How About A Little Penjing

By Thomas J.

Most people that have been doing bonsai for a while, have probably read somewhere that bonsai actually got its start in China, and over the years, was made popular by the japanese and their use of artistic design principales to make some rather very impressive little trees.

The japanese used these design principales and more or less established rules when styling a bonsai tree. Today because of this, there is a big difference in what you see in chinese bonsai called Penjing, and what you see in japanese bonsai.

Many people who are dedicated to the japanese style, have a hard time accepting the art of penjing, mainly because they are set on the rules, and can't seem to accept the beauty of something that doesn't adhere itself to those same rules.

For me that has never been a problem. Since early on in my bonsai beginnings, even though I was introduced into the japanese style, my heart skipped a beat when I saw my first pictures of the chinese penjing. Today I practice the art of both types whenever possible.

In my opinion there are three basic ways to do penjing, the most common being the landscape type which is very popular. Usually three items are used in the landscape type, and they would be a tree or trees, a rock or a group of rocks, and either a figurine commonly referred to as a "mudman",
or a small animal type figurine. Sometimes even little village type huts are used with the display. Below are some of the items I just mentioned that could be used in a penjing landscape.

The second way would be to use just a tree and rock together. But not just any tree and rock. Somehow they would have to work together to make the display somewhat pleasing to the eye and have meaning in which one would somehow compliment the other, or help the other to some extent. In the picture below you can see what I mean. The leaning tree supported by the angle of the rock.

The third way would be a tree by itself. You will see the difference of penjing and bonsai mainly in the way each is styled. As I said earlier, the japanese use certain rules in their design, and many people think that because the chinese don't adhere to these same rules that they must not have any. To some extent that may be true, but not totally true, because if that were the case, what you are looking at would have nothing at all to stir your inner feelings when viewing it. This certainly is not the case with most penjing. In fact there are even schools in certain parts of china that teach penjing based on that part of the country. Schools where one would go to learn a specific style of penjing. Below are two pictures of one of my chinese elms that I began styling in the penjing style from early on, one in leaf, the other
without leaves. Chinese elms are used extensively in penjing and especially in the bare leaf look.

Below are two more examples of penjing using just a tree and a rock together. But again, notice how one compliments the other, or how they work together.

And here are two different trees by themselves, again one in the bare leaf look, but this time showing a windswept style.

If you decide to do a landscape penjing, most pots used for this should be somewhat shallow, so as to give the impression of a look of nature,and allowing more of the tree and other components to be visible, and not allow
the pot to compete with them. I had just such a pot lying in storage,that I thought would work well for a landscape penjing.

After choosing the components, I arranged them in what you see below, to make a very simple penjing.

Dallas Bonsai Gardens offers most of the components needed to make a landscape penjing, including the rocks, the village huts, and the mudman. If you decide to try and style a single tree instead, go to the web search and look up "Penjing" to get some really good ideas on how you might like to style one of your trees. I hope penjing will also be a part of your vocabulary just as bonsai is.