Primary Research on the Masters, Their Family, Native Place and Landscape of Puyuan Garden in Qing Dynasty in Yizheng, Jiangsu Province

Puyuan was a famous garden in Qing Dynasty located at the northern hills of Yizheng County, Jiangsu Province. As the documents of this garden in the county annals were brief, the information of its master is scarce. The aim of this article is to explore the information of its master by textual research, such as the family, the native place, as well as the landscape of this garden. The results show: the master of the garden came from a family with a family name of Ba from Yuliang Town, Shexian County, Anhui Province. The Ba's family has a linear genealogy. The Ba's family in Yizheng had the same ancestor as that in Dongtai. The first generation who came to Yizheng to engage in salt business was called Ba Yuan-huang, and his son was named Ba Shu-bao who made a big fortune with painstaking efforts. Ba Guang-hao, Ba Guang-kui and Ba Yan-nong, as Ba Shu-bao’s three sons, built the Puyuan garden and became the first generation masters, while Ba Tang-xin, Ba Tang-bing and Ba Tang-jun were the second generation masters. The landscape of Puyuan was magnificent, and its site was in countryside, with hills in the north and a river in the south. Trees and weeds were flourish and the river water were clear. It had a large area with a lot of scenic spots, of which 43 were named by poets. A huge rockery was built in the garden, at the top of which people can view the Yangtze River. There were 18 suites, and people could get lost in them. There were 64 tablets with calligraphy of celebrates from different dynasties of China, and 16 tablets of scenic spot poems. The garden was regarded as the first famous garden in the south of Huaihe river.