The Latest Current Situation of the Coexistence of Traditional Bonsai and Folk Art Bonsai
The author of "Record of the Plum Blossom Sanatorium" went so far as to call excessively styled plum trunks "sick plums," and removed their bindings, replanting them to grow anew. Although this was not the author's original intent, from one angle it also shows that what men of letters through the ages admired was the natural-style bonsai rich in cultural flavor and artistic atmosphere. The Ming and Qing dynasties were an era of highly developed bonsai in our country. Were not the bonsai specifically described in the major bonsai monographs of that time precisely the natural-style bonsai that we inherit today?
From this it can be seen that natural-style bonsai is the orthodoxy of Chinese bonsai art and the tradition of Chinese bonsai art. Our bonsai art creation today inherits this fine tradition, and only thus has the development of Chinese bonsai art achieved unprecedented success.
By the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China period, folk bonsai arose in our country, such as the various patterned or so-called formal-style bonsai of Nantong, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Huizhou, Sichuan and other places. This type of bonsai truly belongs to folk art, and it possesses all the characteristics of folk art.
Yet for nearly half a century, we have held a mistaken understanding of this, believing that this was the tradition of Chinese bonsai art. So we loudly called for inheriting tradition, when in essence we were taking the elegant traditional literati bonsai art and inheriting instead the tradition of folk art. This is a great mistake. On this, the historical facts of bonsai in our country are clearly distinguished.
Our country's bonsai works, like painting and poetry, belong to culture and art, so bonsai works can be deeply integrated into Chinese painting, poetry and literary works, whereas patterned bonsai cannot reach this realm. But how then do we explain the state of bonsai in that period? I think it may be because at that time Chinese bonsai produced men of culture, and developed simultaneously on two different levels and along two different lines.
This article is excerpted from the first draft of "Zhejiang Bonsai," intended to offer a modest spur to induce others to come forward with valuable contributions, to clarify the source and rectify the course. Discussion and advice are welcome.