The coexistence of the latest traditional bonsai and folk art bonsai

The author of "Records of the sick Plum Museum" called the excessive plum pile as the diseased plum, and tied it up and reborn it. Although this is not the author's original intention, from one side, we can also see that what the literati of all ages advocated is the natural bonsai with strong cultural and artistic atmosphere. The Ming and Qing dynasties are the era of high development of bonsai in China, and the bonsai specifically described in their main bonsai monographs are also the natural bonsai that we inherit today.

Thus it can be seen that natural bonsai is the orthodoxy and tradition of Chinese bonsai art. Today, our bonsai art creation is to inherit this fine tradition, so that the development of Chinese bonsai art has achieved unprecedented success.

During the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, folk bonsai sprang up in China, such as Nantong, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Huizhou, Sichuan and other places. This kind of bonsai belongs to folk art, which has all the characteristics of folk art.

However, for nearly half a century, we have a wrong understanding of this, thinking that this is the tradition of Chinese bonsai art, so we shout to inherit the tradition, but in essence, it is to inherit the elegant traditional literati bonsai art to inherit the tradition of folk art. This is a big mistake. In this regard, there is a clear distinction in the historical facts of bonsai in our country.

Bonsai works in China belong to the same culture and art as painting and poetry, so bonsai works can be deeply integrated in traditional Chinese painting, poetry and literary works, while pattern bonsai can not achieve this level. But how do we explain the bonsai situation in that period? I think it may be because there were cultural people in Chinese bonsai at that time, and developed on two different levels and two different clues at the same time.

This article is extracted from the first draft of Zhejiang Bonsai. It is intended to attract jade and clear the source. Welcome to discuss and comment.