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[IBC] "The Spirit of Bonsai design: Combine the Power of Zen and nature" (redux)
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! ************************************************** ****************************** ++++Sponsored, in part, by Jarbas Godoy ++++ ************************************************** ****************************** -- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ -- +++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++ |
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