Dwarf Potted Trees in Poetry
and in Other Essays

 

For the moment, we are simply listing here the known poets and the principle sources of information which we have about their magical miniature landscape connections.



China
to 960

Tao Chien (T'ao Ch'ien, aka Tou Yuen-ming or Tao Yuanming, tzu Yuan-ling, 365-427)
[ ],


Du Fu [Tu Fu] (701-761)
[Wu, Yee-Sun  Man Lung Artistic Pot Plants Hong Kong: Wing-Lung Bank Ltd.; Enlarged second edition, June 1974), pg. 62; A container of a square foot is mentioned in Liang, Amy  The Living Art of Bonsai (New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.; 1992), pg. 100; Mowry, Robert D.  World Within Worlds, The Richard Rosenblum Collection of Chinese Scholars' Rocks (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Art Museums; 1997), pg. 207, note 9],

Han Yu (768-824)
[Hu, Yunhua  Penjing, The Chinese Art of Miniature Gardens (Portland, OR: Timber Press; ©1982 China Pictorial), pg. 20],

Pee Yat-yau (Fei Yat-you)
[Wu, 2nd, pg. 62],

Bai Zu Yi [Bai Juyi or Po Chü-i, 772-846)
[Hu, Yunhua  Chinese Penjing, Miniature Trees and Landscapes (Portland, OR: Timber Press; ©1987 Wan Li Books Co., Ltd., Hong Kong), pg. 130; Zhao Qingquan  Penjing: The Chinese Art of Bonsai, pg. 33], and

Li Deyu (787-850)
[Zhao Qingquan  Penjing: The Chinese Art of Bonsai, pg. 33].

960 to 1644

including Su Xun [Su Hsün] (Laochuan [Lao-ch'üan], 1009-1066)
[Stein, Rolf A.  The World in Miniature: Container Gardens and Dwellings in Far Eastern Religious Thought (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1990), pg. 284, which says that the essay is both in Su's Su Laochuan chuanji [Su Lao-ch'üan ch'üan-chi] and Jiayu ji [Chia-yu chi]; Wu, 2nd, pp. 62, 298, which has the name as "So Suen"],

Su Shi (Su Dongpo [Su Tung-p'o], 1037-1011)
[Stein, pp. 74-76, note 75 on pg. 283, and note 146 on pg. 296; Hu, pg. 130 ("Poem About Two Stones" and extra lines), and also includes a rendering of the middle of the Jiu-hua poem; Liang, pg. 102, has alternative readings of some of these lines; Mowry, pp. 212-213],

Lu Yu (Feng-wang, Wu-kuan, 1125-1210)
[poem in Hu, pg. 130; alternative version in Liang, pp. 102-103], and

Ding Henian [Ting Ho-nien] (1335-1424)
[Stein, pp. 24-26, notes pp. 279-280, 287; an alternative version of this poem is in Hu, pg. 130; Liang, pg. 103; Hay, John  Kernels of Energy, Bones of Earth: The Rock in Chinese Art (New York: China House Gallery; ©1985 China Institute of America), pg. 75].

1644 to 1911
?




Japan
to 1600

including Tengan Eko (1273-1335)
[Nippon Bonsai Association  Classic Bonsai of Japan (Tokyo and New York: Kodansha International, 1989), pg. 145],

Kokan Shiren (1276-1346)
[Yi, O-nyoung  Smaller Is Better, Japan's Mastery of the Miniature (Chijimi shikoo no Nihonjin) (Tokyo: Kodansha International, Ltd., 1982. First English edition 1984), pg. 89],

Muso Soseki (Muso Kokushi, 1275-1351)
[Classic, pp. 144-145], and

Ryushu Shutaku (1309-1388)
[Classic, pg. 145].


1600 to 1869

including Gekkei Shocho (fl. 1602)
[Stein, pp. 95-96, 306; Classic, pp. 142-143].


1869 to 1912
?




Korea
Goryeo [Koryo] Dynasty (918 to 1392)
?



India
?




For more contemporary examples in verse, please see selections in In Other Words.


See also pre1800 Books for some essay references.




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