The Temple of Literature, Hanoi

The Temple of Literature is basically what is left of the Imperial Academy created to educate Vietnam’s elite in medieval times. This is where they held Vietnam’s civil service examinations and I can’t help thinking that it mirrored Chinese imperial examination system. This educational institution was dedicated to Confucius and a couple of sages and scholars and functioned from 1076 till 1779. I would say it had a pretty good run.

When I started writing this post it was difficult for me to figure out which photos have been taken in which part of the temple, so I ended up drawing a plan shown below to make the post more visual and somewhat structured.

Images below show the main gate of the temple. I am not an expert on traditional Vietnamese architecture, but it felt like there is something distinctly Vietnamese about it.

Since the temple is surrounded by walls and its courtyards are separated from each-other by walls as well, there are quite a few gates. They are all different and well-integrated with the surrounding gardens. The image below left shows the Dai Tai gate. It is one of the side gates located in the first courtyard. The image below centre shows a bit of the first courtyard and the gate leading to the second courtyard. Another gate is shown in the image below right. It is called the Khue Van pavilion and it provides a passage from the Second to the Third Courtyard.

The temple gardens feature a number of ponds. Images below show two examples. The image on the left shows one of the ponds in the First Courtyard and the image on the right shows the Thien Quang well in the Third Courtyard.

Below are images of the Fourth Courtyard featuring trees growing in large concrete planters.

The focal point of the whole complex is the main hall of the temple located in the Fifth Courtyard. Below are images showing some of its features. The rightmost image shows the altar to Confucius.

Finally, let’s make this post relevant to the topic of bonsai. Below are some examples of potted trees photographed in various areas of the temple.

Images below show larger potted trees located in the Fourth Courtyard.

What can I say about the potted trees in the temple? They all display some degree of styling. None of them are terribly refined, but given the context, they probably don’t have to be. To me they provide historical context for bonsai by linking Oriental style potted plants with penjing.

Overall, the Temple of Literature was a great place to visit. It taught me that cultivation of styled potted plants was an important scholarly activity in Vietnam.

Reference to a hut-style teahouse in Ming China

Teahouse architecture is a recurring theme in my blog and all those posts have been about teahouses in Japan. I’ve never came across of a reference to a ‘teahouse’ in China in its Japanese sense, a rustic free-standing hut. Not anymore. I am reading a book by Craig Clunas about connoisseurship in Ming China. One of his primary sources is a text titled "Treatise on Superfluous Things" written around 1620 by a scholar, painter and garden designer from Suzhou Wen Zhen Heng. This book was a manual for people of means and taste. The first chapter of the book is titled ‘Studios and retreats’ and Clunas translated a small section of it pertaining to teahouses. It reads as follows:

“Build a structure of column’s span, adjacent to a mountain studio, and set therein the tea utensils. Train a boy to the exclusive service of tea, so the whole day may be spent there in pure talk, the chilly night spent in sitting there in a dignified attitude. This is the first priority of the recluse, which cannot be dispensed with.”

 

According to Clunas, Wen Zhen Heng’s treatise is heavily based on earlier work by two of his contemporaries. One of them is the dramatist Gao Lian who wrote “Eight Discourses on the Art of Living” and the other is Tu Long who wrote "Desultory Remarks on Furnishing the Abode of the Retired Scholar". Clunas tells us that the work of Wen Zhen Heng, Gao Lian and Tu Long is based on even earlier texts dating back to Song dynasty. This means that when Sen no Rikyū was pioneering soan style teahouses at the end of the 16th century in Japan, the practice of doing something very similar was already old in China. 

By the way, this topic has a connection to bonsai. Tu Long’s "Desultory Remarks" has an entire chapter on potted plants and Gao Lian’s “Eight Discourses” has chapters on plants and rocks.

The image above shows a Rikyū style teahouse called Kaho-an. It has been reconstructed at Happo-en garden in Tokyo and it dates back to Taisho period.

Chinese precursors of Japanese stone lanterns

Stone lanterns are a recurring topic in my blog (see http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/stone-lanterns-at-singapore-japanese.html). Here, I would like to share a few observations and speculations prompted by my last year’s trip to China. Seeing various old or traditional objects made me think of a possible evolutionary line that terminated in contemporary Japanese stone lantern. It is well known that the earliest examples of pedestal lanterns in Japan were bronze and that they partly owe their origin to the hanging and free-standing counterparts made of the same material. However, looking at traditional ceremonial vessels and incense burners in China made me think that it all could have started with a humble cook-pot (see the progression of images above). Images above show left to right: ding food vessel (11th century BC, China), temple incense burner (Shanghai), roofed temple incense burner (Shanghai), movable stone lantern (Kyoto). 

