history, but the charm of the Song Dynasty rooted in the genes of this city can still be found today. The Song Dynasty in history was once labeled as “poor and weak”, but in the eyes of today’s historians, the Song Dynasty was actually a remarkable dynasty, economically the budding period of modern China, and culturally worthy. Called the “Renaissance” of the East, it is especially reflected in the aspects of literature, art and life aesthetics. The royal family of the Southern Song Dynasty settled Lin’an (today’s Hangzhou) as the capital after the southern crossing, and more than 100 years of construction made it a prosperous capital in the East.
Firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea are the seven things that song people do in their daily life; “Burning incense, ordering tea, hanging pictures, and arranging flowers” are also the “four kinds of idle business” in Song people’s life. In the old stories of Wulin written by Zhou Mi, there were 23 tile restaurants in Lin’an City in the Southern Song Dynasty, where people could drink tea and watch performances. People could go in and out of tile restaurants at will, drink tea and wine in the railings, and watch performances… Hangzhou has held the “Song rhyme Hangzhou style life festival” since 2021, hoping to set off an urban movement to return to song rhyme Hangzhou with the lifestyle and life aesthetics of Song people as the main line. In the past June 15-19 this year, a grand “Song rhyme Hangzhou wonderful night” activity was held near the West Lake, reproducing the summer elegance of Song people’s candle night tour.
Yujie street of the Southern Song Dynasty is the road that the emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty walked when he went out of the imperial city to worship his ancestors. It is the central street of the Imperial City, and its location roughly coincides with the current pedestrian block of Yujie street of the Southern Song Dynasty. In the Southern Song Dynasty Yujie ruins exhibition hall, you can see the Song Dynasty roads excavated in recent years.
The Southern Song Dynasty ruins exhibition hall at the wansongling intersection at the southernmost end of Yu Street also has the “fragrant cake bricks” used in paving roads in the Song Dynasty. The spring in the stone sluice reservoir is still gurgling.
During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period of the temple of King Qian, Qian Liu, a person from Lin’an, established the state of Wu and Yue, with the capital of Xifu, which is today Hangzhou. From then on, King Qian ruled Hangzhou for more than 90 years, until the third year of the Taiping rejuvenation (978), King Qian Hongxu “accepted the soil and returned it to the Song Dynasty”, and attributed the thirteen prefectures of the first army to the territory of the Song Dynasty, becoming the only “peaceful transition” in the ten countries that was not completed by means of war, so that the people avoided war. This ancestral hall was built to commemorate the achievements of the king Qian of Wu and Yue. It has a history of more than 900 years. However, the current building was rebuilt in 2002, and only the splayed wall is the original architectural relics. © Eggplant / tuchong creative building is a rare red wall and black tile in the Forbidden City in the south. Every time it snows, it becomes a plum appreciation place for citizens to rush to. A few wintersweet sticks protrude from the wall, with a faint fragrance floating. It has a unique charm. According to that sentence, as soon as it snows, Hangzhou returns to Lin’an mansion.
#Although Confucius temples are basically the same across the country, the Confucius temples in Hangzhou are still worth visiting. Here you can see the Southern Song Taixue stone Scripture, written by Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty and Empress Wu and first engraved in the 13th year of Shaoxing (1143), which is a treasure in the Chinese stone Scriptures. Nothing can better represent the cultural charm of the Song Dynasty than the relics of the Southern Song Dynasty more than 800 years ago.
Confucius Temple is also attached with a beautiful garden, in which hundreds of calligraphy stone tablets are displayed, which also serves as the “forest of Steles in Hangzhou”. Don’t miss the “star map carved in stone in the tomb of Qian Yuanguan of the Five Dynasties” and the “star map carved in the tomb of Wu hanyue of the Five Dynasties” in the star Museum. The former is one of the earliest existing stone star maps in the world. Calligraphy and stele lovers can borrow a free interpreter at the entrance (ID card required, deposit of 200 yuan) to visit slowly.
