What Is a Rock-Clinging Bonsai? An Article to Introduce You to Rock-Clinging Bonsai

Rock-clinging bonsai, also called rock bonsai, is a bonsai form that ingeniously combines trees and rocks into one. In some, the tree is large and the rock small, with the focus on viewing the tree, which places them in the category of tree bonsai; in others, the rock is large and the tree small, with rock appreciation as the focus, which places them in the category of landscape bonsai. Rock-clinging bonsai reflects the natural appearance of trees growing on stone; it is an exaggeration and a close-up of the image of trees stubbornly growing in cliff crevices or on mountain peaks and rocky summits, rich in content and profound in artistic conception. At the same time, it can also make up for some natural defects of tree bonsai (for example, bonsai material with a trunk that is too tall), and it is also a form deeply loved by bonsai enthusiasts. Rock-clinging bonsai has graceful shapes, ingenious designs and diverse forms, is simple to make and easy to master, and has a short cultivation cycle, making it very popular with the public.

The characteristic of rock-clinging bonsai is that it takes a corner of the natural world, is not bound by proportion, and allows a certain degree of exaggeration. For example, the proportion of tree to rock in landscape bonsai should be a zhang of mountain to a chi of tree, with the tree smaller than the mountain, but as a rock-clinging bonsai that takes a corner of a mountain crag, it need not be limited by this. In landscape bonsai, in order to achieve the effect of seeing the large in the small, trees generally cannot be planted on the mountaintop, whereas in rock-clinging bonsai, sometimes in order to heighten the charm of a certain part, the tree can absolutely be placed above the mountaintop, with the rock instead in a secondary position

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