Scholar’s Rocks
Chinese scholar’s rocks are a variety of favored stones, often limestone, that the Chinese literati and their followers displayed and appreciated in their studios. Called qishi, or “fantastic rocks,” they appealed to the scholar’s delight in contemplating the patterns of nature in mountains, clouds, and water.
Rocks of unusual shape and form have been prized and collected in China for well over a thousand years. Much like landscape paintings, these special rocks call to mind the awe-inspiring peaks and mountain ranges found in China’s vast landscape. In this way, they represent a microcosm of the universe upon which one can meditate and contemplate Nature within the confines of one’s home. More than anything else, however, it was the abstract, formal qualities of scholars’ rocks that appealed to the Chinese and are appreciated for the beauty of their form, color, and texture.
Beginning in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and culminating in the Qing (1644-1911), Chinese artists embraced an expanding palette of colors and welcomed yellow soapstones into their studios in the mid-Ming, first as material for seals, and then as scholars’ rocks. Yellow wax rocks gained entree into the study in the mid-Qing period, hard on the heels of yellow jades and golden Shoushan soapstones. As the jade tradition further broadened in the Qing to include spinach green nephrite and emerald green jadeite, rock collectors embraced hornblende, malachite, azurite, turquoise, serpentines, and a variety of other brightly colored stones. The twentieth century has witnessed a continuing expansion of the canon, with the introduction of caramel-hued clinochlore, striated Red River quartz, and mottled Qixia limestone
While never considered to be utilitarian, scholar’s rocks occasionally found another role on the scholar’s desk as a brush rest, incense burner or seal. Often they were natural stoned, however, by the Sung period (960 to 1279 A.D.) brushrests in the form of miniature mountains in stone, bronze, and ceramic ware had gained favor and were occasionally depicted in paintings of scholars. In other instances the carefully hollowed interior of a rock allowed it function as an incense burner. As the incense (perhaps chips of sandalwood) burned in a small bronze pot placed in the carefully finished cavity in the wooden stand below the main peak of the rock, fragrant smoke would rise through the hollow mountain and emerge from perforations in the mountain’s side walls. With the smoke hovering about the peaks, the scene would have resembled a mist-enshrouded landscape. In other instances soapstones having a mountainous resemblance were favored as seals, especially those with a translucent, semilustrous orsubtle coloring, reflecting the Sung, Yuan, and Ming tastes for yellow, white, and pale greenish white jade.
This Chinese fascination with the study and collection of scholar’s rocks was paralleled in Japanese culture with suiseki. Small to medium-sized stones that have naturally weathered into aesthetically pleasing shapes, many suiseki suggest mountains, islands, and waterfalls. Others resemble human or animal figures, or are prized for their colorful and abstract textures and patterns. Collected in the wild, on mountains and in streambeds, and then displayed in their natural state, these stones are objects of great beauty. In the 20th century appreciation of these natural forms has spread to the West and organized collector’s groups throughout Europe and the U.S. are actively collecting, cutting, studying and trading the stones.