Abstract:Zhao Liewen, a late-Qing scholar, wrote more than a million characters in his diary titled Nengjingju riji. Through analysis of Zhao’s text, the author of this paper reconstructs the daily life in Jing Garden and brings light to site investigation, house construction, and garden planning as well as the ‘elegant gatherings’ of literati that took place in the garden. More specifically, in the seventh and eight lunar months of 1865, the fourth reign year of emperor Tongzhi, Zhao traveled south of the Yangtze River. After considering the prices of houses and the spiritual geography (fengshui) of sites in different cities, he finally chose a place in Jiuwanwei, Changshu. As his family was growing, house and garden became clearer divided according to their function. Especially the library space of Tiangfanglou and the garden area along Jing Stream were rebuilt on several occasions. Zhao often invited relatives and friends to gather. The creative work inspired by his life at Jing Garden was modeled after the Wangchuan poetry collection of Tang poets and born from the gatherings held in the garden between 1876 and 1877, the third and fourth reign years of emperor Guangxu.
