Sichuan bonsai is one of the four major schools of traditional Chinese bonsai. It was first formed in the Eastern Han Dynasty, flourished in the Five Dynasties, and experienced the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. It experienced ups and downs and finally formed a style school. Sichuan was called Bashu in ancient times. Its region covers western Sichuan and eastern Sichuan. In particular, the bonsai making skills represented by Chengdu should be the foundation and core of Sichuan bonsai making skills. Because Sichuan's mountains, rivers, trees and trees are magnificent and rich, and the landform environment is surrounded by mountains and dangerous waters, its landscape bonsai is a collection of quiet, beautiful, dangerous, majestic, high-hanging, steep and deep shapes in the pot; tree bonsai is ancient, twisted, flying and hanging, and concentrated in the palm of your hand. The bonsai artists in Shu concentrate on enlightenment, careful observation, and refined skills, so they have formed a unique Sichuan bonsai modeling rhythm and technique, which is distinguished from other schools by its distinctive techniques and artistic characteristics. Sichuan bonsai skills are well-known throughout the country, and Sichuan bonsai works have repeatedly won awards in exhibitions across the country. In the 1960s, after appreciating Sichuan bonsai, Comrade Chen Yi happily wrote the inscription "High Art, Beautify Nature". Sichuan was called "Shu" in ancient times, and its political and cultural center was Chengdu. Chengdu is a famous historical and cultural city. There is a saying that "one year to become a city, three years to become Chengdu", which can be traced back to the Han Dynasty. The unique Shushan dangerous water and cultural region, as well as the relatively stable social environment, have created a good foundation and atmosphere for the formation of Sichuan bonsai skills and schools. According to legend, during the Five Dynasties, there was an official named Mei under Meng Zhixiang's account who lived in seclusion in Chengdu (now the Convention and Exhibition Center in the western suburbs), planted plum trees everywhere, and made various plum piles according to the painting ideas. His sons and relatives and friends also planted plums and shaped them one after another; in the Song Dynasty, literati such as Lu You, Mei Yaochen, and Su Dongpo all made bonsai in Shu, and they were mentioned in poems and essays, and discussed the techniques. Lu You wrote in his poem: "Stacking stones makes a small hill, burying pots makes a deep pool. There is a path for carrying firewood on the side, and a fishing hut in the middle. The sound of bells and drums in the valley echoes, and the shadows are reflected on the pines and cypresses." Su Shi discussed the practice of tree and stone bonsai in his book "Initial Talk on the Study of Things": "When the banana tree first sprouts and separates, put an oil hairpin through its roots, it will not grow up and can be used as a bonsai." He also wrote a number of poems and essays about bonsai, rocks, and wooden rockery. This shows that the literati living in Sichuan at that time had considerable attainments in making bonsai, and poetic and picturesque ideas were included in it. Later, it went through the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Sichuan bonsai has experienced ups and downs. In the Qing Dynasty, the art of tree stump winding and tying emerged among folk flower farmers and developed rapidly, and the form of bonsai techniques gradually focused on the stump shape. The stump shape is stylized and regular. In the late Qing Dynasty, during the Chengdu Qingyang Palace Flower Fair on the 25th day of the first lunar month every year, flower farmers from all over Sichuan sent their own tree stumps for centralized display, and the "flower gang" was responsible for sales and evaluation. Judging from the works left now, the tree stump modeling at that time had basically mastered the three styles and five types of techniques. The jewelry and jade tree stump bonsai modeling currently stored in the "Chuxiu Palace" and "Yangxinzhai" of the Palace Museum in Beijing contains several unique body movements and techniques in the Sichuan bonsai modeling skills, and the tree species represented are also common in Sichuan. In the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, mountain and stone bonsai also had a certain development, but it was mainly to create mountains in the tank, which was decorated with buildings, platforms, pavilions, pavilions, fishing and woodcutting, farming and reading, etc. It was not until the 1920s that a group of Chengdu players (bonsai enthusiasts and cultural people with culture and economic strength) began to make mountain and stone, tree and stone combination bonsai, and became interested in it. They built a special bonsai garden and pushed the skills of mountain and stone, tree and stone bonsai to a new level. Sichuan bonsai has a long history, diverse shapes, and great aesthetics. It is praised as "three-dimensional painting, silent poetry", "high art, beautification of nature" (Chen Yi's words). It uses small pots to show the spirit of nature. The most essential characteristics of its art are "seeing the big from the small, shrinking the dragon into an inch", "hiding the sky and the earth in the palm of your hand", and expressing infinite spiritual realm with a present landscape. Sichuan bonsai has always been famous for its poetic and picturesque, high mountains and flowing waters, and the display of a broad art system. It is deeply rooted in the mountains, waters and culture of Sichuan, and is a concrete expression of returning to nature. Its complete techniques are rhythmic and stylized, and are a crystallization of philosophical thinking and poetry. Information source: Chengdu Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center Information source: Chengdu Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center