C       Tao Gu  Qing-i-lu {T'ao Ku / Ch’ing-i-lu}, c.11th cent.  A Northern Song dynasty collection of expressions from the Tang and Five Dynasties (618 - 960) and arranged by subject matter.  Includes two particular stories: about a malachite rock which resembled a mountain, was purchased for a thousand pieces of gold, and was made into a bo-shan incense burner, and about a little model of Mount Li (the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang Di, d.207 B.C.), the landscape, houses, people, animals, forests, bridges, and highways all represented in detail in Borneo camphor wood. 2

C        Zhao Xihu  Dong Tian Qing Lu (Towering Mountains, Green Plains) {Tung-t'ien-ch'ing-lu}, c. late 11th cent.   Introduced techniques for miniature landscape creation in the chapter "Guai Shi (Grotesque Rocks)."  "Sung Dynasty bonsai were divided into 'tree scene' and 'mountain and river landscape' styles; both are fully depicted in the book...  The bonsai plant and stone arrangements therein featured very elaborate designs and were creations rich in poetic inspiration.  Among them, the Northern Sung drawing entitled 'Eighteen Scholars' is the most renowned."  3

C                     Ying-zao fa-shi {Ying-tsao fa-shih}; 1103-06.  This great, abundantly illustrated work on architecture on the Song dynasty mentions only in passing the building of jia-san {chia-san}, artificial mountains, in piled-up stones and clay about two to two and a half meters per side, as well as pen-shan {p'en-shan}, mountains in containers, one to one and a quarter meters per side.  Unfortunately, the work gives neither additional descriptions or illustrations.4

C       Du Wan   Yun Lin Shi Bu (Stone Catalogue of Cloudy Forest / Yunlin Record of Rocks) {Tu Wan / Yün Lin Shih Pu}; c. 1125.   Lists over a hundred different kinds of rocks found in all parts of the country suitable for viewing and admiring.  The origins, characteristics, and methods of excavation of each type of rock are given as well.  "The objects that are the purest quintessence of Heaven and Earth are found among rocks; penetrating the Earth, they take on strange forms...  The big ones are worthy of being set out in a garden; in a house, the little ones are placed on stands or tables."  Du Wan repeatedly warns connoisseurs to be aware of false Taihu rocks, the prized specimens from the eastern lake.  "Dwarf trees are planted on [rocks of K'un-shan], or sweet flags [Acorus calamus] are grown in odd spots on them, or else they are placed in containers.  They are much valued by one and all, and people try to buy them from each other."  At least one stone is used as an incense burner, "There are high peaks and holes [in a stone from Ch'ang-shan] that communicate through twists and turns.  At the bottom is a communication hole in which one may set up a two-story incense burner.  [If one lights it,] it is as though clouds were buffeting each other among the summits." These highly prized, rare stones also gave rise to a trade that made them available only to the rich: "These stones [ying-shih] come from overseas.  Few of the merchants of Liao [dynasty ruling in northern China and Manchuria] know them.  But Shan-ku [studio name of Huang T'ing-chien, 1045-1105] says that the prefect of Hsiang-chiang spent ten thousand pieces of gold to import some."  There are also suggestions as how to match selected rocks with the various species of trees, how to choose pots and train trees. 5
 

C       Tao Zong-i   Zhuo-geng-lu{T'ao Tsung-i / Cho-keng-lu}, late 14th cent.   Includes the famous painter Mi Fu's (1051-1107) drawing of an inkwell in the form of a mountain made from a precious rock dating from the Southern Tang (923-934).  The 1102 picture is entitled "Bao-jin-zhai yan-shan-tu" {"Pao-chin-chai yen-shan-t'u"}, gives each peak a name, and includes the following comments: "It was not carved artificially but has this shape spontaneously and naturally."  "Dragon Lake [the depression between the Kingfisher (a tall peak on the right) and the following peak]; during rainy weather, it gets damp; put a few drops of water into it and it will not dry up even after ten days."  "The lower cave communicates with the upper cave through a triple spiral. I took a mystical stroll through it one day." [sic]  The stone was said to be in Tao Zong-i's possession at the time and the inkwell's design was later imitated.  This work also states that a certain Chen {Ch'en}, very fond of mountains, bought an artificial mountain from Lord Jiu {Chiu}and placed it in his garden. 7

