Chapter 1 The Well Frog

The title of "well frog" was enough to send Yuantong, a man known for his profound and extensive knowledge of gardens, into a rage. Even if the words were somewhat unrestrained due to the influence of alcohol, Ye Tao's statement had a basis and was not groundless.

In his previous life, as an industrial designer who loved traveling, architecture, and photography, and who possessed an extremely keen grasp of art and design elements, Ye Tao had put in considerable effort in studying gardens and architecture. A comfortable life allowed him to travel extensively, indulge in admiring his favorite gardens and palaces around the world, and collect all kinds of materials to enrich his knowledge, deepen his understanding of gardens and architecture, and enhance his ability to integrate buildings with nature. It was precisely because of this that, at a young age, he had already accumulated considerable experience in garden design and construction management. The few gardens and courtyards he built in Yicheng were all classics.

Modern society loves to elevate everything to the level of culture and understanding, scrutinizing every detail, studying each individual case thoroughly, and digging to the bottom of everything. This habit had given Ye Tao an extremely solid foundation, allowing his understanding of gardens to surpass that of the era he was currently in by a wide margin.

Regardless of the style, gardens all originate from nature and are imitations and refinements of nature by humans. For example, the artificial mountains in gardens often imitate the most wonderful parts of natural mountain forests, extracting and condensing these parts to form a whole. Similarly, the various bodies of water excavated in gardens are artistic generalizations of rivers, lakes, streams, brooks, springs, and waterfalls found in nature, concentrating the most beautiful aspects of natural water bodies. The integration of architecture and nature, the poetic and pictorial interest imbued in gardens, and the artistic conception containing humanistic spirit are all subjects that can be studied independently. Even artificial mountains, rock peaks, waterscapes, plants, and buildings require a large number of examples to form a comprehensive view and extract the general rules and methods.

People of this era did not have the opportunity to visit gardens in different locations and see various styles and designs firsthand. This was not only due to the underdeveloped transportation and information but also because the most distinctive gardens were often isolated within small circles. Common people had no chance to set foot in the magnificent royal gardens, and entering the exquisite private gardens required a deep friendship with the owner. Yuantong, at most, had seen many gardens in Chun Nan Guo and could only understand other styles through text and painting while spending a lot of time in garden creation practices. Therefore, the depth and breadth of his knowledge were limited. Given Ye Tao's insight, calling Yuantong a "well frog" was not an insult.

"Bring paper and ink!" Ye Tao ordered the servant standing aside cheerfully.

The servant was stunned. Ming Yu Lou was just a venue for banquets. According to more modern terms, providing the consumables needed for cultural activities was not within their range of services. Although Luo Qin and Song Yu had recently arranged the receptions at Ming Yu Lou, the paper and ink used by the literati for writing poetry were all prepared by Luo Qin and Song Yu.

Lu Dan, who had been watching with amusement, reacted much faster. Unlike ordinary butlers, he was originally a member of the Danyang playboy circle. In fact, as the young master of the Lu family, he himself had an invitation. Even if he came as Ye Tao's butler, no one would care. He was currently the only "servant" among all the people present. Lu Dan leaned half his body out of the window and shouted to the guards below who were boredly playing army chess, "Bring up the box in the back of the carriage."

Without a word, four guards easily carried a three-foot-square box, which looked quite large, to the middle of the reception venue. Inside the box was a folding, multi-functional workbench and two toolboxes. Even in this era, when conditions permitted, Ye Tao still adhered to the concept of mobile office, designing this mobile suite. The flattened folding workbench could easily install tools such as a vise. When installed according to another scale to tilt the table surface slightly, it could be equipped with a fixture to become a good drawing table. The brass-inlaid rulers on the table were useful in any form. In the two toolboxes in the box, one contained various woodworking, metalworking, and other tools and measuring instruments, while the other was filled with the most precise tools for engineering drawing in this era and the pens, inks, and paints needed for writing and drawing. The development of paints was still very insufficient in this era, but Ye Tao's toolbox contained four sets of paints: Chinese painting, oil painting, watercolor, and gouache, each formulated and standardized according to a twenty-four-color standard. This set of paints alone was enough to attract the crazy pursuit of a large group of people with a strong interest in painting.

Lu Dan's reaction pleased Ye Tao greatly. Ye Tao said with a smile, "Use my own paper. Have someone go back and get another roll." Lu Dan's eyes lit up, and he agreed repeatedly, then turned his head and gestured for a guard to do it. He himself carefully took out a wooden, slender cylinder covered with waterproof cowhide from the box, carefully pulled out a piece of paper from it, and clipped it to the table. Then he took out a series of drawing tools, pulled over a table, arranged them neatly, and then bowed and retreated.

