Lyrical and lovely, simple and uncontrived, aged looking and still fresh. The heart of Literati

The last few days we've been fumbling around trying to understand what makes a bonsai literati, or more accurately, what makes a penjing literati. Much of this fumbling takes place in our newsletter where we've been inviting others in to fumble along with us (you can subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom of this post - It's Free!)

All the photos shown in this post are from Zhao Qingquan's Literati Style Penjing, the benchmark book on the topic. Zhao is recognized as one of the world's leading authorities on Penjing and also one of the world's foremost Penjing artists

We'll have more on Zhao, Penjing and Literati in our next newsletter (again you can subscribe below)

Literati penjing in an unglazed drum pot, something a Japanese bunjin artist might use

I like this one a lot. I think the pot gives it away as a penjing literati. I don't think a Japanese bunjin artist would ever use a pot like this. Other than that, I'm not sure I can tell the difference 

 This one has penjing literati written all over it

 Zhao's famous book is on Special at Stone Lantern 
as are all our books

 Feel free to email me if you have comments. Just be aware that we reserve the right to use your comments in our blog or in newsletter
wayne@stonelantern.com