Scenic Beauty as Inspiration of Literature andLiterature as Promoter of Scenic Beauty

In singing of the beautiful scenery of Hangzhou, people often say of the place as“a picture postcard world, a world made for poetry”. Indeed the scenic charm of thegardens in Hangzhou is such that visitors often find it hard to tear themselves awayfrom them.

The views which visitors enjoy at the scenic places in Hangzhou are as a rule pregnant with qualities that appeal to man's aesthetic taste, inspiring them to createworks of art based on how they feel and to write poetry or other forms of literature togive expression to their aroused artistic sentiments. The beauty of the hills and watersof Hangzhou, the beauty of the wooded dales and ravines and also the beauty ofarchitectural art as revealed in what one sees scattered about in different types ofgardens — all this has nurtured generations upon generations of artists and poets,providing them with the inspiration and arousing in them the passion to create. SuShi the famous man of letters of Song Dynasty once wrote a poem about the WestLake after his wine party on a boat was disturbed by unexpected rain. The poemruns as follows：

The scene of the rippling lake is best on a fine day,

Yet equally good is the scenery of misty mountains in rain.

I'd like to compare West Lake to Xi Shi the ancient beauty,

Divine she looks when richly made up or when only lightly so.

The poem has indeed captured the innate beauty of West Lake scenery.

In giving names to the well-known ten scenic sights on West Lake, peoplenaturally have resorted to poetic language. The ten names thus are：A Placid Lakeunder the Autumn Moon, Dawn over the Su Causeway on a Spring Day, Sunset Glowover Thunder Peak, The Sound of Bells at Eventide on Nanping Hill, Lotus FlowersCaressed by Breezes in the Old Distillery Garden, Lingering Snows on Broken Bridge,Three Pools Mirroring the Moon, Twin Peaks Piercing the Clouds, Listening to OriolesSinging in Swaying Willows and Enjoying the Sight of Fish at Play at Flower Harbor.These four-character Chinese phrases are highly evocative, provoking all kinds ofromantic ideas and associations. The famous lake with its picturesque scenery hasbeen a rich source of poetic sentiments and has fired in many a strong desire forartistic creations, and they in their turn have done full justice to the scenic valueof the West Lake. When one takes a walk along the Su or the Bai Causewayenjoying the scenery under swaying willows and blossoming peach trees andchanting meanwhile the great poems about the lake view, one will appreciate allthe more deeply the fine artistic conception underlying the garden-like scenery ofHangzhou.

In the last analysis, cultural richness is the soul of gardens and gardening as anart. The reason why the gardens of olden times are of such great value is not just thatthere is so much to see but that they are the embodiment of a rich, splendid culturalheritage. The fact that the beauty of nature and the artistic creations of man are thereto reflect glory on each other — that perhaps accounts for the great attraction of theChinese-style gardens in Hangzhou!