Palace Ruins of Southern Song Dynasty
The palace of the Southern Song Dynasty, hidden between Fenghuang Mountain and Yuhuang mountain, was destroyed by a fire in the following year of the subjugation of the Southern Song Dynasty, just like the Taimiao temple. All ground buildings disappeared, but wandering in the dense forests in the mountains, you can still find some relevant relics. Mantou mountain community at the foot of Phoenix Mountain was the location of the imperial city of the Southern Song Dynasty in those days. From here, walk about 800 meters west along Songcheng road to the site of Shengguo Temple of the Song Dynasty. You can find the cliff stone carvings with the word “faithful” written by Zhao gou, Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty.
If you continue to walk up the mountain, you can still see Yueyan, the Moon Resort in the imperial garden of the imperial palace of the Southern Song Dynasty. Walk down the mountain along the footpath, and then walk south to the highway through the jade palace. Opposite is the baguatian Ruins Park, where the royal family of the Southern Song Dynasty offered sacrifices to Xiannong and prayed for peace in the world.
Jingshan temple and Jingshan ancient road
“Listening to the spring rain all night in the small building, selling apricot flowers in the deep alley in the Ming Dynasty” is a famous poem by Lu You, a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, describing the spring scenery of the West Lake. Behind this poem, the poet actually wrote about the tea drinking favorite of the people of the Southern Song Dynasty: “low paper slants to make grass, and clear windows play with tea.” Dividing tea, also known as ordering tea, was popular from the royal family to the common people in the Southern Song Dynasty.
Jingshan ancient temple, located in the northwest suburb of Hangzhou and about 54 kilometers away from the urban area, is one of the birthplaces of tea in the Song Dynasty. You can also experience Jingshan tea banquet, which has been listed in the national intangible cultural heritage list, and relive the ancient Zen tea etiquette and the artistic conception of tea fighting in the Song Dynasty.
Jingshan belongs to the extension of Tianmu Mountains, with tea gardens all over the mountain. Jingshan Zen tea has been famous since ancient times. It is said that Japanese tea ceremony originated here. However, Jingshan ancient road is more worth visiting. This ancient road was first built in the Tang Dynasty, with a total length of about 3 kilometers. It is said that master Jianzhen walked along this road from Jingshan temple in Yuhang to Baima temple in Lin’an when he crossed the east to Japan. Later, it became a pilgrimage road to shangjingshan temple, and it was the favorite place of literary giants of all dynasties. The flagstone road stretches upward, with steep cliffs on one side and lush bamboo and tea gardens on one side. It takes more than an hour to walk up the mountain.
GUSHAN District, Zhejiang Provincial Museum
Song people love to drink tea and burn incense. The utensils they use are also very exquisite. They mainly use celadon, which is simple in shape and elegant in color. Zhejiang is the birthplace of celadon, and the court of the Southern Song Dynasty also set up official kilns to burn Royal Porcelain in Hangzhou. In Gushan District of Zhejiang Provincial Museum, you can enjoy these celadons of the Southern Song Dynasty, which have a green color after the rain.
The Gushan District of Zhejiang Provincial Museum was built in 1929, which complements the Gushan where it is located and the West Lake in front of it. There are four permanent exhibition halls in the museum. “Kunshan jade: Exhibition of ancient Chinese ceramics” hall displays nearly 400 ceramic relics in the collection, among which the original celadon and famous kiln porcelain are rare.
It is worth mentioning that another museum area of Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Wulin Museum area, is currently holding an exhibition of “metaphysical – Longquan celadon from the perspective of Song Yun”. In the exhibition, there are 20 pieces of precious Longquan celadon from the Southern Song Dynasty unearthed in the Jinyu village cellar. In addition, the top cultural relics of the song and Yuan Dynasties from the Gongren road cellar in Yiwu, the sightseeing Pavilion cellar and the Weixing Road cellar in Yuyao also appeared. The exhibition ends on August 18. Don’t miss it if you like song porcelain.
