"Penjing: the Chinese Art of Bonsai"
Penjing: The Chinese Art of Bonsai Wu-Zhong Zhou1 and Xiao-Bai Xu2 The formative stage of bonsai took Additional index words. history of bonsai, bonsai schools, bonsai place during the Wei and Jin Dynasties patterns, bonsai plants, penjing, (A.D. 220-420), when the strong in- potted landscape fluence of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism resulted in the social mode Summary. More and more people of upholding simplicity and elegance, have become very interested in bonsai, and expressing sentiment in landscape. a unique art of gardening that orig- Confucius said, “The wise find plea- inated in China. However, most sure in water, the virtuous find plea- people know about Japanese bonsai sure in hills” (Analects). Thus, like and have only scant knowledge of landscape painting and poems in China, Chinese bonsai. This paper gives a brief introduction to the history, local summarized as Shan Shui, or “moun- schools, and patterns of the bonsai art tains” and “water,” Chinese bonsai is in the Chinese tradition, as well as a made of not only plants, but also of list of plants used for bonsai in China. rocks and water, because it attempts to approach and display in symbolic form the essence ofnature. This is not a real- istic or naturalistic presentation, but ome misconceptions in horticul- one that seeks to find the “nature of tural history are very interesting, nature.” It is for this reason that bonsai S such as Prunus mume Sieb et was given a precise name “penjing” Zucc., one of the famous 10 tradi- (potted landscape) by Chinese experts.
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