Introduction

Shenyuan Garden, located in Chunbo Alley, Yuecheng District, Shaoxing City, is a famous garden of the Song Dynasty and a National AAAAA tourist area with 800-year history. It was a private garden with many pavilions, bridges over the rivers, dense trees with shaded areas in the Jiangnan picturesque garden. It is the only garden of the Song Dynasty that is well kept in Shaoxing City. It has three parts, ancient traces district, eastern garden, and southern garden, and many attractions such as Guhe Pavilion, Banbi Pavilion, Shuanggui Hall, Bayong Attic, Well of Song Dynasty, Archery Field, Wenmeilan, Platform for Qin (a kind of Chinese traditional instrument), Guangsi Room and so on. It was chosen as an official cultural relic preservation unit of Zhejiang Province in 1963. It is also famous for a tragedy about Luyou, a great poet in the Song Dynasty.

The patriotic poet Luyou married his young cousin Tangwan in 1144, and they loved each other very much. However, Luyou’s mother was unhappy when Tangwan was unable to bear him children, so she forced Luyou to divorce his wife. He unwillingly got divorced and married another woman, and Tangwan was compelled to marry Zhao Shicheng who was a celebrity in Yuezhong (Shaoxing City today). 

Ten years later, Luyou went alone to Shenyuan Garden, and met Tangwan and her husband by chance. They hadn’t seen each other for 10 years, but their deep love remained. Afterward, Tangwan sent some food and wine to Luyou. After seeing this special gift, Luyou felt depressed and wrote “Phoenix Hairpin,” which became famous. However, the poem made Tangwan fall into great grief and die.