The Art of Penjing in China

 Hello Everybody!

This week I looked into the origins of bonsai, which is the ancient art of Penjing which is also called Penzai. This originated in china with evidence of the idea beginning in the first century.  

Penjing can be broken up into three groups, which I have mentioned before.

    Shumu Penjing: Tree Penjing that focuses on one or more trees and sometimes has other plants. The main focus is on the tree(s).

    Shanshui Penjing: Landscape Penjing focuses on creating a landscape using rocks, water, etc. 

    Shuihan Penjing: A water and land Penjing style that effectively combines the first two, including miniature trees and optionally miniature figures and structures to portray a landscape in detail.

Timeline

    In the first and second centuries, very fundamental versions are formed at this time to be miniature forms of religious and spiritual sites. Having the miniature version helped them to have essentially a piece of that place with them. These have roots in Daoism and Buddhism. Dishes are thought to have originated from the times when herbal aromatics were just beginning, and those dishes were the start of what is used today. Legends as old as the third century told of Daoist people having the power to shrink a whole landscape into small vessels. This leads to the art that is performed later after these legends. The earliest known artworks that feature Penjings are from the seventh century. These included rocks, that symbolized mountains and had fruit trees incorporated. These were carried by servants indicating that these pieces are art were a higher class luxury.  

    The earliest known English observation of a Penjing is from 1637. By the first part of the 19th century, air layering is noted as the main method of propagation. This technique is essentially creating a cutting on a tree without removing it. You score the area and put moss or some soil substitute right onto the tree and once it roots you can cut it off of the mother tree. This way you can reliably get a large trunk quickly. This makes the time to create a really old-looking tree take less time. The earliest known photo of a Penjing was from 1868 by a man named John Thomson. I have it linked here:

    Into the 20th century, a lot of trees were lost due to economic and social pressures but in the 1980s there were shifts in china that allowed more trees to be taken care of. This made the art become more prevalent and accessible throughout china but mainly in the major cities.

Here are the links to the resources I used this week. I was surprised by how much I was able to get out of Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penjing   

http://www.magiminiland.org/1800Refs/Thomson.html

Here's a fun video that I found while taking a break this week, I thought it would be fun to share. It just shows how easily some species of trees root. 

Thanks all for this week, until next time.