ZH       Tao Gu    Qing-i-lu { T'ao Ku (c.902-970) / Ch’ing-i-lu } , c.965.  A Northern Song dynasty collection of expressions from the Tang and Five Dynasties (618 - 960) and arranged by subject matter.  Includes two particular stories: about a malachite rock which resembled a mountain, was purchased for a thousand pieces of gold, and was made into a bo-shan incense burner, and also about a little model of Mount Li (the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang Di, d.207 B.C.E. ).  For the latter the landscape, houses, people, animals, forests, bridges, and highways were all represented in detail in Borneo camphor wood. 2

ZH       Li Jie   Yingzao fashi ( Building Method / Building Standards ) { Li Chieh (1035-1110) / Ying-tsao fa-shih } ; 1103-06.  This illustrated work in thirty-four chapters deals in encyclopedic fashion with all branches of architecture: layout, construction, stonework, carpentry, bracketing, decoration, materials, and labor, from the first to the 11th centuries.  It became a standard text and was influential in spreading the most advanced techniques of the time of its first publication.  The author/editor was the vice director -- and later the director -- of construction in the court of the Huizong emperor (reigned 1101-1125) of the Song dynasty.  The compilation of Yingzao fashi actually took some thirty years, under the sponsorship of three emperors.  Shenzong had initiated it as one of many imperial undertakings during the New Policies reform, and its first draft was finished in 1091.  In 1097 Zhezong commanded the imperial architect Li Jie to compile an up-to-date and more comprehensive version of the work.  The new manual was completed and presented to the throne in 1100 and finally printed for distribution under the imperial auspices of Huizong in 1103.  Li’s stated goals were to reduce corruption and to introduce standards in architectural construction; his audience appeared to be both the officials who commissioned buildings and the builders who built them. The manual covers a range of topics, from foundations to painted ornament to the estimation of materials and labor.  The main body of the work specified the units of measurement, design standards and construction principles with structural patterns and building elements illustrated in the drawings.  As one of only two books on architecture surviving from the imperial era, it has been a critical document in the study of Chinese architecture.  In fact, the "discovery" of the Yingzao fashi in 1919 and its subsequent reprintings led directly to the establishment of the field of architectural history in China, and it has remained an important object of research.
       (Because of a long history of use of similar architectural techniques, the lack of any large-scale physical testimony to the actual reality of ancient times in China -- with no equivalent of Roman remains, no medieval castles -- may, in fact, have served to strengthen the Chinese sense of continuity by removing from people's gaze the most powerful proofs of the past's differentness.)
       Yingshao fashi mentions only in passing the building of jia-san { chia-san } , artificial mountains, in piled-up stones and clay about two to two and a half meters per side, as well as pen-shan { p'en-shan } , mountains in containers, one to one and a quarter meters per side.  Unfortunately, the work gives neither additional descriptions or illustrations. 3

ZH       Du Wan   Yun Lin Shi Pu ( Stone Catalogue of Cloudy Forest / Yunlin Record of Rocks ) { Tu Wan / Yün Lin Shih Pu } ; c. 1126.   Bearing the byname Chi-yang, Du was a descendant of the great Tang poet Du Fu, and a grandson of the illustrious eleventh-century statesman Du Yen.  (Earlier works mentioning rocks did so in a mineralological, pharmaceutical, or alchemical fashion.)  Du Wan's is China's earliest and most comprehensive book about scholars' rocks.  His familiarity with the imperial collection suggests that he himself was an imperial agent.  However, this is not an official catalogue, and it is written in a rather commonplace, mannered prose.
      This work lists a hundred and fourteen different kinds of rocks found in all parts of the country suitable for viewing and admiring.  The origins, characteristics, and methods of excavation of each type of rock are given as well.  "The objects that are the purest quintessence of Heaven and Earth are found among rocks; penetrating the Earth, they take on strange forms...  The big ones are worthy of being set out in a garden; in a house, the little ones are placed on stands or tables."  Du Wan repeatedly warns connoisseurs to be aware of false Taihu rocks, the prized specimens from the eastern lake.  The stones could be cleaned to remove clay or earth from the surface and deep crevices.  These garden stones might also need to be cut level on the bottom to give them stability.  It was also not an uncommon practice to attach pieces of entirely different minerals to a miniature mountain in order to suggest the appearance of "clouds and vapors, withered trees, and fantastic stones tilted sidewise."
       Almost two-thirds of the catalogue concerns stones used in handicrafts.  Some of the other stones which are most of interest to us are the following:
      #7, Stone of Wu-k'ang in Huzhou (N. Chekiang): "Flat, layered, without peaks, but much perforated.  Adaptable to bases of artificial mountains."  Small specimens were set on little stands or tables; some were placed in bowls or or other containers.
      #8, Stone of K'un-shan (S. Kiangsu): "Dwarf trees are planted on these, or sweet flags [ Acorus calamus ] are grown in odd spots on them, or else they are placed in containers.  They are much valued by one and all, and people try to buy them from each other."
      #14, Stone of Chiang-chou (N. Kiangsi): "Several different kinds taken from the river and along the shore.  A notable species, finely striated, comes in flat pieces, pierced through with holes...  This kind is often improved by cementing pieces of other rock to it...  'Vertical' varieties of this stone are made into tasteless [sic] miniature gardens, called 'bowl mountains' (pen shan), with the pieces glued in a formal array, like offerings on a Buddhist altar.  These are sold by the natives."
      #15, Stone of Yüan (W. Kiangsu): "Corrugate and peaked, with plants growing naturally in fissures like dense groves of trees.  Unfortunately they are not widely known."
      #18, Stone of Yung-k'ang (W. Szechuan): "Chien Shun-shu gave me a specimen which was flat like a board, half an inch thick, and six or seven inches wide.  A steep many-peaked blue-black mountain rose from this white base.  This was named 'Little Plain of the River and Mountain'..."
      #26, Stone of Hsiang-yang (N. Hupeh): "Mountain-shaped stones of no great size; not valued by the natives.  Su Chung-kung had a collection mounted on stands in his house..."
      #62, Stone of Ting-chou (N. Hunan) (Limonite nodules, divine stones important in Daoist medicine): "Hollow, purplish-black stones, with many adhering bits of rock.  The interior is filled with yellow earth...  If the cavity is scraped out, they may be used as water flasks, accessory to ink palettes, or as containers for water-grown sweet flags."
      #107, Stone of Hang (Chekiang) (quartz or calcite?):  White translucent crystals, some sharply pointed like cinnabar.  They are put together into small facsimile mountains."
      #113, Bell Teat Stone (Chekiang): "...I found a small piece shaped like two dragons with intertwined tails.  They had doubtless been petrified when tinctured by the stalactite stone.  This specimen had several holes in it, in which I planted sweet flags.  Afterwards I gave it to a connoisseur..."
       At least one stone is used as an incense burner, "There are high peaks and holes [in a stone from Ch'ang-shan] that communicate through twists and turns.  At the bottom is a communication hole in which one may set up a two-story incense burner.  [If one lights it,] it is as though clouds were buffeting each other among the summits."  These highly prized, rare stones also gave rise to a trade that made them available only to the rich: "These stones [#13, ying-shih] come from overseas.  Few of the merchants of Liao [dynasty ruling in northern China and Manchuria] know them.  But Shan-ku [studio name of Huang T'ing-chien, 1045-1105] says that the prefect of Hsiang-chiang spent ten thousand pieces of gold to import some."  "On another stone, with cracks above and below, there grew in the crevices a wonderfully luxuriant dwarf vegetation... It looked exactly like T'ai-shan [the mountain famous above all others, for from this mountain all creatures emerged at their birth and to this mountain they all return at death]...  The villagers had set it up as a god in their rice fields, and it was forbidden to sow seed in it.  I really regret not being able to carry it off."
      Ming and Qing "stone catalogues" would frequently imitate the phraseology of Du Wan, whose book had by then come to be regarded as a classic. 4

