The story behind the Nanshan Lu bonsai "Suddenly Looking Back"

Flowing Water

 Guqin Collection

Chen Xicheng 

00:00/07:08

Leisurely Reading the Annals of Spring and Autumn at Nanshan Lu

The Story of "Suddenly Looking Back"

Photos and text | @Nanshan Lu

First published on @Nanshan Lu's Meipian

Copyright owned by @Nanshan Lu

Nanshan Lu's banyan tree work "Suddenly Looking Back"

This banyan bonsai work is named "Suddenly Looking Back," taken from the meaning of the ci poem "Qing Yu An: Yuan Xi" by the Southern Song dynasty poet Xin Qiji. The famous ci critic Wang Guowei believed that "throughout history, those who have achieved great undertakings or great learning must pass through three realms: 'Last night the west wind withered the green trees. Alone I climbed the high tower, gazing to the ends of the earth.' (Yan Shu, 'Die Lian Hua') This is the first realm. 'My belt grows looser and looser, yet I do not regret it; for her I grow haggard.' (Liu Yong, 'Feng Qi Wu') This is the second realm. 'In the crowd I seek her a thousand times; suddenly I turn my head, and there she is, in the dimming light.' (Xin Qiji, 'Qing Yu An ---- Yuan Xi') This is the third realm." So it is fair to say that "suddenly looking back" belongs to the third realm of life.

In late July 2016, in order to take part in the "2016 Diancheng Qingyuan Bay Bonsai Invitational Exhibition," I once again pruned "Suddenly Looking Back." After pruning, I admired it closely: the main branch of the turn-back had become even more vigorous and powerful, and truly had a bit of the flavor of suddenly looking back, which sent me, in a kind of dazed absorption, unconsciously reminiscing about my own bonsai career.

Counting on my fingers, it has been nearly twenty years since I first formed a bond with bonsai. In fact, that bond really came about because of this banyan tree. One spring day nineteen years ago, I was watching my colleague Old Xu prune a bonsai. I saw Old Xu cut off a thick branch that looked like a big lobster, quite pleasing to the eye, so I picked it up and played with it in my hand. Old Xu saw this and said, this is a banyan branch, it can survive by cuttings; if you like it, take it home and try, see if you can grow it. Out of curiosity, I really did take this "big lobster" home to "plant as a cutting." I cultivated the soil, watered it, and two weeks later, the "big lobster" really did sprout, which made me incredibly excited. This "big lobster" was the raw material for this pot of "Suddenly Looking Back." Not long after, I bought a motorcycle and followed Old Xu and the others up the mountains to dig up tree stumps, and gradually I became obsessed with bonsai; this obsession has lasted nineteen years.

Over these nineteen years, I have climbed high mountains, crossed dense forests, and traveled almost everywhere in the poor and remote villages nearby. When I dug up a satisfactory stump, I could be happy for several days; when I watched a stump I liked gradually wither, I was so sad I could not eat. In the beginning, I took keeping a stump alive as the greatest success, and I often reveled in green leaves and new buds. Later on, as I gradually became able to express poetic feeling and artistic conception through stumps, bonsai became an indispensable and important element of my life. Whenever the weekend or a holiday came, nothing made me happier than taking a pair of scissors and pruning my bonsai; watching the tree gradually take shape under my scissors, that sense of satisfaction was beyond words. Whenever the night grew quiet, I always loved to hold a cup of clear tea and a flashlight, looking at this pot and peering at that pot, and my thoughts and soul would slowly return to nature amid the sound of insects.

In the blink of an eye, nineteen years have already passed. "Suddenly Looking Back" has grown from a banyan branch like a "big lobster" into a large bonsai, and I too have gone from a hot-blooded young man to the age of forty. Now, suddenly looking back, although I feel my sleeves are still empty, seeing the eyes full of green before this courtyard and the poetic feeling and artistic conception among these branches and leaves, I feel quite content in my heart.

One day in late July 2016, while pruning "Suddenly Looking Back," after pruning for more than half an hour I discovered there was a wasp nest in the tree cluster. Fortunately I found it in time, otherwise the consequences would have been unimaginable.

This is the wasp nest

This is how it looked after pruning; the sense of vicissitude in this main turn-back branch is even stronger.

"Suddenly Looking Back" in the dusk

[Bonsai Practitioner's Reflections]

Text | Xiamen, Fujian @Zhou Yingzhi

Appreciate yourself, believe in yourself, affirm yourself, encourage yourself, and in this way you will discover that your life will radiate new vitality. Let every day of your life be a completely new you, a you who dares to take on challenges, a you whose life soars. Every person is different from all others, with their own unique beauty. Life is originally this beautiful, the sky is originally this clear; what needs to change is not the environment around us, but only our state of mind.

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