C                           Gegu yaolun (Essential Criteria of Antiquities) {Ko ku yao lun}, 1388.  This early Ming manual of connoisseurship contains a section on stones. 8    Added 12/09/2001

C       Wen Zhenheng  Chang Wu Zhi  (Records of Excellent Creations) {Wen Chen-heng / Ch'ang-wu-chih}, early 17th cent.  Contains Tu Long's "Kao Pan Yu Shi" {T'u Lung / "K'ao-p'an yü-shih"} which refers to table culture plants and also describes choice porcelain wares for various purposes.  "The best container landscapes [penjing {p'en-ching}] are [the smallest ones,] those that can be set on a stool or table.  Then come those that one can set out in a courtyard..."  The landscapes served not only as objects of amusement, but also served to ward off evil with appropriately symbolic plants or by collecting the magical early morning dew.  9

C       Lin Youlin  Su Yuan Shi Pu (Stone Catalogue of the Plain Garden)  1614.  The pictures in this represent many stones from the gardens of the Song emperors which had previously been reproduced in Xuan He Shi Pu {Hsüan Ho Shih P'u}.  The latter was a publication corresponding to the highly valued catalogues of the emperor's collections of paintings and sculptures.  Later authors borrowed from these works with great freedom.  The stones depicted therein were valued as highly as any works of art executed by human hands. 10

C       Wang Xiangjin  Kun Fang Bu (Flower Catalogue / Compendium of Aromatic Plants/Thesaurus of Botany) {Wang Siang Tsin or Wang Hsiang-chin /K'ün fang pu}; 1630.  Thirty volumes.  Contains the treatise "Penjing" by Wu Chutai. 11

C       Zhang Kiande  Ping hua bu (On plants growing in pots) {Chang K'ien te / P'ing hua pu}. 12

C                     Zhaodai congshu {Chao-tai ts'ung-shu}, c.early 17th cent.  Contains a monograph by Liu Luan (aka Yü-fu) entitled Wudan hu (Gourd Weighing Five Tan) {Wu-tan hu}, which includes the following observation "Nowadays people amuse themselves by placing trees and stones in containers.  Tall trees are shortened by twisting them, the big ones reduced by cutting back.  Some of them bear fruit even though they are only five inches tall; fish of [only] eight or nine inches are raised.  The result is called a 'landscape in a container' [penjing {p'en-ching}]...  During the Yüan dynasty [1275-1368], they were called xiezi jing{hsieh-tzu-ching} ('very small landscape')..." 13

J        Motokatsu Mizuno Kadan Komoku (An Outline of Flower Gardens), 1681.  One of the oldest books on the subject of horticulture in Japan, it lists flowers, grasses and flowering trees suitable for the four seasons of the year, including 40 varieties of cherries and 147 varieties of indigenous azaleas, four or five of which were satsuki.  One passage states: "The rage these days is for various kinds of azalea, which are in vogue among all classes of society.  Even the poorest people do not consider themselves human unless they have one or the other, even if they have to grow it in an abalone shell."  Hachi-ue is used in this book to refer to miniature potted trees. 14

C       Chen Wuzi {Ch'en Hao-tzu} Pi-chuan Hua-ching (The Flower Looking Glass / Mirror of Flowers); 1688.  A general botany book, uses pen-tsuai as a verb meaning "to plant into a pot."  An entire chapter is devoted to the art of penjing creation, "Zhong Pen Qu Jing (Potting a Plant and Creating Scenery/Types of Containers and [Penjing] Methods)." 15

C                      Guang Kun Fang Bu (Enlarged Thesaurus of Botany) {Kuang K'ün fang pu}, 1708.  A revised and enlarged edition of the 1630 Qun Fang Bu (see above), completed and printed by Imperial order. Some 1700 species are described in its 100 books.  It draws from both ancient and later authors.   There are no illustrations in it, but its great superiority lies in the splendid type in which it was set. 16

C      Chen Fu-yau                                         c. early 18th cent.  Discusses such topics as how to select and train trees and how to grow them under different conditions in various parts of the country.  Some modern botanical concepts are found in this work. 17

C                     Yangzhou Huafang Lu (Account of Yangzhou's Pleasure Boats), Qing Dynasty.  States that during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1736-1796), Yangzhou boasted landscape penjing that contained water and soil. 18