ZH       Zhao Xigu    Dong Tian Qing Lu Ji ( Towering Mountains, Green Plains / Conspectus of Criticism of Antiques / Record of the Pure Registers of the Cavern Heaven ) { Chao Hsi-ku (1170-1242) / Tung-t'ien-ch'ing-lu chi } , c. late 12th cent.  This work set the pattern for the much larger texts of this type which would be published about four centuries later.  Zhao was a member of the Sung Imperial house and thus presumably well acquainted with the imperial collection.  The work has ten sections, covering antique qin zithers, antique inkstones, antique bronze vessels, curious rocks, table screens, brush rests, water vessels for the desk, antique manuscripts and calligraphy, antique and modern rubbings of stone inscriptions, and antique paintings.  This mix of antique and contemporary items is what sets this work apart from the larger number of purely antiquarian texts produced at the same time.  This art critic introduced techniques for miniature landscape creation in the chapter "Guai Shi (Grotesque Rocks)."  "Sung Dynasty bonsai [sic] were divided into 'tree scene' and 'mountain and river landscape' styles; both are fully depicted in the book...  The bonsai plant and stone arrangements therein featured very elaborate designs and were creations rich in poetic inspiration.  Among them, the Northern Sung drawing entitled 'Eighteen Scholars' is the most renowned." 5

ZH       Wu Zimu    Meng Liang lu ( Memoirs of Ling'an ) { Wu Tzu-mu / Meng-liang-lu } , 1275.  Wu was a scholar and native of Hangzhou who wrote this work which has some twenty chapters on all aspects of life in that city.
      "The intense commercial activity, the extreme density of population, and the constant influx of visitors explain why there were so many places where inhabitants and travellers alike counld eat, meet and amuse themselves.  The town boasted a multitude of restaurants, hotels, taverns and tea-houses, and houses where there were singing-girls.  The rich met at Hangchow's celebrated tea-houses.  Wealthy merchants and officials came there to learn to play various musical instruments.  The décor was sumptuous, with displays of flowers, dwarf evergreens, and works by celebrated painters and calligraphers to tempt the passers-by..." (XVI,1, p. 262)
       "The fashionable taverns were to be found, as were no doubt the big tea-houses also, in one-storeyed houses which did not give directly on to the street, but on to a courtyard which covered arcades.  The garish décor made up in gaiety what it lacked in restraint: red and green balustrades, purple and green blinds, crimson and gilt lanterns, flowers and dwarf trees, elegantly-shaped chairs..." (XVI,2, p. 263)
       "A few days before the Festival of the Dead [which was fixed on the 105th day after the winter solstice, fifteen days after the spring equinox, approx. April 5th],the new wine was celebrated.  This festival was organized by the staff of the storehouses for alcoholic licquor...  Troups of dancers and musicians were hired, and a picturesque procession went through the city.  It was headed by huge banners nearly ten yards long on enormous poles each carried by four or five men.  Then came drums and musicians, men in pairs carrying heavy jars of rice-wine, eight persons disguised as Taoist Immortals, and representatives of the guilds: sellers of pet fish, of seet cakes, of noodles, of cooked food, of dwarf trees, money-changers, fishermen, hunters, etc.  Groups of little boys and girls followed them, with five-stringed guitars in their hands.  The procession, with men on horseback bringing up the rear, made its way to the prefecture, where the participants received from authorities pieces of cloth, copper coins, banknotes and silver cups." (II, 5, p. 149)
      Merchants, artisans and members of all professions were grouped into guilds.  They often corresponded to the actual grouping together of certain trades in particular districts of the city.  Each one was presided over by a 'head' or a 'dean,' and they exercised a general control over their members, came to the aid of those in need or who had no family, and insisted upon each member's absolute integrity.  Since the guilds were religious associations of a kind, or at least associations modelled on the same pattern, they had their annual feast-days in honour of their patron saints, who might be legendary beings or deified heroes.  On such occasions, the members met together for a banquet, towards which each member contributed his quota, and they exhibited their chefs-d'oeuvre.  One of the principal advantages of forming trade guilds was that they provided merchants and artisans with a means of regulating their relations with the State.  It was to the heads of the guilds that government authorities applied when making requisitions of any kind, whether of goods from the shops or of artisans from the workshops.  In this way, official intermediaries ensured that fair prices and fair wages were paid.
       Thus, to supply the needs of the tea-houses in this 18-20 square km. capital city of over a million souls, there were several individuals involved in providing "dwarf trees" and they were numerous enough to form a guild which was specifically mentioned in this detailed work about the city during the final years of the Southern Sung dynasty.  At the time, Hangchow was the largest and richest city in the world and, in many spheres, Chinese civilization was at its most brilliant.  In 1276 Hangzhou would be captured by the Mongols and the whole of China would be occupied for the first time in her history.  This was also the city where Marco Polo stayed for a considerable length of time during the years 1276-1292.  During his stay the city, which he called Quinsai, had not greatly changed from the slightly earlier reports.
        In 1126, the barbarian Ju-chen horsemen had taken the Sung capital, present-day Kaifeng, and the exodus south began.  The Emperor and three thousand court members were taken into captivity.  A prince who had escaped proclaimed himself Emperor at Nanjing (almost 560 km. southeast of Kaifeng) the following year, and fled further eastward and southward before the nomad invasion.  Some ten years after the fall of Kaifeng and having already stopped there a few times, the Emperor fixed his choice on Hangzhou (about 240 km. south-southeast of Nanjing).  Considerably distant from areas threatened by invasion, the small town initially had only the charm and attractiveness of its scenery to recommend it.  Once chosen, the advantages of this geographical situation midway between the Yangtze River and south-east coast revealed themselves.  Yet it would be at least another decade before the court decided that the town of less than two hundred thousand inhabitants was probably more than a temporary way station.  Over the next century and a quarter, the actual size of the city would grow little and most of the increased accommodations would be via additional storeys on houses and other buildings and occupation of all open spaces.  The West Lake, championed two centuries earlier by Su Tung-p'o, was just outside the city walls -- to the west, of course -- and was a very popular site for the large population's leisure time.  The Che River runs south and east of the city a short ways into the small Hangzhou Bay, which then empties into the Yellow Sea.
      The period of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in China occupies the same place as the Western Renaissance, not the least reason for which was the development of printing.  The technique of printing in China, begun in both Buddhist and Daoist monastic communities, was later developed by the laity during the ninth and tenth centuries.  By the thirteenth century, Hangzhou was celebrated for its makers of jewely, children's toys, gold brocades, and printed books.  There was also during this time a return to the past that was accompanied by a general sense of renewal in the spheres of art, of music, of literature and of thought.  Archaeological discoveries aroused the passions of art-experts and art-lovers with the discovery of antique bronzes and jades in Honan province.  Catalogues, encyclopedias and treatises appeared which dealt with a wide variety of topics: monographs on curious rocks [sic, above?], on jades, on coins, on inks, on bamboos, on plum-trees, on li-chees, on oranges, on mushrooms, on different varieties of flowers, on fishes and crabs; treatises on painting and calligraphy; geographical works, some of which dealt with foreign lands; and also the first general and unofficial histories of China.  It had also been possible to transfer most of the collection of the greatest works of art in China from the official Academy of Painting in Kaifeng to Hangzhou.  Thus, the style favored by the Academy's founder, Emperor Huizong (r. 1101-1125), continued to enjoy the same prestige in the capital of South China during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
       Jasmine in pots which came by sea from the provinces of Fukien and Kuangtung were another celebrated product to be found in the shops in the center of Hangzhou.  Also of note to us here was the existence of a great factory, in the southern end of the city situated within the precincts of the Imperial Palace, which supplied the court with the finest celadon ceramics that have ever been made, some of which were for export.  We do not know if any of these may have housed a particularly fine early dwarf tree. 6

