Reflections on Su Ren-style penjing: A small garden keeps the shadow of Su Ren

A small garden keeps the shadow of "Su Ren"

- Reflections on "Su Ren style" penjing

Original author | Ke Xiaoren

"Man follows the earth, earth follows heaven, heaven follows the Dao, and the Dao follows nature." - Dao De Jing

Ke Xiaoren - article illustration Su Ren style 1

What year is it now, and what year was it then? How long has it (a single star jasmine) stood here? I need not ask. I only know that tonight's sky is clear and far away. A gust of wind, a few bird calls, following the warm current in the air, bathe over it, along with delicate gazes and smiling stars?? In an instant, I see it twisting its soft and well-proportioned "figure," then lightly tugging at its graceful "attire," and then politely inviting the passing sounds of nature to linger, immersed in the spring mood of tacit understanding and blending, breathing out the old and taking in the new, silently full of feeling.

The sun rises, and all is blank. The ground attracts quietness. Melancholy light and the same mandarin orange tree stand, gaze, and fall silent?? pitying each other.

Wispy clouds move. I hear that flowers are blooming along the field paths, and someone has returned again?? quickening this mandarin orange tree's "heart and liver afire" - "announcing spring" is like a mission, no hesitation allowed, it is none other than its own. So it takes in the earth's energy, spreads its arms and lifts its head, then quickly bows, and stirs its intentions before the spring breeze: "One-sidedly raising a bosom full of tenderness onto the branches."

In the distance, green mountains are like dark eyebrows, their forms and colors secret.

There is no wind. A mandarin orange tree can only sway that one "arm" of its own, waiting for "the osmanthus tree to bloom"?? Its bent trunk is the shape of hunger from those years, and now it is better. So it wants to "follow the mottled moonlight and move toward a kind of longing" - or perhaps in a dream: fish swim into stone, and fragments of pottery jars become civilization and history?? It uses the imagination awakened from its "story" to search for one distant dream after another?

The gray night is the wing of a dream - it dreams of a gray wolf running over from the vast desert, burning with anxiety, "burying its dark head and deep gaze" into ten thousand hectares of blue waves?? A group of wandering souls unexpectedly choose the former meadows, lakes, and mountain ridges, yet cannot see their own footprints, nor the many broken walls of their old home??

(Original author's note: The photos accompanying this article are selected from "Penjing World")

Snowflakes sweep across the mountain ridge. After "Start of Spring," not even a trace of "rain" is seen. Until "Spring Equinox," a spring rain comes with pleasure, letting the dull wilderness begin to ripple??

A row of "water pines": their branches are all joy, slanting across at different heights, opening one after another their broad-minded chests - breathing out fragrance and taking in green. At this moment, the tender needles receive the mint-like coolness of the rainy air, and directly "scan" the scene in the rain: the long-unseen duckweed breaks through the soil without the slightest discount and pokes out; three water ducks are under the tree, shaking their heads, talking endlessly, their quacking suppressing the patter; an otter turns its head and stands gazing for a long time?? And there are bursts of swallow calls on the utility pole guy wires - these are quite in keeping with the frank and generous spirit of the fine spring rain that "uses every means."

(This article is an original submission by Ke Xiaoren)

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