Penjing, the hobby of creating a miniature landscape, is an art that
bears close ties with the arts of bonsai, saikei and bonkei - ways of
displaying the harmony of form, shape and scale of nature in miniature.
Penjing is a predominantly Chinese practice. Pot plants with landscape
number among the popular pastimes of the Chinese people. The landscape
may consist of artificial rock work or woodwork or it may consist of one
single piece of natural rock or wood. Miniature rock gardens also contain
pavilions and terraces, trees and flowers, sailing boats, people, birds
and animals, all very much reduced in size but nevertheless life-like,
presenting vivid figures more real than those on landscape paintings.
Rock-gardening is a Chinese art. After the Second World War, it has also
become rather popular in Japan. But the rocks and stones there which may
be used as raw material are much below those produced in China, both as
to quantity and variety. This accounts for the fact that pot plants with
miniature rock landscape are not as popular as dwarfed trees (Bonsai)
in Japan.
Click on any of the photos below to see an enlarged
version.