ZH       Tao Zong-i    Zhuo-geng-lu ( Talks while the plough is resting ) { T'ao Tsung-i (fl.1360-68) / Cho-kêng-lu } , 1366.   Includes the famous painter Mi Fu's (1051-1107) drawing of an inkwell in the form of a mountain made from a precious rock dating from the Southern Tang (923-934).  The 1102 picture is entitled "Bao-jin-zhai yan-shan-tu" { "Pao-chin-chai yen-shan-t'u" } , gives each peak a name, and includes the following comments: "It was not carved artificially but has this shape spontaneously and naturally."  "Dragon Lake [the depression between the Kingfisher (a tall peak on the right) and the following peak]; during rainy weather, it gets damp; put a few drops of water into it and it will not dry up even after ten days."  "The lower cave communicates with the upper cave through a triple spiral.  I took a mystical stroll through it [sic] one day."  The stone was said to be in Tao Zong-i's possession at the time and the inkwell's design was later imitated.  This work also states that a certain Chen { Ch'en } , very fond of mountains, bought an artificial mountain from Lord Jiu { Chiu } and placed it in his garden. 8

ZH       Cao Zhao   Gegu yaolun ( Essential Criteria of Antiquities, lit., " Key issues in the investigation of antiquities ") { Ts'ao Chao / Ko ku yao lun } , 1388, Nanjing.  This early Ming manual of connoisseurship opens with a study of archaic bronzes, proceeds through "ancient painting," calligraphy, rubbings of calligraphy (the largest single section by a long way), ancient qin zithers, ancient inkstones, precious objects (largely natural curiosities but also including worked jades), metals, ancient porcelains, ancient lacquer, textiles, rare woods and rare stones.  Throughout there is an anxiety about forgery, inauthenticity and fraud suggesting that by this time the major types of luxury commodity in the market-place were potentially unreliable.  Texts like this thus justified their own existence in the necessity of searching out reliable information on which to make judgements of things. (A 1462 edition prepared by Wang Zuo was enlarged considerably and included the subjects of imperial seals, iron tallies, official costumes, and palace architecture.) 9

ZH       Wang Ao   Gusu zhi, 1506.  A gazetteer, a type of local history combining information on the administrative geography, famous sights, agricultural produce, industrial manufacture, events of significance, and notable inhabitants of a given region.  Produced for all the major towns and districts of China, these are another example of the massive bureaucracy which recorded all sorts of details and which were periodically updated.  Initially, this particular one was compiled by Wu Kuan (1436-1504), whose wealthy textiles merchant father had laid out the nine acre 'Eastern Estate' inside the city walls of Suzhou.  For much of the late imperial period, that city, perhaps 75 km. west of modern Shanghai and 125 km. northeast of Hangzhou, was the most populous non-capital city in the empire, housing half a million people within an area of at least 14.8 square kilometers.  The Eastern Estate, unlike so many other pieces of property in the region, had remained in the hands of the same family through Suzhou's turbulent fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries.  A veritable model of rural self-sufficiency, it was not a real rural estate, but one of the sights of Suzhou for members of the elite who passed through, taking advantage of the city's reputation as a center of cultural production and luxury consumption.  Wu Kuan's teacher had been Du Qiong.  Wang Ao (1450-1524), who finished this book, was an even more important member of the Suzhou elite, and there is no doubt that he owned some of the most celebrated gardens in the Lake Tai region west of the city.
       It "also seems plausible that such things [as pan zai ] were a specialty of Suzhou and one that spread extensively through China only in the course of the sixteenth century, as part of a wave of expansion of garden culture that also has Suzhou as a key point of origin.  [T]he author of the Suzhou gazetteer seemed to feel the need to explain the term, as if it might be unfamiliar:  'The people of Tiger Hill [an elite resort spot to the northwest and connected to Suzhou by the canal, along which suburbs stretched] are excellent at planting strange flowers and rare blossoms in a dish.  A dish with pine or antique flowering plum, when placed on a table, is pure, elegant and delightful.'"   10