1      Bretschneider, Emil M.D.   Botanicon sinicum (as Article III in "Journal of the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society," 1881, New Series Vol. XVI, Part I, Shanghai, 1882, specifically pp. 18-230, "Notes on Chinese Botany from Native and Western Sources"), pp. 79-80; Liang, Amy The Living Art of Bonsai (New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.; 1992), pg. 102, Yi, O-nyoung   Smaller Is Better, Japan's Mastery of the Miniature (Tokyo: Kodansha International, Ltd.; 1982.  First English edition 1984), pg. 88 which states that  masters of bonsai during the Edo period (1600-1868) were called "camels."  "Camel" was a term used for people with hunchbacks.  Its association with bonsai came from a reference in Chinese literature to a hunchback who had mastered the art of tree cultivation.  Is the reference perhaps to the Chinese Guo Tuotuo, known in Japan as Uekiya and acknowledged by island sources during the Edo period? 

2      Stein, Rolf A.  The World in Miniature (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press; 1990), pp. 37 and 39, Note 76 on pg. 284.

3      Hu, Yunhua Chinese Penjing, Miniature Trees and Landscapes (Portland, OR: Timber Press; 1987), pg. 130; cf. Wu, Yee-Sun   Man Lung Artistic Pot Plants (Hong Kong: Wing-Lung Bank Ltd.; 1969, 1974.  Second edition), pg. 62, who states that "Writer Chao Hsi-kok describes 'grotesque rocks' in his essay collection."; Koreshoff, Deborah R.  Bonsai: Its Art, Science, History and Philosophy (Brisbane, Australia: Boolarong Publications; 1984) echoes this on pg. 3; Liang, pg. 102, which has the Sung Dynasty quote.

4      Stein, pg. 39.

5      "Sermons in Stone" from 'Four Winds' (Singapore Airlines), sent by Donald Sanborn of Tokyo, in Bonsai, BCI, Vol. XII, No. 6, July/Aug. 1973, pg. 12, which says "114 types of stones"; Hu, pg. 130, says "over 116 kinds of rock"; Li, H.L.   Chinese flower arrangement (Philadelphia, PA: Hedera House; 1956) pg. 93; Lin, Kuo-cheng   Miniature Bonsai (Taipei: Hilit Publishing Co., Ltd.; 1987.  First English Edition, 1995), pp. 29-30; Liang, pg. 103; The objects and Dwarf trees quotes are from Stein, pg. 36, There are high peaks quote from pg. 37, These highly prized and following quote pg. 35; Edward Schafer produced a translation in 1961 (Berkley: Universty of California Press); Little, Steven   Spirit Stones of China (Chicago: Art Institute with University of California Press; 1999), pg. 16 gives the compilation dates as c.1127-1132, and has excerpts on pp. 16, 21-22.

6      Kenko, Yoshida Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenko (New York: Columbia Univeristy Press; 1967.  Translated by Donald Keene), pp. xiii-xv, xx, xxii, Chapter 154 quote from pp. 136-137, chapter 10 quote from pg. 10.  Kenko lived from 1283 to 1350; Nippon Bonsai Association Classic Bonsai of Japan (Tokyo and New York: Kodansha International; 1989), pg. 141; Yashiroda, Kan  Bonsai, Japanese Miniature Trees (Newton, MA: C.T. Branford Co./London: Faber and Faber; 1960), pg. 19; Papinot, E. Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan (Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc.; 1972.  Reprint of original 1910 work.), pp. 156, 756; Liang, pg. 107, lists Kenko's essay as "Picking Natural Plants."; cf. Hull, George F.   Bonsai For Americans (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc.; 1964), pg. 22, and Koreshoff, pg. 7, and Shufunotomo, Editors of The Essentials of Bonsai (Portland, OR: Timber Press; 1982), pg. 9: "'To appreciate and find pleasure in curiously curved potted trees is to love deformity.' Yoshida was, to be sure writing only of the enthusiasm for bonsai, not of its appreciation."

7    Stein, pp. 37, notes pp. 281-283, drawing of the inkwell as Fig. 18 on pg. 38.; Zhao, Qingquan Penjing: Worlds of Wonderment (Athens, GA: Venus Communications, LLC; 1997), pg. 40, states that "The great Song painter Mi Fu was absolutely infatuated with stones, and he left numerous excellent observations regarding their appreciation."

8     Little, pg. 23, which cites David, Sir Percival   Chinese Connoisseurship: The Ko Ku Yao Lun (New York and Washington: Praeger; 1971).

