Scholar’s Rocks – Ying Stones
Tradionally produced in Yingde, Guangdong province and in Guanxi province, Ying rocks are limestone with calcite deposits. Less hard than Lingbi, they are often full of furrows with twisted lines on intricately textured surfaces. Notable for their diverse shaped, they appear to embody a thousand hills and valleys, and so are well-suited for representing a far distant landscape. Their typical thin, wrinkled appearance often exhibits traces of sawing and cutting with distinguishable front and reverse sides. The best known example is called ‘Winkling Cloud Peak’ in Hangzhou’s West lake, China