ZH       Tian Rucheng   Xi hu you lan zhi yu (Visiting and Seeing West Lake: A Gazetteer),  preface dated 1547.  Tian lived c.1500-1570.  The first ten scrolls are dedicated to the main lines of mountains.  The following nine scrolls address branches of mountains [actually, foothills] that extend inside the southern portion of the Hangzhou city walls around the Imperial Palace.  These branches seem never to stop extending, because the book includes almost all the districts of the city.  The structure of landscape depicted by Tian consists of mountains, branches of mountains, and tacit branches of mountains, which are not physically visible.  As a result, the whole landscape includes both the lake surrounded by mountains, and the city explicitly embraced and implicitly penetrated by mountains.  "As for the growing of pine, cypress and hai tong in dishes, they mostly imitate a pictorial idea ( hua yi ).  Aslant and supine ones are in the Ma Yuan (fl. c.1190-1260) technique, those with erect trunks and spreading foliage in the Guo Xi ( c. 1001-90) technique.  Other forms, such as 'phoenix and crane on pavilion and pagoda' are variously refined and marvellous, and can be laid out for pure enjoyment."  11

ZH       Gu Qiyuan   Kezuo zhuiyu (Idle Chatter on Sitting with My Guests ), end of the 16th century.  Gu lived from 1565 to 1628.  In 1617 he published a work on the history, topography and customs of his native Nanjing.  In Kezuo zhuiyu, he "continue[d] to stress the importance of a 'pictorial idea,' as well as providing evidence that Suzhou was still considered to be the source of the finest exponents of the art:  'Of old, dish landscapes to be placed on a table consisted of no more than one or two types of Damnacanthus.  Recently, flower gardeners ( hua yuanzi ) have moved here from Suzhou, and the number of varieties has increased, so that apart from Damnacanthus there are things like Tianmu pines, yingluo pines, crab apples, prasine peaches, little-leaf boxwood, carnations, Xiangfei bamboo, shuidongqing, narcissus, small plantains, wolfberry, gingko and flowering plum.  These must have roots and trunks, with a pictorial idea to the branches and leaves, and must be installed in an antique porcelain dish with fine stones.  The price of the expensive ones can go as high as several thousand cash.'"   12

ZH       Li Rihua  Weishuixuan riji.  A famous and influential late Ming book and art collector, important writer and artist, and one-time official at the huge ceramic and porcelain production center of Jingdezhen in south-central Jiangxi province, the largest industrial complex anywhere in the world prior to the eighteenth century, he lived from 1565 to 1635.  His diary covers the years from 1609 to 1616.  Every day of the eight years is mentioned, but several days are not filled in.  It contains very rich documentation in the field of painting and especially calligraphy, and weather is an important topic.  The diary includes Ranking of Antique Objects -- remembering that to the Chinese "antique" did not mean simply "chronologically old," but also implied "morally ennobling."  This begins with calligraphies of the Jin (265-420 C.E.) and Tang dynasties and paintings of the Tang, Five Dynasties (907-960), and early Song periods.  It then goes on to include (#11) ancient ritual bronze vessels, (#12) jades, (#13) Tang-dynasty inkstones, (#14) ancient qin (zithers) and world-famous swords, (#15) finely printed books of the Five Dynasties and Song periods, and, significantly, (#16) "strange rocks of a rugged and picturesque type."  Following the strange rocks come (#17) "a combination of some old, elegant pines and small needle-like rushes in a fine pot," (#18) "plum trees and bamboos that are fit for poetry," and such categories as imported spice, fine tea, exotice foreign foods, and white porcelain. 13

