The Master of Nets Garden


The Master of the Nets Garden or Wangshi Yuan is among the finest gardens in China. Recognized with nine other
Suzhou gardens as United Nations World Heritage sites, it demonstrates Chinese garden designers' adept skills
for synthesizing art, nature, and architecture to create unique metaphysical masterpieces. While the initial garden
was first constructed over 800 years ago and its physical form has changed drastically since, the name and spirit
of the garden remain intact.

The Master of the Nets is particularly regarded among garden connoisseurs for its mastering the techniques of
relative dimension, contrast, foil, sequence and depth, and borrowed scenery. While the garden's primary uses
have varied over time, its ability to inspire visitors intellectually and spiritual remains unchanged. Keen physical
architecture combined with poetic and artistic inspirations makes the Master of the Nets garden a unique and
incredible garden experience that has stood the test of time.

The garden has an area of 0.6 hectare. The eastern part consists of residential quarters, while the gardens are
located in the western part. The residential area consists of: the entrance hall, the sedan-chair hall, the major hall
(also called the Hall of Ten Thousand Volumes), a two story Hall of Captured Grace and a back yard. In the garden
of the western part there is a limped central pond surrounded by pavilions and towers adorned with sturdy rocks, trees, and flowering shrubs.
These represent sceneries from several seasons. In the west most part is a court with the Peony Cottage study rooms offering exquisite views,
which have been used to model the "Ming Hall" in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. This Ming Hall is used in creating an area of
display for Ming Dynasty artifacts.

In sum, there are scenes beyond scenes, and gardens within the garden. Many buildings are perfectly
well-spaced instead of being crammed. A small area of water and stone is made to seem large. Based
on illusion, the garden is full of change, capturing the effect of boundlessness, and achieving a unity of
part and whole. The Master-of-Nets Garden serves to illustrate how the few surpasses the many and the
small exceeds the large.