A brief introduction to the Chinese Bonsai School-- Sichuan School

Sichuan was called Bashu in ancient times. Jiannan Road was set up in the first year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty (AD 627), so in the past, Sichuan bonsai was called "Jiannan bonsai". After Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the state governance was changed to Yizhou, that is, Chengdu today, whose jurisdiction was not only limited to Sichuan, but also included some areas of Yunnan and Guizhou.

The unique Bashan Shu River has given birth to a unique Ba-Shu culture after a long historical process. According to the records of Benji of the King of Shu and the Chronicles of the State of Huayang, "from enlightened to silkworm bushes accumulated at 34000 years old,"the kingdom of Shu was born in the emperor." If these records focus on legends, then Sanxingdui in Guanghan is enough to prove the long history of Ba-Shu culture. As early as the late Neolithic Age to the early Western Zhou Dynasty (about 4500 to 2900 years ago), the bronze objects cast in Sichuan, such as bronze statues, have never been seen in other sites, and their physical characteristics and costumes are also different from those of the Chinese nationality. The shape of other artifacts is also not seen in the Central Plains. Although some artifacts are similar to the Central Plains, but in terms of their overall characteristics, they are different from the Central Plains culture and other cultures, and have distinct local characteristics. An independent cultural system has been initially formed.

The development of bonsai art of Sichuan School has experienced a process from simplicity to complexity, and then from complexity to simplicity. The former "Jane" is simple, and the latter "Jane" is concise. Like other bonsai schools, according to the modeling principle of "Tree posture near painting", there are natural types at first, and then after imitating the posture and change of the old tree, the technical rules of expressing this posture and change are constantly summed up. Through the creation and perfection of bonsai artists of previous dynasties, it is finally summarized into 10 kinds of body methods, 3 styles and 5 types. Chen Sifu, a master of bonsai art, wrote in his monograph, "the skills of Bonsai Pilots": "in terms of regular flat-style piles, the trunk of Chengdu and western Sichuan is bent and tilted downward. It is modelled on the low and old state of the pines and cypresses that have long been suppressed by snow in the high and cold places of Eshan. After the snow melts, the treetops stand upright and the branches turn to their hands or tilt slightly. Therefore, in the regular type of pile head, the branch plate is gradually inclined to the end of the plate, or the base of the plate is tilted down, and the plate is slightly inclined and flat. " This shows that the category of regularity comes from life. But it is higher than life, it is the artistic generalization and artistic processing of nature, and then, like the "rhythmization" of classical poetry, it focuses on showing the basic principles of traditional aesthetics: symmetry beauty, balance beauty, rhythm beauty, and seeking change in unification. there is unity in the change, lively and orderly, dignified and smart. "it gets rid of the blind control of bonsai art by natural phenomena, and controls its reflection object with sober rationality and abundant emotion. On the one hand, it reproduces nature, on the other hand, it actively shows man's aesthetic ideal of nature. In the artistic form, it takes the rigorous rhythm as the basic structural principle, and it is the 'metrical poem' in the bonsai. " (Tang Chunlai: "Exploration of the Beauty of regular Tree stumps", Chengdu Bonsai Research).

It is precisely because the regular category has a high aesthetic value, so the natural category gradually "desalinated", retaining only a very small number of overhanging rock style, and now the well-preserved "old age" tree stump bonsai is the most persuasive witness. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, a flower party was held at the Chengdu Qingyang Palace on February 15 of the lunar calendar (which has continued to this day). Florists and bonsai artists from all over the country sent all kinds of tree stumps and bonsai made by themselves to the flower show for exhibition. at this time, the stump bonsai has completely adopted the modeling technique of "three types and five types". So far, no matter what the form is, the stumps in Sichuan have basically not gone beyond the techniques and modeling rules that were formed and widely used in this period. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, there were more than 60 famous artists in Chengdu and various counties, the most famous of which were Dou Yupeng, Chen Hongshun, Zhang Binru, Chen Yushan, Dai Kaidi and Dai Chongguang. Gong Yinru, Li Hongtai, Ji Chengjiu, etc. In the 1940s, the bonsai of natural tree stakes rose again, but its flat binding technique was roughly the same as that of regular ones. Except for the overhanging rock type, the shape of some natural pile heads was almost an accidental "opportunity". Chen Sifu's father, Chen Yushan, often used tree blanks with incomplete branches, which were not suitable for making regular bonsai, and processed them into natural ones. After that, Li Zhongyu, Qiu Kaichun and Wang Mingwen developed natural types, which gradually became one of the two main types of Sichuan style bonsai.