ZH       Wen Zhenheng   Zhang Wu Zhi   ( Records of Excellent Creations / Treatise on superfluous things ) { Wen Chen-heng (1585-1645) / Ch'ang-wu-chih } , c.1615-1620.  Wen was owner in his own right of a garden ("an outstanding piece of extravagance") situated in the northwest corner of urban Suzhou.  (He variously had residences, with their essential gardens, just outside Suzhou to both the east and west of the city, as well as a home within its walls.  One of these rural estates was still being constructed for him at the time of his death, and he never had a chance to visit it.  In addition, there was a property in Nanjing.)  The garden was steeped in the luxurious excess that moralists of the period were increasingly driven to protest, and which his own Treatise -- written when he was a much younger man -- also often attacks as "vulgarity."  His family were several generations of successful landowners.  His great-grandfather, Wen Zhengming, had been a Grand Scribe -- what may have been a largely ceremonial place in the central bureaucracy as a polisher of the literary style of documents -- one of whose teachers was Wu Kuan (above).  Wen Zhenheng also held a similar position later in life.  He ended up fleeing his native city to the shores of Lake Yangcheng to escape the armies of the invading Manchus.  He committed suicide by starvation, choosing as many elite did to die with the Ming dynasty.  Eight literary works of his, much of them poetry, are listed as having been published in his lifetime.
      His 12-part guide concerned "appropriate" conspicuous consumption behavior for the Suzhou elite.  Most of the material surroundings of the Ming upper class are covered therein.  "'The garden' as a coherent site is only fleetingly presented in the Treatise, being broken down into literally hundreds of objects with an autonomy of their own, both in terms of the discrimination of taste and in terms of the market in which they circulated.  Yet it does cover almost all the 'ingredients' from which a late Ming aesthetic garden could be assembled."  "Wen's material in this [second, "Flowers and Trees"] chapter is exclusively on the consumption of flowers, with very little information as to how they are to be grown.  [K]nowledge of this type was for him beneath the dignity of 'our sort' of people.  He thus has nothing to say, for example, about the techniques used for the forcing of flowers in the late Ming, and their production out of season.  There has been a total rift between the discourses of 'horticulture' and of 'gardens,' the latter now characterized purely as objects of luxury consumption." 
       Eleven persons are listed as editors of and commentators on the work.  Pan Zhiheng (1556-1622) was the editor of the second chapter, and his interest in popular material culture is confirmed by his authorship of at least two treatises elsewheres on card games.  Unlike most similar works and despite its popularity, Wen's Treatise really didn't undergo a process of dismemberment which was common at the time, where component chapters might be reprinted and retitled as independent texts in a larger work.  Virtually any successful work might also immediately be printed and reissued by competing publishers.  Altogether, these works ensured a proto-consumer state where no one was excluded from participation in the market for luxury commodities on the grounds of ignorance of how to consume appropriately -- bearing in mind that in the case of Ming China the overwhelming majority of the population concerned itself not with choices of consumption but about whether it could consume enough of the necessities of life to avoid death.
       (The third chapter, "Water and rocks" which includes mention of Lake Tai rocks pierced through with caverns and hollows, reticulated on every side, was edited by Li Liufang (1575-1629).  He did indeed create a very fine and renowned garden for himself.  He is best remembered as an artist, one of the "Four Gentlemen of Jaiding," and a member of the artistic tendency crystallized around the great artist, artistic theoretician and major politician Dong Qichang (1555-1636).  The seventh and longest section, "Vessels and utensils," gives passing reference to antique blue-green Boshan incense burners.  This section was edited by Zhou Huanguang (1559-1625), a Suzhou native noted for his practice of calligraphy in seal script and as a poet.  His wife, also noted as a writer, was the daughter of Wen Zhengming's closest friend, Lu Shidao.)  It is believed that the reason the Treatise is not illustrated during this time which saw a massive increase in the publication of illustrated books of all kinds is because of the precision of the language used therein.
       ("Another kind of commodity, and one which was new in the late Ming period, was knowledge, transmitted personally or through the medium of published books.  The almanacs and encyclopaedias, the route books of Ming merchants, the collections of model essays for the civil service examinations and the very guides to elegant living themselves are commodities which make a commodity out of kinds of knowledge which had existed in earlier centuries but which had not been bought and sold.  Then, the merchant had learned the route from Nanjing to Suzhou by experience, the son of an elite family had learned the approved style for examination essays from his tutor, and the rules of taste in things had been learned through social intercourse with a peer group.  By 1580 all of this knowledge, or a version of it at least, could be bought.")
       Wen Zhenheng demanded that the design of gardens should reach such a state of perfection that the experience of roaming in one would cause the user "to forget his age, forget to go home, and forget his fatigue."
       The Treatise contains Tu Long's "Kao Pan Yu Shi" ("Desultory Remarks on Furnishing the Abode of the Retired Scholar," 1590) { T'u Lung (1542-1605) / "K'ao-p'an yü-shih" }   Tu Long was born in Yin county, in a suburb of Ningpo city, Zhejiang.  In 1577, he obtained the degree of jinshi, roughly equivalent to a doctoral degree, administered in the capital every three years.  He later became the Chief Magistrate of Qinpu county, Shanghai.  After he was libelled and quit his job, Tu Long concentrated on writing plays and essays.  He rejected the adherance to strict ancient format, and advocated that a writer must write from his heart.  "Kao Pan Yu Shi" includes much information on tea varieties and preparation.
       It also refers to table culture plants and describes choice porcelain wares for various purposes.  "The best container landscapes [penjing { p'en-ching } ] are [the smallest ones,] those that can be set on a stool or table.  Then come those that one can set out in a courtyard..."  The landscapes served not only as objects of amusement, but also served to ward off evil with appropriately symbolic plants or by collecting the magical early morning dew.  "One of the longest sections in the chapter is that on 'Amusement with Pots' ( Pan wan ).  Wen Zhenheng opposes at least one of the choices of plants made by his slightly older contemporary Gu Qiyuan [above] , calling dwarf plantains 'ridiculous,' and seems in general to favour larger version of panjing.  He reverses what he says is the fashionable view that those for the table are superior to those used in courtyards and walkways, and gives pride of place to the Tianmu pine ( Pinus taiwanensis ), specimens of which should ideally be between one and two feet high.  As is now standard, he makes the link with named famous painters: an ideal tree should fit one description of Ma Yuan (fl.c.1190-1229), another of Guo Xi (c.1020-c.1090), another of Liu Songnian (c. 1150-after 1225?), and a fourth of Sheng Mou (active c. 1310-60).  He decries a fashionable trick of having flowers sprout from a chunk of incense wood, and lists other acceptable trees, which include the familiar flowering plum, as well as the Chinese Matrimony Vine ( Lycium chinensis ), Privet ( Ligustrum quihoi ), wild Elm ( Ulmus parvifolia ), and Junipers ( J. chinensis ) with snaky stems that do not show scars of tying and cutting [sic] , dwarf Water Bamboo ( Phyllostachys congesta ), and Sweetflag ( Acorus gramineus ).  Also, Cymbidium Orchids in the spring; Silk Tree, Yellow Fragrant Day Lily (probably Hemerocallis middendorfii ) and Oleander in the summer; yellow, dense, dwarfed Chrysanthemums in the autumn; and short-leaved Narcissus and 'Beauty Banana' ( Musa uranoscopos ) in the winter.  The Damnacanthus, which he associates with Hangzhou, is 'in between elegance and vulgarity.'  The rest of the entry discusses acceptable types of dish, acceptable forms (round, never square, with long narrow ones being 'particularly tabooed'), rocks, and placings, with a limitation of two being placed on the number to be set in any one spot."  14

ZH       Lin Youlin    Su Yuan Shi Pu ( Stone Catalogue of the Plain Garden ), 1614.  The author, aka Renfu and Zhongzhai, a native of Huating in Jiangsu province, was born into a family noted for stone collecting.  He became a great collector in his own right.  He also studied landscape painting and was conversant with events past and present.  One of the two buildings in Lin's family compound that housed prized stones was located in a garden called Suyuan ("plain garden").  In four volumes, this work introduces about a hundred famous stones and rock types with insightful commentary and 235 illustrations.  The well-drawn pictures in this represent many stones from the gardens of the Song emperors which had previously been reproduced in Xuan He Shi Pu { Hsüan Ho Shih P'u } .  The latter was a publication corresponding to the highly valued catalogues of the emperor's collections of paintings and sculptures. Yunlin Stone Catalogue was another source (Regarding Kunshan county, Suzhou, Lin states "People there grow sweet flag, small pines, and cypresses.").  Later authors borrowed from these works with great freedom.  The stones depicted therein were valued as highly as any works of art executed by human hands.  From his preface: "...Stone collecting, in particular, is close to Chan meditation [sic] , empowering the mind to visit the Southern Palaces and Mount Jinhua.  Since Emperor Xuanhe [Huizong, r.1101-1125], people have made illustrations and written poems about stones.  I have collected them in four volumes, which my friend Mr. Huang came to see.  After reading them, he suggested that the book be published." 15

ZH       Wang Xiangjin    Qun Fang Pu ( Flower Catalogue / Compendium of Aromatic Plants / Thesaurus of Botany ) { Wang Siang Tsin or Wang Hsiang-chin / K'ün fang pu } ; 1630.  Thirty volumes.  Wang was born in Xinzheng, Shandong.  After ten years of observations and readings (the preface was dated 1620), this work was produced containing a treatise on horticulture and also an anthology of quotations and poems on plants and more.  Some 433 names of plants are quoted as entries.  Under each name are indicated synonyms (if any), a description, therapeutic indications, cultural technics, alimentary use, medicinal recipes, extracts of prose literature and poems. 
       Also contains the treatise "Penjing" by Wu Chutai. 16

