Historical Imprints of Shanghai: National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units

Author: Fan Chongde (Editor) / Country:
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: Yu Garden is located in the northeastern part of the old city area in Huangpu District, Shanghai, north of Fuyou Road, east of Anren Street, and adjacent to the Shanghai Old City God Temple to the southwest. It is a famous classical garden in Jiangnan, a renowned historical and cultural site, and a tourist destination both domestically and internationally. Yu Garden was originally a private garden during the Ming Dynasty, built between the Jiajing and Wanli eras, with a history of over four hundred years. The garden owner, Pan Yunden, styled Zhongli and styled Chong'an, failed the imperial examination and, on the vegetable plots west of his residence, Shichun Hall, dug ponds, piled stones, and planted flowers and trees for his own enjoyment. In the 41st year of the Jiajing era (1562), he passed the imperial examination and went abroad to serve as an official, once holding the position of Governor of Sichuan. His father, Pan En, styled Ziren and styled Lijiang, reached the rank of Left Guardian of the Censorate and Minister of Justice. The Pan family was a prominent clan in Shanghai at that time. After Pan En retired from office and returned to his hometown, Pan Yunden built this garden to allow his father to enjoy his later years. For the first ten years, as Pan Yunden was serving abroad, the garden construction was interrupted and never completed. In the 5th year of the Wanli era (1577), Pan Yunden resigned and returned to his hometown, then fully devoted himself to building the garden. He hired stone piling artist Zhang Nanyang to plan it, and by the 18th year of the Wanli era (1590), after over two decades of painstaking effort, Yu Garden was completed. "Yu" means "peace" and "tranquility," and the garden was named "Yu Garden," meaning "to please the elderly." In classical Chinese, "Yu" is synonymous with "yú," hence the name "Yu Garden." At its peak, Yu Garden covered over 70 acres, designed by the Ming Dynasty garden master Zhang Nanyang and personally supervised its construction. The entire garden was magnificent in scale and beautiful in scenery. Ancient scholars praised Yu Garden as "the most extraordinary and beautiful in the southeast" and "the crown of famous gardens in the southeast." Pan Yunden's family fortunes declined in his later years. In the 29th year of the Wanli era (1601), Pan Yunden passed away, and the Pan family gradually declined, unable to bear the enormous expenses required for garden maintenance and management. By the late Ming Dynasty, Yu Garden was acquired by Zhang Zhaolin. In the following century until the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty, Yu Garden changed hands several times, and the garden gradually fell into disrepair. In the 25th year of the Qianlong era (1760), to prevent this famous site from being forgotten, some wealthy merchants and scholars in the area pooled their funds to buy Yu Garden and spent over two decades rebuilding pavilions and towers, adding rockeries, and renaming it Xiyuan. In 1918, Lu Xun used the pen name "Lu Xun" for the first time and published "The Diary of a Madman," the first modern vernacular novel in the history of Chinese literature, in New Youth. After the May Fourth Movement broke out, Lu Xun actively engaged in this anti-imperialist and anti-feudal patriotic movement, using fiction and essays as weapons. Over the following years, he published novels such as "Medicine," "Blessings," "The True Story of Ah-Q," "At the Tavern," "Desolation," and "Zhang Zhongyuan." In October 1927, Lu Xun, accompanied by his wife Xu Guangping, left Guangzhou for Shanghai, marking the beginning of his last decade of brilliant work. Upon arriving in Shanghai, Lu Xun gave lectures at over ten institutions, encouraging young people to engage in social causes. Starting in 1930, he joined the China League for the Freedom of Movement, the League for the Defense of Chinese Rights, and the Chinese Left-Wing Writers League. Lu Xun was one of the main initiators and leaders of the "Left League." He attended the founding meeting and delivered an important speech titled "On the Left-Wing Writers League." On the night of January 17, 1931, due to betrayal, the young writers of the "Left League," Ruo Shi, Hu Yeping, Yin Jie, Feng Keng, and Li Weisen, were arrested by the Nationalist authorities and secretly executed. To commemorate the five martyrs of the "Left League," Lu Xun and Feng Xuefeng edited the special issue "Vanguard: Tribute to the Fallen," while Lu Xun also published "A Short Biography of Ruo Shi" and "The Blood of the Vanguard of the Chinese Proletarian Revolutionary Literature," exposing the brutal persecution of progressive literary workers and the secret execution of revolutionary young writers by the Nationalist authorities. On April 11, 1933, Lu Xun's family moved into No. 9, Dalu Village, which is now known as the "Lu Xun Former Residence." Combining his observations of the rapid changes in Chinese society and reflecting on his own life experiences and ideological evolution, Lu Xun came to recognize that the revolutionary cause led by the Communist Party of China, which represented the interests of the Chinese working class and peasantry, was the hope of China. He firmly believed that the Communist Party of China was the only party capable of leading the Chinese revolution to victory. Due to years of exhausting struggles, Lu Xun's health deteriorated. In the spring of 1936, he fell seriously ill and was diagnosed with severe tuberculosis, but he refused his friends' repeated pleas to leave Shanghai and continued to work for the development of the revolutionary literary movement. He said, "It is better to work hard and live fewer years than to live more years without working." On the morning of October 19, 1956, at 5:25 a.m., Lu Xun passed away at his residence in No. 9, Dalu Village, Shigao Road (now Shanyin Road), Shanghai, at the age of 56. Lu Xun's life was a brilliant and heroic one. He spanned the two periods from the old democratic revolution to the new democratic revolution, experiencing extremely sharp and complex national and class struggles, accumulating rich experience in struggle. His outstanding social practice and works fully reflected his great personality and revolutionary fighting spirit.