The Departed Are Selfless - Rereading the Elm Bonsai "Thus Do Those Who Pass Away"
Recent photo of Huang Mingshan
Title: Thus Do Those Who Pass Away
Tree species: Elm
Specifications (cm): 70X60
Author: Huang Mingshan
Gold Award at the 3rd China Bonsai Academic Symposium and Fine Works Exhibition
"Those Who Pass Away" Are Selfless
- Rereading the Elm Bonsai "Thus Do Those Who Pass Away"
Original author | Ke Xiaoren
Sometimes, the more outstanding a work, the more ambiguous and multi-layered its implications, attracting people of different eras and different backgrounds to interpret it.
- Li Xin
(This is a photo of "Thus Do Those Who Pass Away" from 1996)
The encounter between the two words "presence" and "passing" could never be a silent scene of a life individual who shows no helplessness or hidden truth colliding with the "irrational yet wondrous" time and space -
Heaven and earth never sleep. It is a section of elm wood slowly decaying in time - the wood almost entirely depleted, the phloem stubbornly curling back, trembling with anxiety. Its scarred form truly makes the heart ache and tremble...
Time flies. Winter passes, spring arrives. The ceaseless nodes of life swell with the expression of spring, and the water at the roots (the remaining living main body of this elm wood - as shown in the image) runs again along the direction of life -
A crucial connection allows the curled-back phloem to "dreamily" reveal a glimmer of hope and how to carry a heart full of passion into the continuation of life.
Perhaps, "dream is the last time." Now, with vigorous vitality, the curled-back phloem endures the inner pain it cannot escape, exhausts its heart, silently loves this vast natural world, loves the verse "The Master said by the river," loves its own passion?? leaving behind an immortal "passage of time." After rebirth, though it harbours resentment, it remains even more "tight-lipped" about the secret of time's passage. As if wanting to hold something back within it?
Standing right before the elm bonsai "Thus Do Those Who Pass Away," I know that before me many bonsai friends had already paid attention to its vicissitudes; I also know that after me, more people will interpret just how much distance there is between time and life? But a question arises: what should I draw from it?
Alas! How many dreams of life have been shattered by the storms of time? Yet how many greatnesses of life have been reborn through the storms of time! Twenty-three years ago, under the title "Ode to Time and Life," I recorded its spiritual countenance; twenty-three years later this morning, I read its fate (destiny) - "Those Who Pass Away" are selfless (thus).
"Thus Do Those Who Pass Away" - is it not a joy!
Appreciation of Some of Huang Mingshan's Bonsai Works
Huang Mingshan's work "Emerging" (Chinese sweet plum, 40x60cm)
Highlights replay:
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Enjoyat any timethe bonsai exhibition hall
Promote bonsai culture, exchange bonsai techniques!
Appreciate bonsai art, share a happy life!