History of Bonsai

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The currently known bonsai are often designed in Japanese style, which emerged in the early 20th Century. However, bonsai art is much older and comes from the garden art of the Empire of China.

In the early Han Dynasty (206-220 AD) hey have modelled artificial landscapes with lakes, Bonsaiislands and unique rock formations in the Imperial Palace gardens. According to mythology the magician Jiang-Feng lived during this time. He had the ability to conjure up on a tray whole landscapes with rocks, water, trees, animals and human beings.

This was apparently the art of Penjing. In the Tang Dynasty (618-907) the oldest known representation of a Penjing is found, a miniature landscape of graceful trees and rocks, in the grave chambers of Prince Zhang Huai. This era was notable for art, poets and painters turned to the particular nature.

The Song Dynasty (960-1279) brought the culture of Penjing to first bloom. As popular now were gnarled trees, especially pine trees, which were drawn from tree roots. In parallel, the art of Suiseki gets by without trees and beautifully shaped stones placed on water-filled trays. Thus impressions of shorelines or dramatic rock formations are produced in the mountains. This contemporary book Yunlin Shipu counts 116 types of stone that can be used for design.
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In the Yuan Dynasty (1280-1368) Miniature Penjing were particularly popular, especially the principle “seeing the little ones while the big one” (He-Nian, a poet wrote a series of poems about the “tiny” monk Penjing Yun Shangren).

The quote was for centuries an important guiding principle. During this time a series of books has been written. The Chinese landscape painting was very popular at the time of Penjing-art and given new impetus.

They called them “the three-dimensional paintings”, “silent poetry” or “living sculptures”, mostly they were about two feet tall, so they could be placed on a tea table – then they were regarded as particularly precious. In the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) Bonsai penetrated gradually into the families. Suzhou was a competition held annually for the most beautiful trees in the country. It was found that different regions have developed different styles:

Lignan-style (Guangzhou)
Shanghai School
Suzhou School
Yangzhou School
Sichuan School