Elite of Gardens

Water Bright Tower
      An ancient architecture, built in 23rd year of Emperor Qianlong's reign（1758）. Its name is detracted from one sentence of Dufu’s (a famous poet in Tang dynasty) poem and is used to commemorate Mao Pijiang and recall the Shuihui Park. The Water Bright Tower is 42 meters long from north to south and was less than 5 meters wide. It has front pavilion, middle pavilion, and tower from south to north inside, all of which are built in a pattern of zigzagging and connected by porch as well as decorated by reefs. Look from the outside, the Water Bright Tower’s overhanging eaves are placed closed side by side and in picturesque disorder, making you feel that you were on a boat floated on the water.

      The elegant Water Bright Tower is a ship-shape building and is built by Wang Zhiheng, an salt merchant from Anhui Province in the memory of the disappeared ancient Shuihui Park. With a unique art style of construction, Water Bright Tower combines the features of both northern and southern gardens of China. Professor Chen Congzhou once praised that it was the only existing copy in the country that had this marvelous character.

      Dong Xiaowan, together with Liu Rushi, Li Xiangjun and other five women were known as “Eight Nanjing Beauties”,. In 1693, Mao Xiang(Mao Pijiang) met her after failing his examination held by a country government. Dong fell in love with him at the first sight and thought he was different. She extended her feelings to him for many times but receive no responses because Mao had fell in love with Chen Yuanyuan, another famous beauty and they had been engaged in 1641. In the next year, Mao was upset to death when he was going to call on Chen Yuanyuan in Suzhou and found an empty house there adding that he failed his sixth examination held by a country government. Just in the winter of that year, mediated by Liu Rushi and redeemed by Qian Qianyi, Dong Xiaowan was sent to Rugao by boat accompanied by Mao Xiang. They got married next spring. Dong was gifted on art especially good at playing Qin ( a seven-stringed plucked instrument in some ways similar to the zither.) The Qin now is preserved in the Water Bright Tower and once was Dong’s most favorite thing.