After visiting the museum, you might as well visit Gushan again. Since ancient times, this place has been the favorite tourist attraction of Hangzhou literati, with a strong cultural atmosphere. Remember to look for the crane releasing Pavilion. Lin Fu (Lin Hejing), a poet of the Northern Song Dynasty who wrote “thin shadow, oblique water, faint fragrance, floating moon, dusk”, lived in seclusion here for 20 years. He did not want to be an official or marry, planted plum blossoms, and raised a crane named “Minggao”, which was also buried here after its death. Lin Hejing’s tomb can also be found in the west of the crane releasing Pavilion.
Huiyin Koryo Temple
Founded in the period of Qian Liu, king of Wu and Yue, it was originally called huihuiyin temple. As the center of Huayan sect, it has a decisive impact on the development of Buddhism on the Korean Peninsula, commonly known as Koryo temple. The current temple was rebuilt in 2007 in the architectural style of the Song Dynasty. Although it is newly built, its shape is simple and elegant. In addition, it is located in the quiet Santai mountain road, which is rarely visited by tourists, so it is very suitable for taking photos.
Sudi
Su Shi (1037-1101), known as Su Dongpo in the world, was an official in Meishan City, Sichuan Province twice. During this period, he not only wrote a large number of poems praising the landscape of Hangzhou, but also built Su Causeway and planted peach willows, leaving the beautiful scenery of “Su Causeway spring dawn” for later generations.
Su Causeway is 2.8 kilometers long, running through the West Lake, and motor vehicles are forbidden to pass along the whole line. From south to north, there are six bridges: Yinbo, Suolan, Wangshan, Yadi, Dongpu and kuahong, commonly known as “six suspension bridges”. Standing on the Su Causeway, there is Xili Lake on one side and three islands in the lake on the other side. The scenery is unique. At the same time, because the causeway is full of willows and peach trees, “Su Causeway spring dawn” has become the first of the ten scenic spots of the West Lake. There is Sudongpo Memorial Hall (free) at the south end of the Su Causeway, which introduces the achievements of Sudongpo in dredging the West Lake and building the Su Causeway. The most worth seeing are the calligraphy rubbings and stele Gallery in the Dongpo art garden in the backyard.
Today’s “ten sceneries of the West Lake”, including the spring dawn of the SUDI, the wind and lotus of the Quyuan, the autumn moon of the Pinghu Lake, the broken bridge and the snow, have been embodied in the landscape paintings of literati in the Southern Song Dynasty, and are also mentioned in notes and poems at that time. After the Southern Song Dynasty, the government paid more attention to the construction of urban buildings and the landscape of the West Lake, and finally formed the “ten scenic spots of the West Lake”.
Xixi
Hangzhou is in full bloom in spring, and Xixi Wetland welcomes the annual flower festival. According to the notes of the Southern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou people more than a thousand years ago attached great importance to the flower festival. They usually went to admire willows outside the Yongjin gate and watch peach blossoms outside the Fengshan gate. Now, you might as well wear the narrow sleeved shirt Ru or wide sleeved long Ru popular in the Song Dynasty with your friends, just like Hangzhou people in the Southern Song Dynasty, looking for spring in Xixi.
Xixi wetland, one step away from the city, rejected the bustle of the outside world within a short distance. It’s best to ride in a small boat and slowly shake, walk through the alleys, watch the reeds swing, watch the egrets soar, watch the poetic flow of “a stream and a smoke”, and imagine what kind of mood ripple song Gaozong’s sigh “Xixi and stay” came from.
Study of Southern Song Dynasty
This bookstore has a special counter for Southern Song Dynasty Themed Books, as well as a series of cultural and creative products related to the Southern Song Dynasty. For example, you can buy an environmental protection bag for the head of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty. Looking up, the roof of the study also imitates the French beam structure built in the Song Dynasty.
The bookstore is located next to the drum tower. In most cases, there are not many people, so you can choose books quietly. The volume of books is not large, but they are carefully selected, and the classification is very interesting. Most of them generously prepare sample books for readers to read. Seats are reserved on the stairs for free.
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