Sichuan style bonsai making techniques

Sichuan bonsai is one of the five major schools of traditional Chinese bonsai, which is deeply rooted in the magnificent and beautiful Bashan Shushui. Bonsai production skills represented by Chengdu area are the foundation and core of Sichuan bonsai production skills. Bonsai artists in the middle of Shu are dedicated to enlightenment, careful observation and production skills, so they have formed a unique Sichuan style bonsai modeling rhythm and techniques, which are different from other schools with distinct techniques and artistic features.

Sichuan bonsai, also known as Jiannan bonsai, originated in Shouan Town, Wenjiang District, Chengdu City. It is an excellent traditional art of the Han nationality and a treasure of garden art. It is a bonsai art school named after Sichuan Province, and it is also one of the five major schools of bonsai in China. Among them, it is divided into two local styles of western Sichuan and eastern Sichuan, which is famous for its simplicity and preciseness and Qiu qu. West Sichuan with Chengdu as the center includes Wenjiang, Pixian, Guanxian, Chongqing, Xindu, Shifang and other counties. Eastern Sichuan takes Chongqing as the center, including the counties around Chongqing.

Sichuan style bonsai has a long history, profound cultural heritage, exquisite craftsmanship and strong local characteristics. As early as the period of Shuhan, Lord Liu Zen built an Le Palace in Chengdu, recommended planting trees in the palace, and reproduced the Qifeng dangerous cliff and ancient wood pine in his memory in the pot. Also made of stone, wood bowls of different length and depth, planted with low trees and equipped with rocks, in the palace is "eight" character decoration. Ministers and merchants have followed suit, and this form of landscaping has spread in Chengdu.

Sichuan style bonsai has developed into two forms: the present style and the natural style, with regular style as the main form. The regular style pays attention to the body method, that is, the modeling method of binding the trunk. The natural style is mostly set according to the shape of the stump itself, and there is no specific fixed way, including multi-trunk, single-trunk stump, supine stump, oblique floating stump, small, large cliff stump and so on.

The representative species of Sichuan bonsai include golden marble (bottle orchid), June snow, pedicel crabapple, weeping begonia, plum blossom, crape myrtle, Luohansong, ginkgo, Yanbai, etc., as well as tiger thorn, huangshu, bauhinia, camellia, sweet-scented osmanthus, etc., including Mianzhu, Qiongzhu, Phyllostachys pubescens, Guanyin bamboo, Qinsi bamboo and Buddha belly bamboo.

The shape of Sichuan style bonsai can be divided into two forms: regular style and natural style. Give priority to regular style, because it is the representative of Sichuan style bonsai art. The regular style pays attention to the "body method", and the so-called "body method" is the modeling method of the main body, which is the main feature of Sichuan bonsai art. Like Yang Pai's bonsai, it is cultivated from an early age with Panza skills, which shows the rigorous and Qixiong style of Sichuan Pai bonsai. In Sichuan style bonsai, different shapes have different "body methods". There are ten forms of regular trunk (body method).

The regular pile scene of Sichuan School is modeled according to its traditional banding technique, which has a certain rhythm and numerous names, too numerous to enumerate. Their trunk and side branches are bent in different angles and directions with brown silk from an early age, paying attention to the composition of three-dimensional space, which is more difficult. The forms of stem shape are roughly "rolling dragon holding column", "opposite turning", "square turning", "turning", "three bends and nine inverted turns", "big bending and hanging branches", "straight coronation", "turning turning", "old woman dressing", "comprehensive method" and so on. Flat branch methods are also different from flat branches, rolling branches, half-flat and half-rolling, different trunk shapes and a variety of flat branch methods, various forms, majestic and dignified tree shape. Some pile scenes, if the knight looks back, have the name of "looking at Jingzhou immediately".

1. Opposite crutches

Also known as straight crutches, the trunk bends back and forth, usually only one trunk, and the trunk turns back and forth. This kind of stump can see all the bends of the trunk of the stump from the front, gradually turn to the side, the bend gradually becomes smaller, turn to the front and side, do not see the bend of the trunk of the stump.

2. Rolling dragon pillar

Referred to as rolling dragon method, also known as spiral bending. The first and second turns are the same as turning, and the third turn spirals up.

3. Square crutches

Also known as "Chinese" crutches. The trunk bends back and forth, quite like a turning, but the curved bend is flat into a square shape on the missing side, similar to the "bow" posture. Starting from the base of the trunk, such as turning the shape to the top to count nine bends, sometimes divided into two and three times. Then from the side of the bend, from the base to the top of the trunk into three large bends, for the front. As the tree stump of the three-bend and nine-turn method moved from one side to the other, the landscape changed step by step and showed vitality.

4. Large curved drooping branches

Also known as the big turning strip method. Turn the trunk into a big bend, and after the bend, remove all the trunk on the top of the bend and all the branches on the whole bend, and sometimes leave a branch on the back of the bend, the back of the foot and the branch of the upper part of the foot, but when the branch falls, it must be able to cut into three or four plates, or at least three plates, otherwise, it will be cut off.

5. The method of turning and falling off

Also known as the method of amusing and falling off the body. The upper end of the trunk is sawed off, leaving only the base (30-60cm). After sending out robust new branches, a sturdy branch is selected as the trunk and the side branches are used as the forefoot plate.

Time: 2019-06-04 Click: