Menghe Axe-Cleaved Stone Bonsai

Menghe Axe-Cleaved Stone Bonsai

Menghe Axe-Cleaved Stone Bonsai is an intangible cultural heritage of Changzhou City.

　　Facing the Yangtze River, the Little Yellow Mountain in Menghe Town, Xinbei District, Changzhou City, has, over millions of years of exposure to river winds and water erosion, developed uniquely shaped slab stones through natural weathering. These stones embody the grandeur, elegance, wonder, and peril of mountain rocks. They are hard in texture and sharply angular, with veins that are not only straight and strong but also delicate, fine, translucent, porous, wrinkled, and slender—truly appearing as if cleaved by the hands of nature. Hence, they are called “axe-cleaved stones.” These stones come in a variety of colors, including black, red, earthen yellow, dark blue-green, multicolored, and snowflake-like patterns; and take on diverse shapes such as flaky, blocky, columnar, banded, fractured, and swirling forms. Because of this, they are premium materials for making bonsai. As early as more than 1,000 years ago during the Song Dynasty, people in Menghe used axe-cleaved stones to create refined bonsai, which were offered as tributes to the royal family. Some are still treasured in the Palace Museum in Beijing today. After the late Qing Dynasty and into modern times, the craft declined for a time, but began to recover in the 1970s. In the past 20 years, Menghe axe-cleaved stone bonsai works have been displayed in major Chinese cities such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, Xi'an, Shenyang, and Zhuhai, and have been popularly exported to countries including Japan, Singapore, France, the United States, and Canada. In May 1985, at the first International Flower and Bonsai Exhibition hosted by the Shanghai International Information Center, the Menghe axe-cleaved stone bonsai piece “Green Mountain Stone Cliff” won the Special Prize. The Liberation Daily specially commended Menghe axe-cleaved stone bonsai for “combining the grandeur, wonder, elegance, and peril of exotic stones,” and described it as having a “fascinating natural beauty.” In the early 1990s, at the Flower and Destiny Expo held in Osaka, Japan, the Menghe bonsai piece “The Great Wall Linked with Mount Fuji” captivated bonsai experts from around the globe. This work remains preserved in Osaka Prefecture to this day.

　　Menghe axe-cleaved stone bonsai is like a three-dimensional painting or a silent poem, offering viewers a natural scene full of implied meaning and endless mystery. Especially notable are the plains landscape bonsai made from flaky stones and the high-mountain peak bonsai crafted from columnar stones, both of which forge unique paths and possess distinctive charm. The former features graceful, continuous mountain peaks, sometimes showcasing lake reflections amid rolling hills with winding paths, or snow-covered ravines with ice just beginning to form on rivers, displaying the delicate beauty of the Jiangnan region. The latter exudes a majestic aura, with overlapping green mountain ranges, sheer cliffs thousands of feet high, and waterfalls cascading down as if one can hear the calls of monkeys echoing through the mountains. Through ingenious conception and the masterful technique of “compressing a dragon into inches,” creators refine the images of wondrous peaks, elegant rocks, and scenic landmarks into typical representations, transforming them into exquisite artworks that “gather the majesty of a thousand miles into the space of a small bonsai.” These pieces condense vast landscapes into tiny containers, inviting viewers to admire, contemplate, and cultivate their sentiments. The primary material for making Menghe axe-cleaved stone bonsai is the axe-cleaved stone itself, supplemented with materials such as base pots, wooden stands for displaying the bonsai, yellow sand, pigments, glue, and various wooden plants and accessories.

　　Menghe axe-cleaved stone bonsai is a unique blossom within the garden of Chinese bonsai art, rooted and flourishing under the special geographical conditions of Changzhou. With its distinctive micro-landscape imagery and artistic style, along with its unique artistic beauty, appreciation value, value in cultural exchange between China and foreign countries, and practical worth, it is widely favored and beloved by people.

　　Source: Office of the People's Government of Changzhou Municipality