ZH       Ji Cheng   Yuan Ye (Garden Design / The Craft of Gardens ), 1631-34.  The author (1582-1642?) was a native of Wujiang county in Suzhou and was a prominent Ming dynasty garden designer.  This was the world's first monograph dedicated to garden architecture.  It is not a manual, as one would expect, however, as it neither contains a list of plants nor instructions on how to grow them.  Instead the three volume work emphasizes architecture, an integral part of the Chinese concept of garden design, and elaborates on the selection of various types of rocks and structures.  The first volume contains chapters on construction, selecting sites, designing artificial hills and the design and placement of garden buildings, including latticework grids for doors, windows and ceilings.  The second volume is entirely about balustrades.  The third volume contains six chapters: on doors and windows, on walls, on pavings, on the construction of artificial hills, on the selection of rocks, and on “borrowing views” (including views from outside the garden). 
       The book contains information about stone collecting and connoisseurship.  17

ZH       Chen Wuzi { Ch'en Hao-tzu }  Pi-chuan Hua-ching ( The Flower Looking Glass / Mirror of Flowers ); 1688, from the West Lake region of Chekiang.  A general botany book, uses pen-tsuai as a verb meaning "to plant into a pot."  An entire chapter is devoted to the art of penjing creation, "Zhong Pen Qu Jing (Potting a Plant and Creating Scenery/Types of Containers and [Penjing] Methods)."  The middle of the piece contains the following: "Recently in the province of Wu a kind of miniature garden has appeared that is like a painting of trees and mountains by Yün-lin.  In order to make these, people use containers holding big, long white stones, or containers from I-hsing [in Kiangsu] with purple sand.  A dozen little plants are selected, like cypresses and junipers, or maples and elms, 'Snow of the Sixth Month,' damnacanthus, box, plum trees, and cedrelas...  A few of these basins placed on the porch of a library truly makes a perfect accessory for a cultivated person."  19

ZH       Zhang Chao (1650-c.1703) (ed.)   Zhaodai congshu  (Collectanea from this glorious age) { Chao-tai ts'ung-shu } , c.1700.  Contains an unillustrated rock catalog and essays by other writers. Also, a monograph by Liu Luan (aka Yü-fu) entitled Wudan hu ( Gourd Weighing Five Tan ) { Wu-tan hu } , which includes the following observation "Nowadays people amuse themselves by placing trees and stones in containers.  Tall trees are shortened by twisting them, the big ones reduced by cutting back.  Some of them bear fruit even though they are only five inches tall; fish of [only] eight or nine inches are raised.  The result is called a 'landscape in a container' [ penjing { p'en-ching } ]...  During the Yüan dynasty [1275-1368], they were called xiezi jing { hsieh-tzu-ching } ('very small landscape')..." 20  

ZH                                    Guang qunfang pu ( Enlarged Thesaurus of Botany ) { Kuang K'ün fang pu } , 1708.  A revised and enlarged edition of the 1630 Qun Fang Bu (see above), completed and printed by Imperial order.  Some 1700 species are described in its 100 volumes.  It draws from both ancient and later authors.   There are no illustrations in it, but its great superiority lies in the splendid type in which it was set.  It was one of the most widely used reference works for botanical research by Western naturalists. In spite of its title, it was basically a literary anthology or encyclopedia, composed of quotations from a wide range of Chinese literature.  The quotations were arranged according to the plants.  Although the naturalists seldom bothered to distinguish it from the genre of bencao or the herbal, lumping them together as botanical works, this work actually belonged to the tradition of gardening literature.  In Guang qunfang pu, empirical observations mingled with poems, recipes, fables, prescriptions, and historical legends.  The work was enormous.  It was this comprehensiveness that made it a useful storehouse of information. 21

ZH       Chen Fuyao { Chen Fu-yau }                     c. early 18th cent.  Discusses such topics as how to select and train trees and how to grow them under different conditions in various parts of the country.  Some modern botanical concepts are found in this work.  22

JA                                        Bonsan ipposho, c.1774. 23

JA       Matsui, Aiseki and Keikai Junsekiken and Yōkō Junsekiken   Bonsan hyakkei zudai, 1789. 24

ZH       Li Dou   Yangzhou Huafang Lu ( Account of Yangzhou's Pleasure Boats / Chronicle of the Painted Barges of Yangzhou), 1795.  A playwright and poet born into a minor land-owning family near this city, Li (d. 1817) was one of the men in Yangzhou who busied themselves documenting aspects of the city as it visibly flowered under the impact of the extraordinary wealth of the salt merchants.  Yangzhou is about 70 km. northeast of Nanjing.  The book provides much information on life in the city and also valuable reference material on plays and opera music between the Yuan and Qing dynasties.  Compilation of the material for The Painted Barges commenced in 1764, two years after the third of the Qianlong emperor’s Southern Tours.  The emperor would make three more tours by the time Li Dou completed his project in 1795, the last year of the Qianlong reign.  The emperor’s visits, although given pride of place, are incorporated into an urban panorama that features a large and diversified cast of townspeople.  The author could have organized his chronicle in the form of a local gazetteer, with different sections on the past, geography, notable buildings, scenic sights, biographies, and writings.  Instead, he sensed the organic nature of the city: past and present, people and places, writings and writers, are densely intertwined to produce a dramatically interactive account of urban society.  His intimate knowledge of local society paid particular attention to the achievements of otherwise unknown artists and scholars, but his chronicle noticeably avoided engagement with the workaday city of local administration.  In retrospect, his chronicle also marked the end of an era in which the dream of Yangzhou was recorded and the beginning of an age when it would be remembered.
       In this ambitious project to document city and society during its heyday, Li states that during the second half of the eighteenth century, Yangzhou boasted landscape penjing that contained water and soil.
       The city's heyday would be short-lived: The Grand Canal, the crucial north-south transportation line that had been the central geographical feature of this city's rise to power, was damaged by repeated floods in the early nineteenth century.  The damage to the Grand Canal produced a huge financial burden that the Qing state, already facing financial problems and resource shortages, was reluctant to shoulder.  The state gave up regular maintenance of the Grand Canal and began to ship grains and salt via other channels, including through the port of Shanghai.  This change further undermined the econmic base of Yangzhou and with it the cultural preeminence by its once wealthy residents.  With the fall of the salt merchants and dwindling financial resources, Yangzhou lost its role as the dream city of the empire.  Travelling literati noted that the garden sites recorded in Li Dou's 1775 book -- the sites which had occupied vast grounds, extended for miles on both sides of the river, and, as in Europe, were as much an exhibition of wealth as a pretension to cultural status -- had disappeared during the short time between 1820 and 1830.  Only a few politically and economically powerful figures could afford to build new gardens, and sons of many salt merchant families survived by selling off precious building materials in their gardens. 25