"Didn't you dare to call yourself a master after building thirty gardens?" Ye Tao looked at Yuantong and said heroically, "I'll draw thirty gardens for you to see right now."

As soon as he said this, the whole place was in an uproar. Yuantong's face was filled with disbelief. But Ye Tao seemed not to hear it. He took out a ruling pen, dipped it in ink, picked up the heavy copper ruler, and began to draw a forty-five-degree oblique overhead view of a garden schematic diagram. This kind of schematic diagram, which can show the macro-planning and facilitate the display of details at the same time, was repeatedly used in building brochures and design diagrams in the era Ye Tao came from, and Ye Tao was very familiar with this form.

Gardens can be divided into artificial landscape gardens and natural landscape gardens according to their base and development method. Artificial landscape gardens are constructed by excavating water bodies on flat ground, piling up artificial mountains, artificially constructing mountain and water landforms, creating buildings, and configuring flowers and trees to reduce and imitate natural landscape scenery within a small range. Natural landscape gardens generally choose a part of the natural landscape as the garden base and make appropriate adjustments, transformations, construct buildings, and configure flowers and trees according to local conditions on the original landform. The characteristic of this type of garden is that it uses the natural beauty of the natural landscape, costs little, and obtains a natural landscape of real interest far superior to artificial landscape gardens.

From the perspective of the affiliation of the garden, it can be divided into royal gardens, private gardens, and temple gardens. Royal gardens are often called yuan, you, palace gardens, imperial gardens, etc. Because the royal family is wealthy and often has the planning ideology of royal power supremacy, they are often carved beams and painted pillars, and are resplendent.

Private gardens belong to nobles, bureaucrats, gentry, and literati, and are generally called gardens, villas, bieye, thatched cottages, etc. Since most of them are also "house gardens," attached to the residence as a place for the owner to rest, entertain, meet friends, and read, although they are not large in scale, they often reveal a kind of refinement from site selection planning to construction and maintenance and expansion after the garden is completed, often leaving many exquisite scenes.

Temple gardens refer to the gardens attached to Buddhist temples and Taoist temples. They often retain the unique forms of religion and have a special religious atmosphere.

Ye Tao, who had long been aware of the classification of gardens, naturally chose the most effective first move in order to properly strike down Yuantong: temple gardens. And the graphic he was depicting was a classic of temple gardens, the Shaolin Temple in Henan from the era he came from.

Starting from the mountain gate, with Ye Tao's pen, classic landscapes appeared one after another. Thousand Buddha Hall, Lixue Pavilion, Chuzu Nunnery, Pagoda Forest... As one building complex with strong Buddhist characteristics appeared on the paper and in everyone's eyes, the entire Ming Yu Lou gradually quieted down. Everyone was surprised to find that the complex and exquisite buildings, the exquisite and ingenious combination methods appeared so naturally in Ye Tao's hands, as if without any thought; and the patterns on the stone tablets and on the beams and pillars that could be seen under this scale, Ye Tao automatically and consciously drew them down casually, without hesitation, without modification, as if such a grand and solemn building complex had long existed in Ye Tao's chest, and all he did was describe it according to the real scene.

Shaolin Temple was really too big. Even according to Ye Tao's standards, this schematic diagram was drawn very roughly, and he drew it very quickly, but the whole picture still took a full hour to complete. This was not the end. Immediately afterwards, Ye Tao changed to another pen, dipped it in red ink, made numerical sequence marks on various places on the drawing, and made detailed annotations according to these numerical sequences in the long blank space left on the edge of the drawing. The annotations included descriptions of the functions and structures of the buildings, descriptions of the types of flowers and trees, and different楹联(Ying Lian, vertical couplets) hanging in front of different building gates.

A schematic diagram of a garden may not be convincing. No matter how magnificent or how strictly legal, it may still be based on imagination. However, these annotations very clearly show that Ye Tao has already had a very comprehensive consideration of this huge temple building complex, of each building inside, and of the specific details and feasibility. And those楹联(Ying Lian, vertical couplets), for the surrounding onlookers, are undoubtedly highly original. Not only are the words beautiful and elegant, but they also show that Ye Tao has some good understanding of Buddhism. This point alone is like two heavy slaps on Yuantong's face.

When he finally completed the entire Shaolin Temple schematic diagram, he breathed a sigh of relief, glanced provocatively at Yuantong, who was now sitting pale-faced to one side, and glanced at the crowd around him who began to marvel. He ignored Luo Qin's cold gaze and Song Yu's interested eyes not far away, and then ordered Lu Dan, "Change the paper. This is just the beginning."