The Humble Administrator’s Garden in Suzhou belongs to the state.

Li Jingxi is Li Hongzhang’s nephew and served as governor of Yunnan and Guizhou in the late Qing Dynasty. Around the ninth year of the Republic of China (1920), when he was nearly sixty years old, he bought the house in the eastern part of the Humble Administrator's Garden (today's Suzhou Garden Museum). After more than a year of repairs, he settled down with his concubine. The building is quiet and exquisite. The floor of the living room can be removed in summer and is paved with square tiles underneath. There is a wall across the river from the gate, the revetments along the river are carefully stacked, and a water pier is built to the south of the gate. If you want to take a boat trip and taste the boat dishes, the cruise ship can stop right at the gate.

Later, Li Jingxi and his concubine passed away one after another, and his children and grandchildren inherited the property. Yuan Shikai's granddaughter (daughter of Yuan Keding) lived in this house and later married into the Fei family in Taohuawu. During the "January 28" Anti-Japanese War, the headquarters of the 60th Division of the 19th Route Army was also stationed here. Li Jingxi's descendants later either moved to Hong Kong or stayed in Shanghai, and no one lived in Suzhou. The house here had been mortgaged to a bank before liberation. After liberation, they were returned to the country. In November 1951, it was moved from Suzhou Library in Sunan District.

Extended information

The Humble Administrator's Garden is located in the northeast corner of Suzhou City. It was built in the fourth year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty. It was expanded from the Lu Guimeng residence and the former site of Dahong Temple in the Yuan Dynasty. Taking the meaning of the sentence "Build a house, plant trees, and live in leisure and contentment" by Pan Yue, a writer of the Jin Dynasty, "Build a house and plant trees, and be free and contented? Irrigate the garden and grow vegetables for day and night meals? This is also the way for a clumsy person to govern." The garden was named Humble Administration. garden.

When Wang Xianchen was building the garden, he asked Wen Zhengming, a representative of the Wu School of Painting, to design a blueprint for it, forming a garden dominated by water, sparse and plain, almost a natural landscape. After Wang Xianchen's death, his son lost the garden to the Xu family in a night of gambling, and his descendants also declined. In the fourth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1631), the eastern part of the garden was returned to the minister Wang Xinyi, and it was named "Guitianju".

The owners of the central and western parts of the garden changed frequently. At the beginning of Qianlong's reign, the central part of the garden was restored to the possession of the prefect Jiang Zemin. In the 10th year of Xianfeng (AD 1860), the Taiping Army stationed in Suzhou, and the Humble Administrator's Garden became Prince Zhong's Mansion. According to legend, Prince Zhong Li Xiucheng used Jianshan Tower in the middle part as his administrative place. In the third year of Guangxu (1877 AD), the western part was returned to the wealthy businessman Zhang Luqian, and was named "Buyuan". Most of the existing gardens were formed in the late Qing Dynasty.

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