by George Buehler

Several years ago, I took a workshop on a Chinese elm penjing. When I left with my composition, I was pleased with the design. Unfortunately, as often occurs in bonsai, several of the trees in the composition died. Perhaps it was due to over watering, since I readily admit that I had difficulty in determining when and how much water the composition needed. Of course as we all know, any of a multitude of other reasons could have caused the problem. I tried to replace the trees that died, but the composition never looked the same to me. I couldn't explain it, it just didn't look correct. Perhaps the replacement trees were too big, or not correctly positioned. I just didn't know.

I started reading (studying) the book Making Bonsai Landscapes - The Art of Saikei1, and I realized that I didn't really know the differences (if any) between what the Chinese call penjing and the Japanese Saikei. Perhaps the reader, when finishing this treatise, will conclude I still don't. However, what caught my eye in the Gustafson book was "penjing relies heavily on shape, angle, drama, and exaggeration". When I compared the saikei pictures in his book with those of my penjing and other penjing pictures, I had to agree, the saikei was more formal - more Japanese.

To compare the two forms, I then went to the old bookshelf and pulled out the Quigquan Zhao Penjing: Worlds of Wonderment2. In this book, Zhao discusses the history of penjing, the different types, how to maintain the penjing, and the display stands used in penjing. He also shows a number of penjing compositions and how to put them together.

I decided to try my hand at creating another penjing. I had the suiban from the original penjing, lava rock from a local supplier that I thought I could use, and finally, I had a number of small Shimpaku and deciduous trees purchased from Hollander Tiny Trees. However, I needed to know how to put them together to create a pleasing composition.

In gathering all this information, I thought it might make an interesting article for this newsletter.

The history of bonsai that many of us believe came from Japan, actually started much earlier with the Chinese. Although not called bonsai in Chinese, the art form appears to have started in the early 600's. While the Japanese 'perfected' the dwarfing of trees, the Chinese concentrated more on perfecting the art form of constructing landscapes in a pot - called penjing. There does not appear to be a lot of differences between the two forms and while the Japanese bonsai artist develops what can technically be called penjing, it is called saikei.

If you look at the Chinese and Japanese characters for bonsai (the top calligraphy) and penjing (bottom) you can see that the first character in both sets is identical. In Japanese this is pronounced "bon", while in Chinese it is pronounced "pen". The second ideogram is where the difference becomes evident. "Sai" translates as plant or tree; whereas "jing" means scenery.

The bonsai ideal restricts the art form to growing trees, and imposes guidelines for presentation, growing, style, color and size of the container. The Japanese concept of bonsai requires the plants be more stylized than penjing. Penjing prefers the plants to be grown in a more 'natural' form and can encompass the use of rocks and various miniatures. The thing that distinguishes the Japanese art form from the Chinese is reported to be in its spirit or intent.

The Japanese practice two other art forms which embrace the techniques of bonsai but allow greater freedom in composition - Saikei (living landscape) and bonkei (tray landscape). That is to say, they employ the aesthetics of bonsai, but without the rigidity. Saikei creates a miniature landscape using live material, and animal, human, and architectural miniatures to complete its presentation, while bonkei uses living and non-living material with the miniatures for its presentation. Although there is less rigidity in saikei and bonkei compositions, many of the 'rules" of bonsai still apply (i.e. the way trees are styled, etc.).

So we have four art forms that are closely related and are sometimes difficult to distinguish. In this article, however, we are trying to concentrate on a discussion of penjing.

The Chinese distinguish between three kinds of penjing: shumu penjing (tree penjing), shanshui penjing (literally translated as mountain and water but is usually called landscape penjing) and shuihan penjing (water-and-land penjing).

Shumu penjing (tree penjing) is subdivided into six forms: straight trunk styles (what we would call formal upright in the bonsai world), Slanting trunk style (similar to the bonsai slanting), curved trunk style (similar to the bonsai informal upright), cliff hanging style (cascade types), vine type (no bonsai equivalent as far as I can tell), and forest style (almost the same in bonsai). It therefore appears that for the Shumu penjing, there is little difference between the Chinese form and the Japanese bonsai [I'm sure that scholars in these areas will take a large exception to that statement].