Although the Sichuan style landscape bonsai has been seen as far back as the two Song dynasties, especially in the rock sculptures of Yuanjue Cave in Anyue County and Dafo Bay in Dazu County, the Shanwan bonsai supported by flying apsaras and descendants are very similar to today's shallow landscape bonsai. However, because of the Ming and Qing bonsai tilted to tree stumps, it was not until nearly a thousand years later in the forties and fifties that a group of gardeners and painters. Bonsai "players" cooperate closely to make it mature.

Generally speaking, the artistic style of Sichuan bonsai: the stump is characterized by simplicity and preciseness, Qiu qu and colorful, while the landscape bonsai wins with majestic momentum, high, hanging and steep. It is deep, which typically shows the natural style of Bashan Shushui.

Due to the unique natural conditions, Sichuan school tree stump bonsai generally choose golden marbles, June snow, Luohansong, ginkgo, crape myrtle, pedicel begonia, plum blossom, fire thorn, camellia, social cuckoo, etc.; landscape bonsai use sand sheet stone, stalactite, mica stone, sand stone, tortoise stone, and newly developed varieties as stone materials.

Chinese Bonsai School-- Sichuan style Bonsai

Sichuan was called Bashu in ancient times. Jiannan Road was set up in the first year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty (AD 627), so in the past, Sichuan bonsai was called "Jiannan bonsai". After Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the state governance was changed to Yizhou, that is, Chengdu today, whose jurisdiction was not only limited to Sichuan, but also included some areas of Yunnan and Guizhou. The unique Bashan Shu River has given birth to a unique Ba-Shu culture after a long historical process. According to the records of Benji of the King of Shu and the Chronicles of the State of Huayang, "from enlightened to silkworm bushes accumulated at 34000 years old,"the kingdom of Shu was born in the emperor." If these records focus on legends, then Sanxingdui in Guanghan is enough to prove the long history of Ba-Shu culture. As early as the late Neolithic Age to the early Western Zhou Dynasty (about 4500 to 2900 years ago), the bronze objects cast in Sichuan, such as bronze statues, have never been seen in other sites, and their physical characteristics and costumes are also different from those of the Chinese nationality. The shape of other artifacts is also not seen in the Central Plains. Although some artifacts are similar to the Central Plains, but in terms of their overall characteristics, they are different from the Central Plains culture and other cultures, and have distinct local characteristics. An independent cultural system has been initially formed. The development of bonsai art of Sichuan School has experienced a process from simplicity to complexity, and then from complexity to simplicity. The former "Jane" is simple, and the latter "Jane" is concise. Like other bonsai schools, according to the modeling principle of "Tree posture near painting", there are natural types at first, and then after imitating the posture and change of the old tree, the technical rules of expressing this posture and change are constantly summed up. Through the creation and perfection of bonsai artists of previous dynasties, it is finally summarized into 10 kinds of body methods, 3 styles and 5 types. Chen Sifu, a master of bonsai art, wrote in his monograph, "the skills of Bonsai Pilots": "in terms of regular flat-style piles, the trunk of Chengdu and western Sichuan is bent and tilted downward. It is modelled on the low and old state of the pines and cypresses that have long been suppressed by snow in the high and cold places of Eshan. After the snow melts, the treetops stand upright and the branches turn to their hands or tilt slightly. Therefore, in the regular type of pile head, the branch plate is gradually inclined to the end of the plate, or the base of the plate is tilted down, and the plate is slightly inclined and flat. " This shows that the category of regularity comes from life. But it is higher than life, it is the artistic generalization and artistic processing of nature, and then, like the "rhythmization" of classical poetry, it focuses on showing the basic principles of traditional aesthetics: symmetry beauty, balance beauty, rhythm beauty, and seeking change in unification. there is unity in the change, lively and orderly, dignified and smart. "it gets rid of the blind control of bonsai art by natural