RPAGF Chapter 261 Flower Window
Chapter 261 Flower Window
Tang Yue continued to lead Lu Xueqing into the doorway.
"Ms. Lu, please wait a moment. The shuttle will be here soon."
Tang Yue said with a gentle smile.
Lu Xueqing nodded, and after getting Tang Yue's permission, she started taking pictures in the courtyard inside the doorway.
This courtyard is a very classic Jiangnan garden architecture.
Langya is composed of red slender door pillars and mixed patterns of green, cyan and blue.
The tall eaves, exquisite stained glass windows and white bricks and red walls look ancient but not old.
The building that is a mixture of the through-beam structure and the platform-beam structure is very ornamental.
Although some people think that there is no difference between the gardens in the south and the courtyard houses in the north, in fact there is a huge difference.
The courtyard houses and gardens in the north are mostly large-scale buildings, and the capitals of most recent dynasties were basically located in the north, so most of them are royal gardens, majestic and grand.
The courtyard houses and gardens in the south, on the other hand, pursue more refinement and enjoyment.
Lu Xueqing took close-up photos of every line on the prism and every pattern on the stained glass window with an amazed look on her face.
【It’s really beautiful! 】
[Have you noticed that the patterns on each window are different? ]
[I found it! The shape of the first stained glass window that the anchor just photographed is a plum blossom! I can tell! ]
[The shape of the second stained glass window is a peony! ]
【The third one is lily! 】
【Really thoughtful! 】
[This is completely different from the flower windows I saw in other gardens in Suzhou! I have visited many gardens, and I feel that the flower windows look pretty much the same! ]
[Yes, I have visited many gardens, and basically all the flower windows, whether north or south, are hollow windows, which are the common half-moon holes. In addition, the shapes of the hollow flower windows are mostly Ruyi-shaped, octagonal, gourd-shaped, etc. It is really rare to see a flower shape specially carved like this! ]
[It’s not rare, it’s basically non-existent. I haven’t seen such ingenuity in other gardens except the Humble Administrator’s Garden.]
Lu Xueqing opened her eyes wide, admiring these exquisite and beautiful stained glass windows one by one.
"Ms. Lu, are you interested in the stained glass windows?"
Tang Yue asked.
Lu Xueqing nodded with sparkling eyes: "These stained glass windows are so beautiful!"
Tang Yue smiled gently: "If you are interested, you can try to touch it. The flower windows in our garden are different from those in other people's houses."
Lu Xueqing's hands immediately started to itch, and she asked eagerly, "Really? This kind of stained glass window should be difficult to maintain, right?"
Lu Xueqing frowned immediately when she thought about how painful it was for the nanny and young men and women at home to clean every corner of her family's full set of mahogany furniture with a feather duster and a rag every holiday.
Tang Yue smiled and said, "You'll know if you touch it."
Lu Xueqing couldn't control her curiosity and touched it gently.
The tentacles are warm.
[To be honest, I don't think this window looks like an ordinary wooden window. It doesn't look like one.]
[If it’s not a wooden window, what else could it be? An iron window? Haha]
【Isn't there any large-scale iron smelting in the era of this garden? 】
[In fact, most of the hollow flower windows and wood-carved plaques in many gardens were newly made in the last few decades, because the old ones were either not well preserved or put away long ago, because anything made by a famous artist is considered an antique, not to mention being allowed to be touched.]
Lu Xueqing gently stroked the stained glass window with her soft and plump fingertips.
"How strange..." Lu Xueqing murmured to herself: "This red color, this touch, it doesn't look like wood, nor does it look like metal... Instead, it looks a bit like..."
Thinking of something, Lu Xueqing widened her eyes and exclaimed: "Jade?"
Lu Xueqing was extremely surprised.
Tang Yue nodded: "Ms. Lu has a good eye. These stained glass windows are indeed carved from jade."
"Carved from jade?" Lu Xueqing repeated, her eyes fixed on the stained glass window. She carefully touched it again and again with her fingers, and finally confirmed the touch.
It is jade indeed!
Lu Xueqing took a breath of cold air.
Tang Yue explained: "There is a large natural mineral hot spring under our garden."
"Mineral hot springs easily form mineral-contaminated jade. In short, the colored jades you see on the market now are basically mineral-contaminated... The more contaminated the jade, the more expensive it is."
"When the owner mined here, in addition to building these hot spring outlets for daily hot spring enjoyment, he also mined a lot of large red jade."
"Although these jades are large in size, their color purity varies. It would be a waste to cut them up and make jewelry. The owner at the time thought about it and invited several of the most famous jade carving masters of the time to carve the flower windows of the entire garden."
"The jade is almost all used up, and there are still some small ornaments made of broken jade. You can see them as you walk forward."
Tang Yue explained gently.
Lu Xueqing couldn't hide the shock in her eyes.
[Wow, such a large piece of jade is used as a stained glass window. Even the royal gardens back then didn’t have this treatment! ]
[It’s not necessarily true. The stained glass windows in the Humble Administrator’s Garden are carved from the finest ebony, and the price of ebony was comparable to jade back then.]
[I checked, the price of ebony in that dynasty was comparable to that of ordinary jade. Pay attention, the jade used to make the stained glass windows here is the top-grade red jade mined from the hot spring mine! This stuff was a tribute in the first two dynasties! ]
[There were only ten pieces of this jade stone at the bottom of Huaqing Pool, and some officials said that Emperor Xuanzong of Tang was extravagant. If the officials knew that this garden was full of this jade stone, it would be a disaster! ]
Seeing Lu Xueqing's surprised expression, Tang Yue continued to explain: "This kind of jade has a unique mineral scent if you smell it carefully. After being carved into a stained glass window, it has stood here for thousands of years without losing its scent. This has brought us many benefits."
Tang Yue smiled: "First of all, jade is easier to take care of and maintain than wood. You don't have to worry about drying out, cracking, etc. Secondly, because of the special smell of jade, even if this place is like a canopy, mosquitoes will avoid these windows, so driving away insects in the garden is the easiest job."
Lu Xueqing was extremely surprised: "There is such a function?"
Tang Yue nodded.
Lu Xueqing looked as if she had gained some new knowledge.
After a while, the shuttle bus to Tang Garden finally arrived.
The driver was a gentle woman in work clothes. Lu Xueqing followed Tang Yue into the car.
The shuttle bus started slowly and headed slowly into the park.
When the shuttle bus passes by the South Garden, what comes into view is a sea of colorful flowers and trees, as well as rockery and strange rocks.