Shanshui penjing is subdivided into five styles: Single peak style, off center style, opening and closing style, canyon or gorge style, and vast mountain style. The composition is categorized as to how the land mass is styled.

Shuihan penjing is usually subdivided into four general categories: type of tree material used, quantity of trees used, size of the penjing and by the type of arrangement. We will give some more details below. A more authoritative explanations of the sub classes as well as some fabulous penjing pictures, are given in Penjing: Worlds of Wonderment by Qingquan Zhao

AESTHETICS

In developing a penjing, the goal of the artist is not only to re-create a natural scene in a container, but also to capture its essence and spirit. To achieve these goals, the artist can use trees, rocks, mosses, small grasses and water. Each needs to harmonize with the other and contribute to the design in a meaningful fashion. Therefore, each item used has to be carefully selected to ensure harmony between all facets of the design. The harmony can also take the form of opposites. For instance, the use of large and small aspects - as in using large rocks and small rocks or bright and subdued colors. These all add to the harmony in a penjing composition.

Both trees and rocks should show a balance of movement. If a tree leans toward the left and then bends upward, complimentary rocks should have a similar movement. Nothing is exact, and a penjing composition shouldn't have a contrived look. However, if you look at some of the classical penjing compositions, you will notice that the 'flow' of the trees, rocks and general design all follow a similar pattern.

Many penjing compositions have a balance between emptiness and substance. By that we mean that parts of the composition that has nothing showing - the perceived water - is balanced by an equal amount of substance (rock, soil, trees, etc.)

In addition to deciding on a container and determining the tentative placement of the composition, consideration of the tree species, number of trees to be used, their sizes, trunk angles and density of their foliage mass has to be evaluated. Each and every element in the design needs to relate to all the others so that the entire landscape appears a complete entity. Apart from being beautiful, an outstanding penjing must look entirely natural.

COMPONENTS

The container should be light colored and very shallow. The Japanese call them suiban, while the Chinese call them shuipen. They can be made of ceramic material or natural stone and normally have no drain holes. However, a regular very shallow bonsai pot with drainage holes may be used, but the drainage holes need to be covered by rocks or soil to prevent distraction. If a bonsai container is used, care must be exercised to ensure that a penjing is the result, not a saikei. The most prevalent penjing container shape is either rectangular or oval, with the rectangular shape denoting a more masculine or stronger appearance while the oval denotes a more delicate or feminine appearance. The length to width is typically 2:1 while a 1:1 ratio is used for a greater depth perspective. Penjing containers can be as much as five feet in length.

Any tree species used for bonsai can be used for a penjing composition. In bonsai, we typically use only one tree species. In a penjing composition, you will quite often see more than one type of tree. The determining factor is that they compliment each other - you wouldn't want to use an evergreen with a tropical. In choosing trees, the trees should have a variety of sizes and trunk calipers. One to two trees should be more mature and larger than the rest to serve as the dominant tree. If two trees are used as the parent trees, they should be placed in a fashion similar to how we place them in a bonsai setting (i.e. the largest closest to the front to exhibit depth).

Rocks are more difficult to use. They are not chosen for their beauty or uniqueness, they are chosen with an eye toward their ability to contribute to the penjing design. In the shanshui penjing (landscape penjing), the rock or rocks are the dominant feature and should be chosen for their overall ability to draw the viewers' eye to them. However, in a shuihan penjing (water-and-land penjing) both the tree(s) and rock(s) should compliment each other and either can be the dominant feature. In general, most penjing artists choose rocks that display an aged or weathered look. The rocks need to be flat on the bottom since they will be glued to the shuipen. This can be accomplished manually with a stone chisel, with a grinder equipped with a carborundum grinding wheel, or with a water cooled diamond blade cut off saw. Depending on the type of rock used and where they were obtained, several of the local decorative stone dealers will 'flatten' the stones for you at a minimal cost. When choosing the rocks, remember that some are heavier than others . If you don't select your rocks with care, you may find that you have a great penjing planting but can't move it due to the weight of the rocks.

Mosses, if used, should be of various types and placed together to show irregularities. Likewise, grasses should be small (dwarf types) and shouldn't distract from the overall composition. For smaller compositions, mosses can be used to represent grasses quite handily.

If miniatures are used, they need to be in proportion to the other components of the composition. They should not be garish or distracting from the overall composition - minimal is the rule here. The use of miniatures is entirely optional.

