It is well known that Su Shi named himself Dongpo after he was demoted to Huangzhou, as Bai Juyi had ever planted flowers on Dongpo of Zhongzhou(now Zhong County of Chongqing). Zhongzhou Dongpo has been a very famous and attractive landscape garden for scholars in the past dynasties. However, there still exist many misunderstandings about it, which include time, location and properties. Therefore, it is of great significance to clarify the historical facts and further explore the causes of those misunderstandings, which will be beneficial to the research on Bai Juyi as well as the relationship between scholars and the development of public gardens since the Mid-Tang Dynasty. Planting Flowers on Dongpo written by Bai Juyi is the most detailed first-hand data. According to what is described in it, Dongpo was a natural and “wild” landscape garden which followed the trend of the slopes. In recent years, through a rigorous textual research, Mr. Zhu Jincheng believed that the time when Bai Juyi planted flowers on Dongpo was not A.D. 819(the fourteen years of Yuanhe, the reign title of Emperor Li Chun) proposed by Wang Liming, a famous scholar in the Qing Dynasty, but instead, it was the spring of A.D. 820 (the fifteen years of Yuanhe), which was the second year after Bai Juyi assumed office. When the flowers bloomed in late spring, Bai Juyi had to leave Zhongzhou for Changan. But there is still some doubt about the location of Dongpo. Since the Song Dynasty, according to the mainstream view, Dongpo is a garden in prefectural residence. This statement may originate from Fang Yu Sheng Lan, a geographical book written by Zhu Mu and Zhu Zhu in the Song Dynasty. However, this opinion is not impeccable, but instead, there are obvious uncertain points. According to the record in Zhongzhou Fu Gu Ji, a famous essay written by Huang Tingjian, many Bai Juyi relics in Zhongzhou in the Song Dynasty were rebuilt by Wang Bizhi, prefecture chief at that time. There is a possibility that the Dongpo Pavilion in the prefectural residence was built in this period as a landmark of Dongpo. Nevertheless, Bai Juyi had no description of Dongpo Pavilion at all. Through time deduction combined with a comprehensive analysis of literature including poems and local chronicles, it can be concluded that Zhongzhou Dongpo should be located in the eastern slope of the city instead of the prefectural residence. Then, does it matter where Dongpo is? Why was it built in public areas rather than in the prefectural residence? Bai Juyi’s political identity as a prefecture chief can not be neglected. In the Mid-Tang Dynasty, due to the implementation of the two-tax law, people could move freely from one place to another. The increase of households had become the guarantee for the smooth collection of local taxes, and consequently, the landscape in public areas had become an important means for local officials to show their political clarity and attract migrants. At the same time, as a Confucian teacher, Bai Juyi also placed hope on educating and changing customs by means of the landscape construction of the barren mountain city. Therefore, Dongpo was by no means a garden in prefectural residence, but instead, it served as a public garden developed by Bai Juyi on the sloping fields in the east of Zhongzhou, which was aimed at governance and indoctrination. It can be seen that the public garden in the Song Dynasty was developed on this basis. After desolation, re-builders in the Song Dynasty built Dongpo Pavilion in the prefectural residence because they misunderstood Bai Juyi’s poems or just took convenience into consideration. In consequence, positional deviation took place. During the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, spirits related to public gardens went backwards, but another cognition was enhanced that garden was the place for prefectural officials to keep their own moral uplift regardless of the thoughts of others. On the other hand, literary creations about Dongpo have been widely spread; Dongpo with literary significance have been taken seriously by scholars and thus become a literary quotation. Therefore, it can be moved to other places at people’s own will. In this way, the meaning of Dongpo has gradually replaced the scenery itself, which has now taken on a new life.