9      Stein, pp. 26-28 have a detailed excerpt from, notes pp. 280-281, pp. 49-50.  Per pg. 37, contains a reference to the above Zhuo-geng-lu {Cho-keng-lu}; Hu, pg. 130, which also lists "Wen Zhenhen's Pen Wan Pian (Article on Pen Wan) in Zhang Wu Zhi"; cf. Liang, pg. 103, "T'u Hsiang's Study of Bonsai Trays (K'ao-p'an-yu-lu), which features a commentary chapter on 'Amusement Bonsai.'  In the History of Plant Cultivation (Ch'ang-wu-chih) by the late Ming Dynasty artist Wen Chen-heng, there are two scrolls in the section on 'Amusement Bonsai' that provide complete details about the design of interior gardens and the cultivating of bonsai."; Li, pp. 63,80.

10      Hu, pg. 130; Sirén, Osvald Gardens of China (New York: The Ronald Press Company; 1949), pp. 76-77; Little, pg. 17 has an extensive excerpt from, a shorter one on pg. 25, and pg. 111 also gives the publication date as 1613 with the title translated as Stone compendium of the plain garden, and lists a 1997 reprint from Zhongguo shudian chubanshe in Beijing.

11     Hu, pg. 130; Bretschneider, pg. 70; Liang, pg. 103.

12     Bretschneider, pg. 180.

13     Stein, pp. 24-26, notes, pp. 279-280, which has the Nowadays quote on pg. 24; Liang, pg. 103, states that there is a detailed account in Liu Luan's Jade Gourd (Yu-shih-hu) of the most common medium and large-sized tray landscapes: the "three friends of winter."  These arrangements of pine trees, bamboo, and plum trees were highly cherished year-round among enthusiasts.;  Zhao, pp. 40-41, states that historian Liu Ruan wrote the essay Wu Shi Hu ("Five Stone Vessel"), has the fish reference as "Some containers are several feet long and contain fish.", and translates the last term as "tiny scenery"; Koreshoff, pg. 4, spells the last term as "shea tzu ching."

14     Naka, John and Richard K. Ota and Kenko Rokkaku   Bonsai Techniques for Satsuki (Ota Bonsai Nursery; 1979), pg. 32, which also states that it was "the first botanical book in Japan"; Nippon Bonsai Association  Classic Bonsai of Japan (Tokyo and New York: Kodansha International; 1989), pg. 148; hachi-ue per Koreshoff, pg. 8; not listed in Bartlett, Harley Harris and Hide Shohara   Japanese Botany During the Period of Wood-block Printing (Los Angeles: Dawson's Book Shop; 1961. Reprinted from ASA GRAY BULLETIN, N.S. 3: 289-561, Spring, 1961); Bonsai Masterpieces (Nippon Bonsai Taikan "Grand View of Japanese Bonsai and Nature in Four Seasons," Tokyo: Seibundo Shinkosha Publishing Co., Ltd.; 1972, English book, translated by Yuji Yoshimura and Samuel H. Beach), pg. 28, gives title as "Kusadan-Komoku"; "Notes on Antique Chinese Bonsai Pots" by Ikune Sawada, Bonsai, BCI, September/October 1988, Vol. XXVII, No. 5, pg. 25 gives the author as Gensho Mizuno and renders the quote as "If you are any kind of human beings [sic], rich or poor, you have to have some satsuki azaleas, nowadays.  Even abalone shells were used to plant satsuki among those who were very poor."  The source of quotations for this article is cited as an article "History of Development of Variety of Trees for Bonsai and Styles from Late Edo to Meiji, Taisho and Showa" by Keiji Murata in "Densho no Bonsai," a special issue of the Magazine Bonsai Sekai, pp. 112-122, October, 1979, Juseki-sha publisher.

15     Koreshoff, pg. 4; Bretschneider, pg. 150; Hu, pg. 130.; Liang, pg. 103, which has "Ch'en Hao-tzu"; Lin, pg. 30, which has "Hsu hao-tzu"; Stein, Postscript A, pp. 114-116 has excellent translation from.

16     Hu, pg. 130; Bretschneider, pp. 70-71.

17     Lin, pg. 31, which also says that "Chen's book was later introduced to Japan, where it had a significant [sic] influence on Japanese bonsai styles."  No other reference as yet been found to Chen or his book, which Lin says was the most interesting volume of the many Qing Dynasty books published on bonsai.

18     Zhao, pg. 41.