The history of light fountains

Chinese classical gardens respect nature, strive to be elegant, quiet, and full of wild charm. In terms of garden water management, emphasis is placed on the artistic reproduction of natural water states. There are few applications for fountains that create artificial dynamic water. "Hanshu·Dianzhi" records: In Hanshang Linyuan, there are facilities such as "the river water is stirred up, the bronze dragon spits water, and the bronze immortal holds a cup to receive water and place bets". "Jia Shi Tan Lu" records: "There were two white stone lotuses in the imperial soup pool of Huaqing Palace in the Tang Dynasty. The spring gushes out from the mouth of the urn and sprays on the white lotus." Some water features have been preserved to this day, such as the Huanglong Spit Water in Hangzhou during the Chunyou Period of the Southern Song Dynasty (1241-1252). In the 18th century, Western-style fountains were introduced to China in 1747 and were built in the Old Summer Palace by Emperor Qianlong. There are three major fountains: "Xie Qiqu", "Haiyan Hall" and "Da Shui Fa". There are ten bronze dogs in the central pool of "Da Shui Fa". They fire volleys of rapids from their mouths directly at the copper deer, which is called "Hunting Dogs Chasing Deer". ". In the "Haiyan Hall", there are statues of the "Twelve Zodiac Signs" wearing Arhat robes. Each zodiac sign can spray water to tell the time. This is a manually operated water lifting machine - a dragon tail car that twists water. It rotates and rises to form high-level water, which is controlled by machinery. Every hour (equivalent to two hours), the twelve zodiac signs spray water in sequence. At noon, the twelve zodiac signs spray water at the same time. In recent years, with the development of urban modernization, China has successively built time-controlled fountains, color sound-controlled fountains, movable fountains and microcomputer-controlled musical fountains in Shuangxiu Garden, Temple of Heaven Park and city squares in Beijing.