Mountain Yuyin House, located in Nancun Town, Panyu, is also called “Yuyin Garden”, which was built in the 6th year of Tongzhi period in Qing Dynasty (1867), with a history of more than 130 years. With its own characteristics, Yuyin Garden is regarded as one of the four famous gardens in Guangdong, with the others of Liangyuan Garden in Foshan, Keyuan Garden in Dongwan and Qinghui Garden in Shunde. The first characteristic is “hiding dragon in inches”. Although the total floor area is just 1,500㎡, less than that of a half football court, the architectural layout of the Garden is very subtle. It seems like a big common folk house, when you look at it from the outside, but when you come in it, you will be surprised it. In this small garden, you can fine pavilion, terrance, tower, house, hall, windowed veranda, bridge, corridor, stone hill and jada green water in the garden architecture. And the artful arrangement of corridors, ornamental windows and screen wall lets you can find scenery everywhere. So Mountain Yuyin House always enjoys the good fame of “hiding dragon in inches” and “being small and exquisite”. The second characteristic is “being intellectual and elegant”. Every scene in Mountain Yuyin House has been created by the artisans with the original design of deep meanings. And the excellent poems and couplets make the house very intellectual. Therefore Mountain Yuyin House is a refined artistic work in Lingnan garden architecture, and a top representative work in the garden architecture, owing to its artful design.
Mountain Yuyin House has an irregular plane, and is divided into the eastern and western scenic spots by “Wanhong Kualv” Corridor Bridge, which named by the inscriptions of “Wanhong” and “Kualv”. The Corridor Bridge is the one of the most distinctive architecture in the Garden, with five stone steps at the two ends, and a stone arch under the bridge. The bridge pavilion is covered by the hip and gable roof with round ridge. There are railings on the bridge, and Gualuo under the pavilion, the connecting wind & rain corridor at the two ends, and the settees on the two sides of the corridor. In the western scenic spot, the main architecture is the Deep Willow Hall, accompanied with the Pool Side Villa. The woodcarvings in the Deep Willow Hall are the elaborate works of the Garden, with the woodcarvings in the east living room being the inscriptions of Weng Fanggang and Liu Yong. In the courtyard in front of the Hall, there are two old Paozhang flower, colorful and beautiful at the blooming season. The eastern scenic spot has a larger area, with the main architecture of the Waterside Exquisite Pavilion. It is located in the center of a corneous pool and in the shape of octagon, so it is also called Octagon Pavilion. There is the Willow Tower in the Southeast corner, and Peacock Pavilion, Laixun Pavilion and Olive Branch Hall in the Northeast corner, accompanied by the precious ancient trees of pineapple tree, calyx canthus and araucaria.
The gate lies in the southwest corner, on the sides of which there is a couplet “A little away from the ground is red rain, the green cloud in the sky corner is quite deep”. The couplet illustrates the name of “Yuying” and the garden features of “red rain” and “green cloud”.
Linchi Annexe faces Liusheng Hall across the pond, with a couplet on the pillow, “Annexe is near the pond, with gulls when washing ink-stone; while walking down the corridor, crane accompanies poem seeking”. There are 3 wide rooms and 3 deep rooms. There's also a couplet hung on the column that reads “Who are people busy for to abandon the old surrounding. With seasons change, flowers bloom and wilt. Living in a shabby house, I hope to make friends with celebrities. Comes and goes with old and now rains”.
There were a great amount of couplets and steles because the owner often met scholars and celebrities, which were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. The remaining steles were written by current scholars. In 1974, government allocated funds to restore the original appearance of the garden. |
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