Bonsai originated in China. Among the world's art forests, it is one of the exquisite oriental art products with natural taste, and it is also one of the unique traditional garden arts in China. Bonsai began in the Tang Dynasty and has a history of about 1300 years. There are two pots of plants on the mural of the tomb of Li Xian, Prince of Zhang Huai in Tang Dynasty unearthed in Shaanxi 1972, which is the earliest potted plant found so far. Bonsai originated in China, flourished in Japan and spread all over the world. According to the development and various signs of potted plants, it can be inferred and proved that potted plants existed before the Eastern Jin Dynasty in China. By the early Tang Dynasty, the development and progress had formed the potted art, which was brought back to China by the Japanese envoy in the Tang Dynasty. After being improved by Japanese fans, it is widely spread internationally and promoted all over the world. Although the origin of bonsai art in China was early, due to years of war in the Southern Song Dynasty, life was partially stable, bonsai accelerated its popularization and spread to the rich and leisure classes. It was not until the Yuan Dynasty that some sub-landscapes (that is, bonsai) evolved, and then after several peaceful periods in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, potted books came out one after another, presenting a grand occasion. Later, this noble art gradually declined and almost disappeared because of the difficult national transportation and frequent wars and conflicts. Even warlords and rich gentry in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China imported potted plants from Japan to enjoy them.
Ancient civilizations in China have always loved nature, and the essence of bonsai is the reappearance of natural features and spirit. Bonsai is the epitome of natural scenery, and it is a comprehensive plastic arts integrating gardening, literature, painting and other arts. Pot artists use creative skills and reasonable layout to cultivate trees, flowers or various rocks with certain artistic shapes with pots with different depths, lengths, widths, lines, sizes, colors and textures, thus forming an ideal three-dimensional picture imitating nature and surpassing the original state of Shan Ye. This plastic art is called bonsai. Bonsai is a traditional art treasure in China with a long history, which is deeply loved by people and enjoys a high reputation in the world. It is the crystallization of cultivation technology and plastic arts, and the combination of natural beauty and artistic beauty. It takes plants, rocks, water, soil, etc. as raw materials, and has been designed, molded, processed and carefully maintained by the gardener. People regard bonsai as "three-dimensional painting" and "silent poem" because it can show the infinite scenery of nature in a hurricane-level basin. With the change of time and season, it can also present different postures, colors and artistic conception. In a sense, bonsai is also a synthesis of aesthetics, literature and science. The production of bonsai should give people a beautiful appreciation, simple and beautiful, vivid and intriguing; The design of bonsai is poetic, high and low, ups and downs, reflecting a high literary talent; The main modeling material of bonsai is plants, which have the characteristics of life and the law of growth and development. This determines that it must master the scientific knowledge of horticulture and carry out long-term artistic processing and maintenance management. Only in this way can its survival and graceful posture be guaranteed. Bonsai, a science and art, requires high cultivation and processing techniques for plants. Use a small pot of Angkor, a pinch of soil and a big tree to make it grow hard. But what is even more rare is that it is an old pile for many years and can be skilled. Therefore, bonsai is really a "higher art" and a living "artistic sculpture".
2. Three elements of bonsai
Bonsai consists of three elements: landscape, basin and shelf. These three elements are interrelated, influential and indispensable. The so-called trinity of scenery, basin and several frames. In bonsai, "scenery" is the main part, and pots and pans are subordinate parts. That is, a good bonsai, landscape, basin, basin should be coordinated with each other, with clear priorities. Pay attention to avoid drawing the viewer's attention to the "pot" or "several shelves". The relationship between the pot rack and the scenery should be handled harmoniously and naturally in shape, volume and color. Maintaining the relationship between subject and object is often said: one scene, two pots and three sets (shelves).
3. Bonsai genre and category:
The five schools are Lingnan School, Sichuan School, Yang School, Su School and Shanghai School. Other schools: Huizhou, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangxi, Beijing, Hongkong, Taiwan Province and Lu Xin.
There are tree bonsai and landscape bonsai, which were formed as early as the Song Dynasty. With the continuous innovation of bonsai art and the increasing richness of bonsai materials, new categories of bonsai in China are gradually emerging. Now it can be divided into the following seven categories:
The first category, tree bonsai: taking trees as the main material and rocks, figures, birds and animals as the foil, through climbing, pruning, shaping and other technical treatments and horticultural cultivation, the wild giant trees or lush forest scenes are displayed in the basin, which is collectively called tree bonsai. Because the materials of tree bonsai are often excavated from Shan Ye, it is also called stump bonsai.
The second category, landscape bonsai: taking all kinds of rocks as the theme materials and taking the natural landscape as the model. After careful selection, cutting, carving and splicing, they are arranged in shallow pots, showing various landscape scenes such as cliffs, dangerous peaks and canyons, green hills and streams, which are collectively called landscape bonsai, also known as rock bonsai.
The third category, flood and drought bonsai: flood and drought bonsai is a landscape bonsai with plants, rocks, soil, water and accessories as the main materials. Through processing and layout, rocks are used to separate water and soil, and natural water, dry land, trees and rocks are expressed in a shallow basin.
The fourth category, flower bonsai: flower bonsai is called flower bonsai, which takes flowers or woody flowers as the main materials, and after some modification and processing, it is properly matched with rocks and accessories to show the beautiful scenery of flowers in the basin.
The fifth category, miniature bonsai: Generally, the height of tree bonsai is below 10 cm, and the length of landscape and flood bonsai pots is not more than 10 cm, which is called miniature bonsai.
The sixth category, hanging bonsai: hanging bonsai is an innovative form that combines ordinary bonsai with shell carving, hanging screen and other handicrafts. Wall-hung bonsai can be divided into two categories: one is called landscape wall-hung bonsai, which is dominated by rocks; There is also a kind of bonsai with flowers and trees as the main body, which is called bonsai with flowers and trees hanging on the wall.
The seventh category, special-shaped bonsai: special-shaped bonsai refers to a kind of interesting bonsai that plants are planted in special containers and carefully maintained and shaped.