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Hall in Bamboo Forest Bamboo forest on artificial hill is located in northwest corner of Ge Yuan Garden. There grow mainly sprout bamboos, a local spices. In the bamboo forest a pavilion stands. When you are in the pavilion, you will feel as if you were in a meditation state, just as what Wang Wei described in his poem：“In secluded bamboo grove I sit alone, I play lute and then uttered a long mournful cry. In deep grove no one heard my voice, only the moon shines bright.” Thus, it takes its name “Zhu li Guan”(Hall in bamboo Forest) from the poem. The ancients liked bamboo forest, mainly because of its quiet, secludes and tasteful natural environment. Therefore there were “Seven Sages in Bamboo Forest” in the wei and Jin dynasties including Ruan Ji and Ji Kang and so on and there were also Six Hermits of Bamboo Stream including Li Bai, Kong Chaofu and the others at the end of Emperor Kaiyuan of the Tang dynasty. It is said that the price of a house with bamboos will be doubled, of course, men of letters and scholar officials liked bamboos not only because of its natural appearance but also because of its metaphorical meaning of morality, i.e., linking the natural shapes of bamboo with people’s moral pursuit. In Bai Juyi’s Records of Growing Bamboos, he likened gentlemen’s morality training to the bamboo features of having secure root, upright temperament, empty core and joint chastity. |
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