JA       Junsekiken, Yōkō    Bonsan hyakkeizu, 1798.  26

1      Bretschneider, Emil M.D.   Botanicon sinicum (as Article III in "Journal of the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society," 1881, New Series Vol. XVI, Part I, Shanghai, 1882, specifically pp. 18-230, "Notes on Chinese Botany from Native and Western Sources") , pp. 79-80; Liang, Amy The Living Art of Bonsai (New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.; 1992), pg. 102; Itō Ihei  A Brocade Pillow, Azaleas of Old Japan (New York/Tokyo: Weatherhill; 1984.  Translation by Kaname Kato), pg. 144, which mentions that "the Chinese plantsman [Guo] Tuotuo has stated that it is harmful to transplant too frequently, and he is correct."; Yi, O-nyoung Smaller Is Better, Japan's Mastery of the Miniature (Tokyo: Kodansha International, Ltd.; 1982.  First English edition 1984), pg. 88 which states that masters of bonsai during the Edo period (1600-1868) were called "camels."  "Camel" was a term used for people with hunchbacks.  Its association with bonsai came from a reference in Chinese literature to a hunchback who had mastered the art of tree cultivation.  Is the reference perhaps to the Chinese Guo Tuotuo, known in Japan as Uekiya and acknowledged by island sources during the Edo period? ; "Liu Zongyuan (Liu Tsung-Yuan)," http://www.thedrunkenboat.com/zongyuan.html ; "Introduction," http://www.enweiusa.com/culture_en/mdt/36_70/46.htm ; "Liu Zongyuan," http://www.renditions.org/renditions/authors/liuzy.html ; "Guangxi," http://www.rootsweb.com/~chnwgw/guangxi.htm which would place Guo in the 9th century;  Chen, Jo-shui  Liu Tsung-yüan and Intellectual Change in T'ang China, 773-819 (Cambridge University Press; 1992), pp. 32-33, 192-193.  RJB could not find any reference to Guo in this slim but deep work.; Nienhauser, Jr., William H. et al  Liu Tsung-yüan (NY: Twayne Publishers, Inc.; 1973), pp. 88-89; A copy of what is apparently the entire sketch can be found in Reilly, Kevin  Worlds of History, A Comparative Reader, Vol. 1: To 1550 (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s; 2004.  Second Edition.), pp 274, article from 275-276 ( and all the great and wealthy residents and When a tree is planted quotes are from here).  Reprinted by Reilly with permission from Liu Tsung-Yuan, “Camel Kuo the Gardener,” in An Anthology of Chinese Literature: From Early Times to the Fourteenth Century, ed. and trans. by Cyril Birch (New York: Grove Press, 1965), pp. 258-259.  RJB is endeavoring to get permission to reprint the entire biographical sketch on this site.  Other references to the 3-volume treatise have not yet been located.

2      Stein, Rolf A.  The World in Miniature (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press; 1990), pp. 37 and 39, Note 76 on pg. 284; per "Chronology of Tofu Worldwide, Part I" by William Shurtleff ( http://www.thesoydailyclub.com/MOStofu/MOStofu1.asp ), "965 A.D. - Tofu is first mentioned in China in a document, the Ch'ing I Lu [Anecdotes, simple and exotic], by T'ao Ku."; per "Ancient Chinese Technology - Matches" ( http://library.thinkquest.org/23062/match.html ), sulphur-impregnated sticks of pinewood are described in the book entitled Records of the Unworldly and the Strange written about 950 by T'ao Ku; a Ming painting entitled T'ao Ku Presenting a Lyric to Ch'in Jo-lan (per http://www.npm.gov.tw/english/collections/p030.htm ) is based on the tale of the author's humiliation in retaliation for his rudeness to a Five Dynasties Southern Tang ruler to whom he was an envoy; per the Library of Congress Online Catalog, http://catalog.loc.gov/, a 1985 edition of this work from Beijing is 147 pp. long, LCC #86192472. 

3      Stein, pg. 39; "Structural Carpentry in the Yingzao Fashi" by Andrew I-kang Li & Jin-Yeu Tsou, http://architronic.saed.kent.edu/v5n2/v5n2.04a.html#ref1, which gives Li's dates as c.1065-1110.  For biographical information on Li Jie, see Else Glahn, "Li Chieh," in Sung Biographies, vol. 2, edited by Herbert Franke (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1976), pp. 523-529 ; Liu, Heping "The Water Mill and Northern Song imperial patronage of art, commerce, and science - China," The Art Bulletin, Dec. 2002, http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0422/is_4_84/ai_95679860/pg_7 ; "A Hundred Harvests: The History of Asian Studies at Berkeley, Chinese Collections, " http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/SSEAL/AsiaExhibit/china.html, gives the entry as  "Li, Chieh, 1036-1110.  Li Ming-chung Ying Tsao Fa Shih ( Building Standards of Li Ming-chung ) Shanghai, 1929. 8 vols. in case." ; per "Guide to the Research Collections of the New York Public Library, Architecture," http://digilib.nypl.org/dynaweb/williams/williams/@Generic__BookTextView/17006, there also exists an "exquisitely produced 1925 edition."; "Chinese book shows art of building," http://www.unimelb.edu.au/ExtRels/Media/UN/archive/2000/511/chinesebook.html ; calligraphy from footnote 6,  http://www.staff.hum.ku.dk/dbwagner/Pyramid/Pyramid-6.html ; Li, Andrew I-kang "The Yingzhao fashi in the information age,"
http://www.arch.cuhk.edu.hk/servera/staff1/andrew/research/Li%20Penn%202003%2011%20text.pdf#search='Yingzao%20English'; lack of any large-scale physical testimony quote slightly paraphrased from pg. 92 of Clunas, Craig  Superfluous Things, Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press; 1991. Paperback edition 2004).     Added to 05/27/06

4      Schafer, Edward H.   Tu Wan's Stone Catalogue of Cloudy Forest (Floating World Edition; 2005. First published in 1961 by the University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles), pp. 3, 14-16, 17, 19-20, 26, 30-31, 37, 54, 56-57, 58, 61, 77, 97, 99; "Sermons in Stone" from 'Four Winds' (Singapore Airlines), sent by Donald Sanborn of Tokyo, in Bonsai, BCI, Vol. XII, No. 6, July/Aug. 1973, pg. 12, which says "114 types of stones"; Hu, pg. 130, says "over 116 kinds of rock"; Li, H.L.   Chinese flower arrangement (Philadelphia, PA: Hedera House; 1956) pg. 93; Lin, Kuo-cheng   Miniature Bonsai (Taipei: Hilit Publishing Co., Ltd.; 1987.  First English Edition, 1995), pp. 29-30; Liang, pg. 103; The objects and Dwarf trees quotes are from Stein, pg. 36, There are high peaks quote from pg. 37, These highly prized and following quote pg. 35, On another stone quote pg. 311, note 246, and pg. 111; Little, Steven   Spirit Stones of China (Chicago: Art Institute with University of California Press; 1999), pg. 16 gives the compilation dates as c.1127-1132, and has excerpts on pp. 16, 21-22; Hu, Kemin   Scholars' Rocks in Ancient China: The Suyuan Stone Catalogue (Trunbull, CT: Weatherhill; 2002), pg. vii.   Added to 02/25/08

