Chinese Penjing and Penzai - Japanese Bonsai

Penjing or “potted scenery” is the Chinese art of dwarfing trees and creating miniature landscapes in containers. Penzai is the Chinese word for “plant in a pot” but is better known to Westerners as the Japanese word “Bonsai”. When the practice of penjing and bonsai began is unclear although the earliest reference is a Tang Dynasty tomb painting dating around 706 AD that shows round trays planted with miniature trees. Undoubtedly the craft dates much early than the tomb painting but there is no earlier evidence. The earliest form of Japanese bonsai is found on a 800 hundred year old Japanese scroll painting showing a dwarf tree in a ceramic container. The earliest known Chinese book on the subject of bonsai dates to 1170 AD and most Chinese gardening books contain sections about the art. Over the years many styles of penjing and bonsai have risen with trees ranging from inches tall to well over six feet in height. The appearance of bonsai is the most important and the plants may be trained to represent ancient trees on windswept mountains, or into shapes to represent concepts or to suggest objects or animals. In Japan the appearance of great age is very much desired - actual age is not as important in bonsai as apparent age. Many different kinds of plants are used for bonsai but pines tend to be the most popular due to their old age appearance and symbolic meaning of longevity.

Bonsai are normally classified according to size, attitude and number of trunks growing from a single root. Also, the number of trees in a group planting and the base of the plant. For size classification miniature bonsai are under 6 inches, small bonsai are from 6 to 12 inches, medium bonsai are from 13 to 24 inches, and large bonsai are over 24 inches. For the shape and attitude of a trunk, most bonsai fall into five main classifications: formal upright, informal upright, slanting, semicascading, and cascading.