1. WHAT IS PENJING?1. WHAT IS PENJING?Penjing is the Chinese art of creating a miniature landscape in a container.
The word consists of the two characters shown on the left: "pen"
- "pot" or "container", and "jing" - "scenery".
An artist may use plant material and natural stone to portray an idylllic
mountain retreat with a murmuring brook or a waterscape with a lush tropical
island. Or he or she may design a much simpler scene where one single tree
makes up the entire composition.
Penjing and bonsai are closely related art forms. Penjing is the older form from which bonsai derived. While the similarities by far outweigh the differences, there is a significant variance in scope: "Bonsai" literally means a "tree in a pot" and therefore as an art form, bonsai is more narrowly defined than penjing, a "landscape in a pot". Many of the beautiful, elaborate tray sceneries created by Chinese artists clearly defy the parameters of bonsai.
While penjing can be found in many variations, the Chinese themselves
recognize three distinct categories:
Penjing as an art form spans over a thousand years. Our earliest historical records of a stone and a plant arranged in a container to form an artistic scenery date from the Tang Dynasty (618-907). By the Song Dynasty (960-1279 ), the Chinese already practiced the art at an advanced artistic level. Paintings from that period depict pieces that would be prized among seasoned collectors today.
Penjing artists have drawn much of their inspiration not only from nature, but from nature poetry and landscape painting. Similar aesthetic considerations have guided all three art forms. With landscape painting attaining unprecedented heights during the Song Dynasty (960-1279), penjing, too, was poised for vigorous artistic development. By the early years of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the art had become very popular, and the first manuals appeared. With increasing popularity, however, more commercial, folkloristic, and regionally defined strands of penjing sprang up alongside the more sophisticated, artistic forms. In addition to aesthetically refined penjing, one could find trees whose trunks had been coiled to represent dragons or whose canopies were to depict cloud layers, or trees shaped to resemble the strokes of fortuitous characters. The variations were endless.
In the later years of the Qing Dynasty, the 19th century, foreign aggression
and domination led to a decline in penjing, and this development was exacerbated
during the years of foreign occupation and humiliation, war, civil war,
and cultural revolution that China experienced during much of this century.
Old collections were lost, artists struggled to survive and to pass on their
wisdom and insights. Only in the last twenty-plus years have the conditions
in China allowed for a renaissance of this ancient art form. Today, a quickly
growing number of enthusiasts and collectors have discovered their roots
in penjing.
It is assumed that the art of creating miniature trees reached Japan by the 13th century. Beginning in 600 A.D., Japan sent envoys to China to study her arts and architecture, her language and literature as well as her law and the forms of Buddhism evolving there, which were grafted on the original Indian teachings. During China's Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279 ) in particular, the Japanese imported Chinese culture and arts on a large scale. It was during that time that the Chinese form of Buddhism known as "Ch'an" was introduced to Japan and given the name "Zen" - the name by which it is known in the West today. This massive transmission of culture begun in the the 1200's would last for centuries as Japanese artists continued looking to their Chinese counterparts for guidance and inspiration.
3. AESTHETICSThe penjing artist's goal is not only to re-create a natural scenery in a container, but to capture its essence and spirit. To achieve this objective, a wide palette of artistic devices comes into play.
Like a Chinese landscape painting, a penjing is a study in contrasts. On a philosophical level, this presentation of opposites is evidence of the Chinese artist's conceptualization of the universe as being governed by two poles of cosmic energy, the yin and the yang. Artistically, the contrasts create rhythm and dramatic tension which then is resolved in a dynamic balance, a delicately tuned equilibrium.
The attainment of overall structural unity is critical, especially in
a more complex composition like a water-and-land penjing where design 
elements such as trees, rocks, mosses, small grasses, and water all
need to harmonize with each other and contribute to the design in a meaningful
fashion. Careful selection is critical. In addition to deciding on a container
and determining the tentative placement of the composition, the artist will
consider the tree species, number of trees to be used, their sizes, trunk
angles and the density of their foliage mass. He or she will choose rocks
for their size, color, shape, surface details, and compatibility with the
trees. In the end, each and every element in the design needs to relate
to all the others so that the entire landscape appears as an all-embracing,
encompassing entity.
Penjing artists do not seek to create perfection. As a matter of fact,
trees trained into highly stylized forms where every angle and every root
and branch placement has been meticulously calculated by a rigid formula
do not suit their tastes. Apart from being beautiful, an outstanding penjing
must look entirely natural. It should look as if Nature herself had spontaneously
created it - like a marvellous accident of Nature.
Bonsai and penjing may be viewed as objects of meditation. The act of creating bonsai or penjing by itself is a contemplative, meditative exercise - a practice of Zen. The little trees and miniature landscapes can be seen as a celebration of Nature and the healing powers extended by an intact natural environment. Creating and taking care of bonsai and penjing will draw you closer to Nature, enabling you to experience her in a more direct, intimate way.
For a more in-depth understanding of bonsai and penjing, the practice of creating miniature trees and landscapes should be viewed against the backdrop of two of China's great philosophical traditions, Daoism (Taoism) and Zen Buddhism. Daoism has exerted a profound influence over Far Eastern arts for over two thousand years. It's a way of thinking and living that can liberate mind and body. Daoism proposes the return to a state of original spontaneity by discarding the rules of rigid conventional behavior and thinking. It suggests that by learning to go with the flow and allowing our minds to function naturally, tremendous creative power can be unleashed. Tuning into the rhythm of Nature and understanding the interrelatedness of all things around us are key components of Daoist teachings.
Zen Buddhism - known as "Ch'an" in Chinese - evolved as a new strand of Buddhism with unique Chinese features after Indian monks introduced Mahayana Buddhism around 500 A.D. It came about when a form of Indian Buddhism was grafted upon the native Chinese Daoist tradition. Chinese-style sitting meditation ("zuo Ch'an", a concept called "za zen" in Japanese) does not seek to bring the mind under rigid control as does traditional Indian Buddhism, but instead seeks to liberate, encouraging the mind to flow without impediment and to follow its own, intrinsically good, nature. Ch'an, popularized in the West under its Japanese name, Zen, teaches that the receptive mind can find Enlightenment everywhere, at any time, in the form of "sudden awakening".
And so it is that a bonsai or penjing artist, working with natural materials and concentrating moment to moment, may come upon sudden insights, inspirations, and resolutions. This is the creative process. It finds the artist quietly absorbed in a state of active meditation. Arranging trees and placing rocks, he suddenly discovers something new, not pre-meditated - a composition that flows naturally and harmoniously, engendering great beauty and universal, eternal truths with seemingly little effort.
© Karin Albert