The garden was first set up as the private villa of Zhu Zhichun, a Jinshi selected from Imperial examination.
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Sun Yat-sen allegedly held a speech in Xuehai Hall on December 27, 1912, during an inspection visit he undertook to Songjiang together with Chen Qimei and Tai Chitao .
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Its size was rarely enlarged for hundreds of years until Dong Qichang, a Chinese painter, calligrapher of the later period of the Ming Dynasty, built several more ancient architectural complex on its original basis.