6      Gernet, Jacques  Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion 1250-1276 (New York: The Macmillan Company; 1962.  Translated by H. M. Wright), The intense commercial activity quote is from pg. 49 with footnote 60 on pg. 58, The fashionable taverns quote is from pp. 49-50 with footnote 61 on pg. 58, and the Festival of the Dead quote is from pg. 192, with note from pg. 191 and footnote 26 from pg. 216.  The guild information is from pp. 87-88, derived from material (per footnotes 34, 35, 39, and 40 on pg. 111) in the MLL, XIX, 3, p. 239; XIII, 4, pp. 239-40; XIX, 4, p. 300; and XII, 3, pp. 238-9.  Other info from pp. 14, 15-16, 18, 19, 22-23, 25, 27, 30, 38, 51-52, 84, 85, 228-231, and 240.  Per pg. 122, "The region around Hangchow itself, though, also produced some beautiful flowers: nearly ten kinds of winter and autumn peonies, over seventy varieties of chrysanthemums, and numerous varieities of daphne, magnolia and orchids, not to mention the blossom of a wide range of fruit trees, such as plum, pear, peach, pomegranate and cherry." (MLL, XVII, 3, pp. 285-9, per note 15 on pg. 140 of Garnet)  This is listed here to give an indication of possible material for flowering dwarfs in the region -- any of these is not specifically listed to our knowledge.  Pg. 172's "These pharmacies had, in the traditional manner, a dried calabash as sign which hung over the door." reminds of another use of a gourd we have seen. Of the 363 footnotes in Gernet, 75 (21%) are direct quotes from MLL and another 20 footnotes (5%) include material from MLL.  The first quote above is summarized with the phrase "dwarf evergreens" called "bonsai" in Wood, Francis Did Marco Polo go to China? (Boulder, CO: Westview Press; 1996. First American edition), pg. 71; "Song Research Tools: VI. Indexes and Concordances to Sung Texts, http://sunsite.utk.edu/songtool/VI/VI.html ; "The Water Mill and Northern Song imperial patronage of art, commerce, and science - China" by Heping Lu, The Art Bulletin, Dec. 2002, note 34, http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0422/is_4_84/ai_95679860/pg_12 ; "Marco Polo on China's Royal Palace Gardens (in Beijing and Hangchow)", http"//www.gardenvisit.com/got/14/marco_polo.htm, gives a publication date of 1274, as also does "Brief Discussion on 'Du Nuo' by You, Xiuling, http://www.admissions.carleton.ca/~bgordon/Rice/papers/youxl99d.htm ; Luo Tongbing's translation of "Decorating Lanterns at the Lantern Festival," http://eng.taoism.org.hk/religious-activities&rituals/daoist-folk-customs/pg4-8-5.asp, footnote 8, gives the translation of the title as Record of the Golden Millet Dream; per note 34 in The Water Mill and Northern Song Imperial Patronage of Art, Commerce, and Science" by Heping Liu in Art Bulletin, Dec. 2002, Vol. 84 Issue 4, p.566, there is a recent edition of MLL (Hangzhou: Zhejiang remin chubanshe, 1980).     New 01/01/07

7       Kenko, Yoshida  Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenko (New York: Columbia University Press; 1967.  Translated by Donald Keene), pp. xiii-xv, xx, xxii, Chapter 154 quote from pp. 136-137, chapter 10 quote from pg. 10.  Kenko lived from 1283 to 1350; Nippon Bonsai Association Classic Bonsai of Japan (Tokyo and New York: Kodansha International; 1989), pg. 141; Yashiroda, Kan  Bonsai, Japanese Miniature Trees (Newton, MA: C.T. Branford Co./London: Faber and Faber; 1960), pg. 19; Papinot, E. Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan (Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc.; 1972.  Reprint of original 1910 work.), pp. 156, 756; Liang, pg. 107, lists Kenko's essay as "Picking Natural Plants."; cf. Hull, George F.   Bonsai For Americans (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc.; 1964), pg. 22, and Koreshoff, pg. 7, and Shufunotomo, Editors of The Essentials of Bonsai (Portland, OR: Timber Press; 1982), pg. 9: "'To appreciate and find pleasure in curiously curved potted trees is to love deformity.' Yoshida was, to be sure writing only of the enthusiasm for bonsai, not of its appreciation."; per a post to the Internet Bonsai Club by Chris Cochrane, Reply #10 on Aug. 6, 2005,  http://internetbonsaiclub.org/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=133&topic=16297.0, " Essays... was a sacred teaching handed down from master to student through a limited chain of poets (some famous) until published in the early 17th century.  It had modest influence before then.   At that time the proponents of cha-no-yu's wabi aesthetic (not yet fully revived by Rikyu's heirs but recognized by important National Learning leaders) needed to see it merged with the dominant Neo-Confucian ideology of Hayashi Razan and his followers.  Shinto advocates were seeking a place in Japan's ideologies affecting art understanding."  
        See also the recent on-line edition of the 1914 translation by William N. Porter, with Section 154 on pp. 120-121 (which specifies "...all his dwarf trees that he had cultivated in little pots.") and section 10, pp. 15-16. Added to 01/31/07  

8     Stein, pp. 37, notes pp. 281-283, drawing of the inkwell as Fig. 18 on pg. 38.; Zhao, Qingquan Penjing: Worlds of Wonderment (Athens, GA: Venus Communications, LLC; 1997), pg. 40, states that "The great Song painter Mi Fu was absolutely infatuated with stones, and he left numerous excellent observations regarding their appreciation."; Lisowski, F.P. "ITAG - Prehistoric and Early Historic Trepanation," http://www.trepan.com/survey.html, states that the work also mentions that "Arabic physicians, of which there had been many in China since T'ang times, could open the skull and extract worms."

9      Little, pg. 23, which cites David, Sir Percival  Chinese Connoisseurship: The Ko Ku Yao Lun (New York and Washington: Praeger; 1971); Clunas, Superfluous Things, pp. 11-13, the latter page stating that "it