Textual Research on the Location of Zhenzhou Dongyuan in Song Dynasty in Yizheng City of Jiangsu Province

Zhenzhou Dongyuan was the most famous garden in Yizheng's history; Zhenzhou was the name of current Yizheng City in Song Dynasty, and Dongyuan means east garden. It was also one of the famous gardens in Song Dynasty in China and had an important role in Chinese garden history. The celebrities MEI Yao-chen, SU Dong-po, and WANG An-shi toured in it and left beautiful poems. OUYANG Xiu wrote a famous prose The Record of Zhenzhou Dongyuan for it. Although it disappeared in Qing Dynasty, nowadays, people wish to find the location of Zhenzhou Dongyuan and rebuild it to conserve a valuable cultural heritage for Yizheng City. Duo to the long time gone and the land form has changed greatly in Yizheng City, the Zhenzhou Dongyuan's ruins have been almost destroyed, the records of its location are very few, thus, it is extremely difficult to determine the location of Zhenzhou Dongyuan. Based on the previous researches, the authors searched the literatures and had field investigation, then determined the exact location and the boundary of Zhenzhou Dongyuan ruins. It was located where Wendun ruin is as the center, in the south of the east wing ruins of Zhenzhou city, the east of the Zhenzhou city's east gate ruins, the northern side of Confucianism ruins in Qing Dynasty, and the west of the small drill ground of soldiers.