phenomena, and controls its reflection object with sober rationality and abundant emotion. On the one hand, it reproduces nature, on the other hand, it actively shows man's aesthetic ideal of nature. In the artistic form, it takes the rigorous rhythm as the basic structural principle, and it is the 'metrical poem' in the bonsai. " (Tang Chunlai: "Exploration of the Beauty of regular Tree stumps", Chengdu Bonsai Research). It is precisely because the regular category has a high aesthetic value, so the natural category gradually "desalinated", retaining only a very small number of overhanging rock style, and now the well-preserved "old age" tree stump bonsai is the most persuasive witness. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, a flower party was held at the Chengdu Qingyang Palace on February 15 of the lunar calendar (which has continued to this day). Florists and bonsai artists from all over the country sent all kinds of tree stumps and bonsai made by themselves to the flower show for exhibition. at this time, the stump bonsai has completely adopted the modeling technique of "three types and five types". So far, no matter what the form is, the stumps in Sichuan have basically not gone beyond the techniques and modeling rules that were formed and widely used in this period. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, there were more than 60 famous artists in Chengdu and various counties, the most famous of which were Dou Yupeng, Chen Hongshun, Zhang Binru, Chen Yushan, Dai Kaidi and Dai Chongguang. Gong Yinru, Li Hongtai, Ji Chengjiu, etc. In the 1940s, the bonsai of natural tree stakes rose again, but its flat binding technique was roughly the same as that of regular ones. Except for the overhanging rock type, the shape of some natural pile heads was almost an accidental "opportunity". Chen Sifu's father, Chen Yushan, often used tree blanks with incomplete branches, which were not suitable for making regular bonsai, and processed them into natural ones. After that, Li Zhongyu, Qiu Kaichun and Wang Mingwen developed natural types, which gradually became one of the two main types of Sichuan style bonsai. Although the Sichuan style landscape bonsai has been seen as far back as the two Song dynasties, especially in the rock sculptures of Yuanjue Cave in Anyue County and Dafo Bay in Dazu County, the Shanwan bonsai supported by flying apsaras and descendants are very similar to today's shallow landscape bonsai. However, because of the Ming and Qing bonsai tilted to tree stumps, it was not until nearly a thousand years later in the forties and fifties that a group of gardeners and painters. Bonsai "players" cooperate closely to make it mature. Generally speaking, the artistic style of Sichuan bonsai: the stump is characterized by simplicity and preciseness, Qiu qu and colorful, while the landscape bonsai wins with majestic momentum, high, hanging and steep. It is deep, which typically shows the natural style of Bashan Shushui.

Sichuan School, the Chinese bonsai school, was called Bashu in ancient times. Jiannan Road was set up in the first year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty (AD 627), so in the past, Sichuan bonsai was called "Jiannan bonsai". After Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the state governance was changed to Yizhou, that is, Chengdu today, whose jurisdiction was not only limited to Sichuan, but also included some areas of Yunnan and Guizhou.

The unique Bashan Shu River has given birth to a unique Ba-Shu culture after a long historical process. According to the records of Benji of the King of Shu and the Chronicles of the State of Huayang, "from enlightened to silkworm bushes accumulated at 34000 years old,"the kingdom of Shu was born in the emperor." If these records focus on legends, then Sanxingdui in Guanghan is enough to prove the long history of Ba-Shu culture. As early as the late Neolithic Age to the early Western Zhou Dynasty (about 4500 to 2900 years ago), the bronze objects cast in Sichuan, such as bronze statues, have never been seen in other sites, and their physical characteristics and costumes are also different from those of the Chinese nationality. The shape of other artifacts is also not seen in the Central Plains. Although some artifacts are similar to the Central Plains, but in terms of their overall characteristics, they are different from the Central Plains culture and other cultures, and have distinct local characteristics. An independent cultural system has been initially formed.

