"Autumn Wind Silhouette" (Luo Shi) Xu Hao
"Passionate Years" (Cuckoo) Shen Jianping
"Han Xiang" (Wax Plum) Xu Hao
"Sitting and Forgetting" (Tianmu Song) Xu Hao
"Lonely Mountain Crane Cain" (Green Calyx Plum) Xu Hao
"Spring Wind on the Cliff" (Little Begonia) Xu Hao
"Cold Autumn Leaves Rare" (Mountain Maple) Xu Hao
Editor's Note
The Spring Festival is coming, and bonsai art from all over the world is competing for glory. Orange trees that symbolize auspicious fortune, persimmon trees that symbolize good fortune, pines that pray for longevity and health, white plums that represent freshness... Bonsai art carries people's joy at the beautiful natural landscapes, flowers and trees from the depths of their hearts. In the Chinese cultural tradition, the love of the public and the participation of the literati have gradually sublimated the original bonsai into bonsai, and promoted the improvement and development of bonsai art, making it a carrier of humanities, just like poetry, books, paintings, music and other art disciplines, which have been passed down for a long time.
Zhuang Zi said: "There is great beauty in heaven and earth without words." "When people are moved by the wordless beauty of nature, they will have the idea of using art to record these natural beauty and express their inner emotions. Bonsai artists use stump stone as material to reproduce the beauty of nature by "shrinking the dragon into inches". Bonsai art will be the natural beautiful landscape, ancient trees and famous trees condensed in the vicinity of the pots, hidden in the grip of the sky, so that people can appreciate the beauty of natural landscapes without leaving home, compared to other arts, it reveals the natural life breath and the beauty of the connotation of the artistic conception, enough to make people fascinated, to meet the aesthetic needs of human beings.
"Day and nature affinity"
The pursuit of harmony between man and nature has always been an important theme of Chinese culture. "The sun and nature are intimate" and "the spirit of heaven and earth alone" has become a way of life beyond the world, and it is also the supreme realm pursued by bonsai art. Some works in Chinese bonsai art that express one's own heart and thoughts and emotions are the embodiment of the cultural ideas of "the unity of heaven and man" and "the embodiment of things and me".
Shanshui thought contains elements of Taoist reclusive thought. Historically, Chinese scholars and doctors have regarded the quiet mountains and simple fields as an ideal place to live. A ming dynasty scholar named "Idle Old Man" has a quotation about bonsai: "Ancient clouds, a thousand miles in size, the mystery of this painter, the present fist stone inch tree, there is a different hole in the sky, the shape of thousands of hills and ravines, I don't know if this can make people stay out of things?" This quotation also expresses the reflection of the idea of "shiyin" in bonsai art, which is often engraved on the pot by later generations.
As an art that condenses nature, bonsai can accommodate the world between the thousands and the world, and can also accommodate the world of people's hearts, so that people can get rid of mortal dust and achieve the purpose of "hidden city". In the cultural connotation of Chinese bonsai art, there are not only the elements of Confucianism focusing on morality and ethics and alleging to the scenery, but also the ideas of old zhuangxin and material travel, forgetting gains and losses, and at the same time, there is also the expression of the ethereal and silent Zen thought. Specific works are created with the contrast of prosperity and withering, dynamic and static, rigidity and softness, high and low, size, density, virtual reality, etc., as well as artistic techniques such as seeking unity in contradictions such as homeopathy and contrarian trend, fluency and stagnation, publicity and frustration. The works reflect the magnificence of life conquering nature and overcoming nature, as well as the beauty of gentleness and diversity, spring and autumn, smoke and rain in Jiangnan, and the ethereal beauty of qinggao and arrogance and seclusion.
"Poetic" means artistic conception
The artistic conception of bonsai works is what we often call "poetic painting". Poetic painting is not that we use the content of the poem to make a bonsai, or imitate the tree or the intention of the painting to make a bonsai, such a work even if it has an artistic conception, it is also a repetition of the content of other people's works, not subjective creation, because when you see such a bonsai work, you can read the old poem, you can draw or the old painting, there is no novelty, can only be counted as a learning process.
"Poetic painting" means that the bonsai work has a shocking external form, touching connotation and moving charm, and it can make people fascinated by the artistic conception reflected in the work, and can't help but sigh, chant, and dance, which is the real poetic meaning of bonsai works. The artistic conception is the soul of the bonsai work, and the work without the artistic conception is a soulless shell, which is only the pleasure brought by natural plants to the vision.
For example, my bonsai work "Thin Leaves in the Cold of Heaven", with a thin and straight tree trunk, a rhythm of lines that changes and a clear and sparse image, reflects a kind of qinggang inner temperament and the spirit of a lonely and arrogant literati. The frost-stained autumn leaves, one after another, fluttered and fell, landing on the ground with a sound. The fallen leaves lie quietly on the ground, blooming the last touch of life, this scene constitutes the quiet time and space of the wilderness, "the leaves are full of mountains, where to find the traces." This is the cultural language of the work, that is, the artistic conception of the work.
"The Creation of Foreign Teachers, the Source of the Heart"
"The creation of foreign teachers, the source of the heart in the middle" is a classic theory of artistic creation summarized by the Tang Dynasty painter Zhang Xuan, which is regarded by posterity as the only method of artistic creation. Chinese culture and art have always advocated nature, advocating "foreign teacher creation", that is, learning from nature. "There is great beauty in heaven and earth without words", all beautiful things originate from the creation of nature, which exists quietly in nature and teaches us without words. Therefore, to create art, we must first learn from nature, understand the laws of nature, and understand the rationality of things, so as to enrich our rational knowledge.
In the process of learning bonsai creation, the study of nature is particularly important, because different tree species have their own different essence and morphological characteristics, which have different shapes due to different regions, so when we learn bonsai production, we first take nature as a teacher, combined with inner perception, so that we have a thorough understanding and understanding of natural phenomena and inner essence.
Chinese bonsai art is not only an objective expression of "foreign teacher creation", but also pays more attention to the subjective expression of "the source of the heart in the middle". "Heart source" is the spiritual and emotional world in the depths of the heart, "Zhongde Heart Source" is to integrate the object image with the inner world of people, through the inner feelings and structure, to achieve "confident", transcendentally reflect people's feelings and meteorology, to achieve the realm of material and self-embodiment, this is the nature of the heart, is the subjective expression of natural beauty, such a work is to combine the beauty of nature with their own inner life into one, borrow material words, entrust things to send feelings, to achieve the realm of harmony between heaven and man, which is what we often call "from nature, higher than nature".
Bonsai is silent poetry, three-dimensional painting. This is actually the truth of art, any art is derived from the touch of natural beauty and benefits from the "creation of foreign teachers", and is connected with the national culture, so different art forms are both interconnected and can learn from each other. Reading a good poem, you can put the poetry into the bonsai work, taste a good painting, you can use the bonsai to express the meaning of the painting, and appreciate a pot of excellent bonsai works, you will be impressed by the image of the bonsai, and then be infected by the artistic conception and connotation conveyed by the work.
Good poetry is picturesque, good painting is poetic, and good bonsai is picturesque.
(Author: Xu Hao, Executive Vice President of China Bonsai Artists Association)
Source: Guangming Daily