The components used in any penjing composition can vary depending on what the artist is trying to represent. The basic idea is that the entire composition needs to be complimented by the individual components.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

How the composition is designed is dependent on what the penjing artist is trying to convey. When researching this topic, I could not find any hard and fast rules for designing the penjing. The only rule I could find, if you want to call it a rule, was that the components of the composition must complement each other. We will list some generalities and construction details for the two types of penjing - land and water (shuihan), and landscape (shanshui).

LAND AND WATER PENJING

The land mass is generally enclosed by a rock boundary. There are several reasons for this. The first is that it is a separation distinction between the land and water. The second is that it holds the soil in and keeps it from washing away. Generally, the land and water area are about the same size, although this is not necessary. Types of rocks used should be natural looking. You wouldn't want to use a bunch of lava rocks if you were constructing a pastoral scene. However, if you were constructing a mountainous composition, the lava rocks could well fit in with the overall design concept.

Once the rocks to be used are flattened, they are affixed to the container with silicone cement. This type cement can be obtained at local home improvement or hardware stores. It is less visible than hydraulic cement and gives a more pleasing effect. A liberal coat of cement should be applied to the bottom of the rocks and the rocks placed in the desired position. This type of cement takes about 24 hours to fully set up, and, therefore, this step should be done in advance of completing the composition. Since the penjing container usually doesn't have drainage holes, the use of tree tie downs is recommended. The tree tie downs are secured to the container with either the silicone cement or, preferably, with hydraulic cement since it hardens within minutes and makes a stronger bond to the container.

The trees used are generally styled prior to construction of the penjing composition. Ideally, the trees have had their tap root removed during the previous growing season and a good fibrous root system has been developed. Unlike bonsai, the trees do not need to be placed 'slightly off center from the mid point lines', they can be placed anywhere on the composition depending on the desired effects and the perspective the artist desires. As previously stated, if mother trees are used, they can be placed anywhere on the composition, but perspective needs to be considered.

Normal bonsai soil is used within the rock land mass. Care in sizing the soil must be exercised, since the depth of the soil can be relatively shallow. Also, a careful screening of the soil should be done because all of the dust needs to be removed prior to use. Since there are no drain holes, there will be no way to wash the dust out. For penjing, muck is not normally used to hold the tree in. However, it may be necessary to use muck to hold a particular tree in a rock crevice.

LANDSCAPE PENJING

For this type of composition, generalities are really hard to list since the composition can represent almost anything. However, it appears that in this form there is always some sort of dividing line between the two sides of the composition. It doesn't necessarily have to be centered within the composition. This can take the form of a small 'perceived' stream, a path, or a valley. In one picture of a classical penjing I found on the net, one side of the composition was a rugged hilly area, while the other side was a more undulating forest area. The two 'sides' were divided by a small stream. It appears that almost any idea can be used.

Construction details are the same as presented in shuihan penjing. Rocks can be interspersed among the land mass at the artist's discretion and can be used to represent any type of outcropping or mountain precipus. Land mass height can be limitless, depending on the overall concept of the composition - it can be shallow going down to a small stream or high representing a mountain plateau. Water feature, although not necessary, should be in proportion to the general concept.

Trees used should follow the same principle as in the land and water penjing. Basic training should have been accomplished the prior growing season.

SUMMARY

As previously stated, there are no hard and fast rules to the design of a penjing. It shouldn't be as structured as a normal bonsai. You want your composition to show depth, you will want to have a dominant tree, and, ideally, you want open spaces. Therefore, you will want to plan carefully where you place the various components. Depending on the type of penjing you are building, you are striving to have the viewers' eye go to the main component - be that a rock mountain or a particular tree. If you use two dominant features (i.e. a large tree and a large rock), placement of these features would be critical so they don't confuse the viewer. You would probably place one closer to the viewer and the second one back further and slightly to a small offset angle to the other. That way the composition would flow from one to the other. There is no need to worry about the scalene triangle in a penjing planting - it is not mandatory.

Next month I will show the construction of my new penjing.

(Endnotes)
1 Gustafson, H.L., Sterling Publishing Co., Inc, New York, 1999
2 Venus Communications, LLC, Atlanta, 1998