happy bonsai blog

While penjing and bonsai share many characteristics, they are different in many ways. And we often can find many casual and sloppy cross reference of penjing and bonsai (me too, guilty as charged. Since many people know the meaning of bonsai but not the meaning of penjing, sometimes I will refer a penjing to bonsai.)

Today, I came across Robert Steven’s blog and read his thoughts about penjing and bonsai. It is really thought provoking. Not only he talks about the basic foundational difference and similarities between penjing and bonsai like I did in Chinese Penjing and Japanese Bonsai, but Robert Steven also shares his thoughts on the style of an artist as well as the appreciation of artwork.

In my opinion, the term “authentic” has no relevance to art. An artist should be able to make his own statement of character and identity. I am not trying to create my own style, but rather trying to find new, innovative possibilities based on my own applications of aesthetic concepts. There is no absolute in art and beauty. For appreciation of artistic creation to occur there should be an emotional interaction between the art object and the viewer. This requires communication between the art object and the viewer.

And I really like how Robert Steven says it is the joyful process that matters, but not the final destination. This concept it quite different from what I have been taught. Not that I am taught not to enjoy the process, but it is the final “product” that counts the most. This gives me quite some pressure sometimes, especially when I mistakenly make the wrong cut (oopps… there goes 5 years!). By focusing too much on the technical aspect and getting too nervous about doing the “right” thing, sometimes I find myself missing the joyful process of being with my trees.

In making bonsai, I am not too concerned with the final destination, but rather with the joyful process. I enjoy the slow process of revealing the character and identity of the tree — a process that brings my life into parallel with the tree’s life journey. This sort of endeavor is more of an active meditative process and the cultivation of a soulful relationship with the artistic medium, instead of simply a superficial exploration of the medium. The communication between my medium and me may not take place with verbal communication, but there is an echo of understanding, nonetheless.

I wish Robert Steven will take a tour to Hong Kong and share with us his techniques and thoughts on bonsai someday.

I would also suggest you to read Robert Steven’s Introduction. Very interesting 🙂

Photo taken from The Bonsai Blog of Robert Steven.

In Lingnan Penjing, there are three main ways to attach a tree to a rock for landscape penjing.

• Root-Attaching (附根)
• Stem-Attaching (附莖)
• Ride-on-Rock (騎石, similar to Sekijoju)

Since the first day I learned landscape penjing, I have been told that root-attaching method is the most challenging, yet, yields the most spectacular scenery in landscape penjing. And while stem-attaching comes second, ride-on-rock method comes last. Indeed, Teacher Wong tells us not to use ride-on-rock method, but encourages us to use root-attaching method and stem-attaching method when making our landscape penjing.

Root-Attaching (附根) and Stem-Attaching (附莖)

Root-Attaching is a method in which the roots of the bonsai tree grows along and attaches to the cracks of the rocks. The roots attach onto the rock firmly enough and can hold up the tree strongly on the rock. Root-Attaching method needs a small tree with very long roots to begin with. If there is no small tree with long roots on hand, we will retreat to using stem-attaching method which attach the stem on the rock while allowing the roots to grow in the soil of the bonsai pot.

Ride-on-Rock (騎石, similar to Sekijoju)

Similar to Japanese bonsai’s Sekijoju, ride-on-rock is a method in which the bonsai tree grows on top of the rock, and the roots of the tree wraps around a rock. The rock is the base of the trunk, with the roots exposed to different angles as they traverse the rock and then descend into the soil below.

It is said that Chinese penjing is a landscape painting in three dimensions. Unlike Japanese bonsai, Chinese penjing portrays and recreate a scene we find in nature.

Similar to Chinese poetry and landscape painting which rely on a very limited amount of content to portray a vast scene in the mind of listener/viewer, Chinese penjing uses only a limited number of elements to portray and relive the whole nature scene in the mind of the viewers. Chinese penjing artists adopt many of the principles encountered in traditional landscape painting. They observe the ways trees are rendered in these paintings, and then strive for similar effects in their work.

Landscape paintings of Zhang Da-qian (張大千) (1899～1983) – one of the best-known and most prodigious Chinese artists of the twentieth century

One of the most pleasing aspects of Chinese penjing is its impressionistic appearance. Penjing, or landscape bonsai, in particular, strongly resemble the brushstroke paintings of the literati and zen schools. The freedom and informality of these compositions have a freshness which is probably unique in the art of penjing. Although penjing artist follow some basic principles and guidelines, no strict rules apply.

The influence of Chinese painting is perhaps most clearly seen in the cascade and literati style of Chinese penjing, which have the most unusual and refreshing quality. The sharp angular shape of the trunk and the sweeping curves of the branches resemble the brushstrokes peculiar to Chinese paintings.

Since Chinese penjing, landscape painting, and poetry are intimately linked, it is important for a penjing artist to study poetry and painting, especially landscape painting in order to create high quality penjing.

Landscape paintings of Tang Yin(唐寅)aka Tang Bohu (唐伯虎)(1470-1523)- a Chinese scholar, painter, calligrapher, and poet of the Ming Dynasty period

Landscape bonsai / penjing of Zhao Qing Quan (赵庆泉) – one of the best known penjing artists to Western audiences, pioneer of water-and-land penjing (Check out this post – Making My Water-and-Land Penjing (Part 1) to learn how to make a water-and-land penjing)