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Zhao Liewen’s Gardening Practices and Activities in His Diary Li & Yin

1.2 Purchase and Planning of the coming late at night. This rare commodity is
Tranquil Garden (Jing Pu) worth for living” [3] . After all assignments
Zhao Liewen controlled his family’s finances were well conducted, Zhao Liewen tasked his
and was directly responsible and involved in friend Xue Anlin with supervision of the
negotiation on the land purchase and land title construction, advising him to supervise the
deed transfer and other processes. Meanwhile, craftsmen to construct according to the
he directed the planning and design of the drawings, and then gathered with his family.
house and garden. “At noon, I arrived at After arriving at his former residence, Zhao
Sanwan Changming Restaurant to meet Feng Liewen checked the furniture and had them
Shizhi, and the Wu Garden owner, Wu sent to Changshu first, and then moved with
Baoshu, also arrived. We talked about the his family and luggage to his new residence
price. The site and the pond occupy around 4 in Changshu by boat. The process lasted more
to 5 mu. He asked for 100 and dozens of than 5 months.
strings of cash coins. I agreed on 100. Wu
wanted to consult his nephew and then left…” 1.3 Consideration of fengshui
The owner Wu Baoshu sent a message, saying Zhao Liewen not only acted as a supervisor in
that after consultation, his nephew agreed to the construction of his house and garden, but
[3]
sell it at 100 strings . After settling the price also directly involved in the construction of
with the former owner, Zhao Liewen started the Tranquil Garden (Jing Pu) through using
to buy the property, negotiated with other the judgment of fengshui. He believed in and
sellers, and redeemed various pawn deeds. mastered the traditional fengshui theory had
After signings, he set up drawings and the capacity of identifying good fengshui
attached deeds with the former owner and the books. and could conduct fengshui practices
agent, and then held a banquet to celebrate it. such as divination, prediction of luck, and site
The owner of the Joyous Garden (Yi Yuan) in inspection. When the house and garden was
Suzhou, Gu Wenbin, documented the general renovated, Zhao Liewen invited the fengshui
conditions of the Tranquil Garden (Jing Pu): master Qin Yuanzhai to orient the former
“Moving to the west gate of Changshu, the building complex and define the specific
site is an abandoned garden of some family. orientation for the new main gate, inner gates,
Huipu bought it at a low price, repaired the screen wall, ancestral hall, study room, and
[5]
house and lived there” . the proposed north building. “Before dawn,
After the house transaction concluded, the fengshui master Qin Yuanzhai arrived at
Zhao Liewen negotiated with craftsmen, the site to look for the correct orientation, and
made construction drawings and intended to started to work at noon, first on the ancestral
establish a layout of five bays for the main hall, then the inner halls, then the study room,
building, with the upper floor for storing and then the screen wall, all underwent
[3]
books and the lower floor for residence. There groundbreaking and ramming” . Then the
is also a bungalow of four bays for ancestor columns were erected and the beams raised,
worship and guest reception. After planning and the craftsmen proceeded the work. Such
his own house, Zhao Liewen wanted to build things are usually found in Zhao Liewen’s
another four bungalows to form primary and diary. He not only invited the fengshui master
secondary spaces for his four sisters. After to help survey the garden site, but also could
drafting the initial scheme, the first thing to strictly follow the fengshui instructions of
do was to acquire timber. Zhao Liewen also good and bad omens when directing the
bought a Yan family house and used its wood construction of each part of the Tranquil
for the construction of the Tranquil Garden Garden (Jing Pu) himself. His life trigram
(Jing Pu) to save money and effort, while “Dui (Swamp) Hall Destiny” and the Tranquil
keeping part of it for lease, because “it is Garden’s site trigram “Gen (Mountain)
located in the downtown, incomparable to Residence” are the bases for judging the good
empty and spacious lots, with easy access for and bad fortunes in various parts of the

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