What are the creative characteristics of literati tree bonsai?

  Some time ago, regarding the creation of literati trees, I traveled to Yangzhou to visit Mr. Zhao Qingquan. In Mr. Zhao's rooftop garden, I witnessed the “Peach Blossom Spring paradise” that the master had kept hidden for many years. Mr. Zhao's literati tree bonsai "Interdependence," created with a double-trunk Chinese juniper, fully displays the noble, tranquil, fresh and refined integrity of the literati character, and the harmony of mutual dependence. Every branch and leaf, every plant and tree, demonstrates the master's ability to command landscape trees and his rigorous creative attitude. More than ten years of deliberate pursuit have become the naturalness of the great Dao that has no fixed form, fully interpreting the harmony between man and nature.

Zhao Qingquan's work "Interdependence"

  The literati tree is a special form of expression in literati bonsai. The trunk is lean, vigorous and archaic, the branch technique is concise and lively, and the style advocates elegance and archaic simplicity, emphasizing strength of character and spiritual charm, with a symbolism that conforms to the value standards of traditional Chinese literati.

  Form: Give form according to the object, give meaning according to the form. It is a natural delight obtained by chance without intention, a sudden enlightenment with not a single thought and not the slightest attachment, a “transformation and generation without fixed pattern” that discards form and expresses and reveals the literati's spiritual realm through form.

  Elegance: Graceful and free, unrestrained. Different from the ordinary.

  Leanness: Slim and spare. Thin trunk, few branches, light foliage. “Cut away all the redundant and keep only the lean and spare; every branch and every leaf is always full of feeling.”

  Flavor: That is, the literati flavor. It is the “scholarly spirit” of the literati's character, temperament and spiritual charm, and the spiritual connotation of sparse lightness, transcendence, emptiness and profundity.

  Height: Towering height, noble height, solitary height, withered height. In this type, the branches are generally distributed on the higher parts of the trunk.

  Simplicity: Concise and succinct. A few sparse branch pads, a scattering of a few leaves; one more branch is too many, one fewer branch is too few. It is an extremely minimal and vivid expression; any trunk can be simplified, even to the point of “zero,” concise to the point of almost abstraction.

  Refinement: Plain and elegant. Unadorned and unpretentious, clean and refined. Beautiful without falling into vulgarity, without affectation.

  Clumsiness: Raw clumsiness, archaic clumsiness, wild charm. It does not show off talent or give rein to temper; its value lies in restraint. It can be an incomplete or flawed form.

  Plainness: Simple and plain, quiet and solitary. Not confined by objects, plain and innocent, sparse and transcendent.

  White: Bold use of blank space, with few branches and leaves and much space. It leaves the viewer with more aesthetic associations. Its blank space is the blank space of “the affirmation of negation,” treating white as black; in fact it is for the sake of “more,” for “enough,” for “satisfaction.” It gives people an endless, profound and lingering “flavor,” with lasting resonance, like an overtone, like “silence at this moment is better than sound.”