From: Chris Cochrane
Subject: [IBC] "The Spirit of Bonsai design: Combine the
Power of Zen
and nature" (redux)

Hi Jim.
(snipped
Our friend Lynn wrote privately re' Chinese Daoism as my
preference for
the origin. It truly is not! Daoism took many twists and
turns... and
its greatest
impact on bonsai is perhaps its influence on Japanese literati
(especially
in the late 18th through the 19th century) who were vying with
Japanese
nativist learning scholars for dominance in arts and literary
pursuits.
Daoist influence on bonsai is as largely written in Japanese
history as in
Chinese history. It is more easily followed in my studies by
references to
stone/suiseki appreciation that was often shared by the same
enthusiasts.
----------------
From Lynn

Chris and Jim -
I have a casual suspect when I hear of anything art
related to
an era or religion or philosophy. The reason is we study art
so often at
moments of its change or turbulence. If there is in an era a
rebellious or
controversial state of a religious or philosophical nature I
imagine
there are artists quick to find it subject for painting,
music,or art as a
whole, or at least quick to grab an Effect from it.
Taoism, I, in my ignorance think that it is a nature-guided
belief
system, fairly stable and always seems appealing. Daoism I
imagine to be
less easy to grasp as steadily, and could have attracted arts
for that
reason. Sometimes I look for the artists in defining a period
before
other parts of a culture because they have a history of making
some kind of
presentation of rebelliousness or innovation when anything is
"stirring."
I do look upon whatever the literati presented with the
most
conviction , very firm in some manner. They represent some
kind of
classicism to me.
This is all evidence of my shady scholarship, and my shifty
look at
history which has so many zooms in its camera.
Lynn


Well, I got thoroughly (and enjoyably) lost between these two
messages. ;-)

I am neither a Chinese scholar, nor an expert in philosophy, but
I do read, and I just finished a course at Florida State on early
Chinese history that spent a lot of time on the early
philosophies that had (and continue to have) a strong impact on
Chinese life. I've also be doing a good deal of Daoist reading
of late. And, I might add, been thoroughly confused and
perplexed in the process -- especially the first time through.
It is a very helpful philosophy to read when you are having
trouble falling asleep. ;-)

I had gotten the impression from my class and from brief
discussion in some of the Daoist books that there was a larger
discrepancy between Lao-Tse's and Confucius's age than 9 years,
and that Lao-Tse was an old man when visited by a much younger
Confucius. But both are so far back in time that neither is, of
a certainty, a real, single person, and may each be a
conglomerate of several peripatetic philosophers who may have
wandered the Chinese hinterland in the 7th and 6th Centuries BP.

Neither had I understood that Daoist writings came so long after
Lao-Tse's "death." Though, it is fairly well established that
Confucius's words were collected/compiled/? 2 or 3 hundred years
after _his_ death.

Notwithstanding all this, and straining to pull this topic back
to bonsai, it would seem to me that Daoist philosophy is more
likely to giver rise to a potted-tree art than the quite
pragmatic Confucian. The literati, while arising and thriving in
early Confucian China, seem to me to lean more toward Daoist
thought than pure Confucian. But that may just be MY
"confusion."

Anyway, we've beaten this fairly off-topic dead horse to a pulp,
and digressed SIGNIFICANTLY from the Zen-ness of bonsai. On that
topic, I agree with whoever it was that said, if you want to find
Zen in bonsai, have at it. Me? I just find it fun.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Who just
bought and installed a new, much larger, monitor and can SEE
again!

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