The left image below shows an elaborate temple incense burner in Shanghai. The image on the right shows an incense burner in Kamakura. They both share common features yet the Japanese counterpart is more reminiscent of the Japanese stone lantern.

Below are a few images of pedestal bronze lanterns I photographed in Nara, Kyoto and Kamakura. These are somewhat less commonly seen in Japan. The leftmost image shows the oldest extant pedestal lantern in Japan (8th century), which has been designated the rank of national treasure (see my post about Todai-ji temple here http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/todai-ji-nara.html).

Back to China now. During my travels there I observed a number of traditional architectural and interior design features which bare certain similarities with the Japanese lanterns and could have been incorporated into their design. Images below show a few examples.

The Forbidden Palace in Beijing had stone incense burners that were remarkably similar to Japanese stone lanterns, but I am not sure if they predate the wide spread popularity of stone lanterns in the 17th century Japan. Apparently, the oldest stone lantern in Japan dates back to the 8th century. The two leftmost images below show stone incense burners at the Forbidden Palace, while the two rightmost images show Japanese stone lanterns in Kyoto temples.

To conclude this post, let’s see more stone lanterns. Below are images of some lanterns in Kamakura.

Below, more stone lanterns from Tokyo.

Finally, a bunch of lanterns from Kyoto, Nara and … Can you pick the odd one out? The image in the bottom left corner shows a modern day street light in Shanghai. Its design is inspired by the Japanese stone lanterns yet it retains a number of distinctly Chinese features.

You can also see images of stone lanterns from Katsura Rikyu Imperial Villa here: http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/katsura-rikyu.html

The Humble Administrator’s Garden, Suzhou

I wanted to make this post short, just a few highlights. After all, I visited the Humble Administrator’s Garden at the time of the year when it is least impressive. However, the highlights were too many and I decided not to deprive the reader of any. Besides, I missed enough of them anyway. I won’t to talk much about the history of this garden. Let’s just say that it was laid out in 1509 (Ming Dynasty) by a retired Imperial Inspector by the name Wang Xian Chen, and in case you are wondering… no, he wasn’t humble. Just a rich guy who was curious about the idea of being not rich. Nevertheless, he built a great garden which basically was his residential compound. The garden is nearly 52,000 sq. m. and images below show some of its scenery.

The interiors of the buildings were beautifully appointed too (see images below).

Both the garden and the indoors featured many quality viewing stones (see images below).

There was one aspect of Chinese gardens I wasn’t aware of before my trip to China. It is the mosaic paving. I did talk about Japanese paved paths or nobedan in my post on Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto (see http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/katsura-rikyu.html), but this is different. Once again I realised that what I’ve seen in Japan is but a fragment of a bigger whole that exists in China. Images below show some of the paving in the garden.

The garden and the buildings as whole have lots of little things that catch your attention for a moment and then fade away. However, they all add up to the overall impression of complexity and sophistication. Below are some examples of that, just to convey the mood of what I’m saying.

Here is the legend to the images above:

A - porcelain plant pot with penjing painted on it.

B - funky padlock

C - beautifully aged wall plaque

D - cute hand railing knob

E - old and gnarly garden tree

F - rock naturally shaped as an ink stone

To fully appreciate this garden one needs to see it in winter snow, in spring blossom, in green of summer and in autumn colour. Unfortunately, I’ve seen none of it.

Shanghai Confucius Temple

One of my recent posts talked about a teapot collection at the Shanghai Confucius Temple, but I haven’t said anything about the temple itself. I really liked its atmosphere of scholarship and art. I liked its beautiful traditional architecture, the garden, the second hand book market, the library, the lecture hall, the teapot collection and the scholar rock collection. Images below show some of its charming views.

Its indoors are very interesting too (see images below).

The garden has a few well-tended feature trees (see images below).

The temple garden and buildings were also decorated with many viewing stones or Chinese scholar rocks. Images below show some that caught my eye.

To see the post about the teapot collection at this temple visit http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/teapots-at-shanghai-confucian-temple.html