The development of bonsai art of Sichuan School has experienced a process from simplicity to complexity, and then from complexity to simplicity. The former "Jane" is simple, and the latter "Jane" is concise. Like other bonsai schools, according to the modeling principle of "Tree posture near painting", there are natural types at first, and then after imitating the posture and change of the old tree, the technical rules of expressing this posture and change are constantly summed up. Through the creation and perfection of bonsai artists of previous dynasties, it is finally summarized into 10 kinds of body methods, 3 styles and 5 types. Chen Sifu, a master of bonsai art, wrote in his monograph, "the skills of Bonsai Pilots": "in terms of regular flat-style piles, the trunk of Chengdu and western Sichuan is bent and tilted downward. It is modelled on the low and old state of the pines and cypresses that have long been suppressed by snow in the high and cold places of Eshan. After the snow melts, the treetops stand upright and the branches turn to their hands or tilt slightly. Therefore, in the regular type of pile head, the branch plate is gradually inclined to the end of the plate, or the base of the plate is tilted down, and the plate is slightly inclined and flat. " This shows that the category of regularity comes from life. But it is higher than life, it is the artistic generalization and artistic processing of nature, and then, like the "rhythmization" of classical poetry, it focuses on showing the basic principles of traditional aesthetics: symmetry beauty, balance beauty, rhythm beauty, and seeking change in unification. there is unity in the change, lively and orderly, dignified and smart. "it gets rid of the blind control of bonsai art by natural phenomena, and controls its reflection object with sober rationality and abundant emotion. On the one hand, it reproduces nature, on the other hand, it actively shows man's aesthetic ideal of nature. In the artistic form, it takes the rigorous rhythm as the basic structural principle, and it is the 'metrical poem' in the bonsai. " (Tang Chunlai: "Exploration of the Beauty of regular Tree stumps", Chengdu Bonsai Research).

It is precisely because the regular category has a high aesthetic value, so the natural category gradually "desalinated", retaining only a very small number of overhanging rock style, and now the well-preserved "old age" tree stump bonsai is the most persuasive witness. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, a flower party was held at the Chengdu Qingyang Palace on February 15 of the lunar calendar (which has continued to this day). Florists and bonsai artists from all over the country sent all kinds of tree stumps and bonsai made by themselves to the flower show for exhibition. at this time, the stump bonsai has completely adopted the modeling technique of "three types and five types". So far, no matter what the form is, the stumps in Sichuan have basically not gone beyond the techniques and modeling rules that were formed and widely used in this period. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, there were more than 60 famous artists in Chengdu and various counties, the most famous of which were Dou Yupeng, Chen Hongshun, Zhang Binru, Chen Yushan, Dai Kaidi and Dai Chongguang. Gong Yinru, Li Hongtai, Ji Chengjiu, etc. In the 1940s, the bonsai of natural tree stakes rose again, but its flat binding technique was roughly the same as that of regular ones. Except for the overhanging rock type, the shape of some natural pile heads was almost an accidental "opportunity". Chen Sifu's father, Chen Yushan, often used tree blanks with incomplete branches, which were not suitable for making regular bonsai, and processed them into natural ones. After that, Li Zhongyu, Qiu Kaichun and Wang Mingwen developed natural types, which gradually became one of the two main types of Sichuan style bonsai.

Although the Sichuan style landscape bonsai has been seen as far back as the two Song dynasties, especially in the rock sculptures of Yuanjue Cave in Anyue County and Dafo Bay in Dazu County, the Shanwan bonsai supported by flying apsaras and descendants are very similar to today's shallow landscape bonsai. However, because of the Ming and Qing bonsai tilted to tree stumps, it was not until nearly a thousand years later in the forties and fifties that a group of gardeners and painters. Bonsai "players" cooperate closely to make it mature.

Generally speaking, the artistic style of Sichuan bonsai: the stump is characterized by simplicity and preciseness, Qiu qu and colorful, while the landscape bonsai wins with majestic momentum, high, hanging and steep. It is deep, which typically shows the natural style of Bashan Shushui.

Due to the unique natural conditions, Sichuan school tree stump bonsai generally choose golden marbles, June snow, Luohansong, ginkgo, crape myrtle, pedicel begonia, plum blossom, fire thorn, camellia, social cuckoo, etc.; landscape bonsai use sand sheet stone, stalactite, mica stone, sand stone, tortoise stone, and newly developed varieties as stone materials.