Page 14 - Christie's Dec 2, 2015 Scholars Rocks, Hong Kong

The vocabulary used to describe the aesthetics of
scholar’s rocks expanded over the centuries, often
borrowing concepts and terminology alike from the
vast body of literature on painting and calligraphy.
Connoisseurs judge rocks on four general criteria:
shape, material, color, and texture:17
Shape 形 (xing), which refers to a rock’s overall
configuration, is the quality characterized by the
terms qishi, guaishi, and yishi, which are the Chinese
equivalents of the English “fantastic rock”. Rocks
of somber color are typically appreciated for their
sensuous shapes, while rocks of bright color are
generally valued for their massed forms, which best
showcase those colors. The term linglong 玲瓏 ,
which can be translated as “shapely, with hollows
and perforations”,18 was occasionally used as early
as the Song dynasty to characterize attenuated,
perforated rocks of superior form.19 The most shapely
rocks were those deemed “four-sided” (simian 四面 ),
meaning that they could be seen to advantage from
every side or vantage point. Speaking of Lingbi rocks,
Du Wan 杜綰 noted in his 12th-century Yunlin shipu
雲林石譜 that “Mostly they are one- or two-sided; not
one or two out of a hundred has four sides.”20
Material or quality (zhi 質 ) denotes a rock’s basic
fabric and its associated properties. Although
Lingbi, Ying, and Taihu rocks are all formed of
limestone, for example, Lingbi and Ying stones
are so densely structured that they are not only
exceptionally resonant when struck but unusually
hard, features that traditional connoisseurs rely upon
in distinguishing them from the softer Taihu stones.
Correctly recognized as a property deriving from the
hardness of the material itself, resonance (sheng 聲 )
is highly esteemed in Lingbi and Ying rocks, just as it
has long been considered a mark of both fine jades
and Duan inkstones 端硯 . Comprised of quartz,
yellow wax rocks are appreciated both for their color
and for their hardness, which is also likened to that of Lou 漏 means “holes”; applied to rocks, it refers
jade. By contrast, Shoushan soapstones are prized as
much for their translucency as for their softness, the
latter permitting them to be carved as seals.
Colour (se 色 ) refers to a rock’s natural coloration,
a feature that obviously varies not only from
12 BEYOND WHITE CLOUDS 出雲疊嶂 — 文人案頭賞石
family to family but from rock to rock; perhaps the
only constant is that color should be deep, pure,
homogeneous, and beautiful.
Texture (wen 紋 ) refers to a rock’s surface markings
and their associated properties. Lingbi and Ying
rocks are often deeply furrowed, for example, and
they typically boast hollows and perforations. In
general, the more somber colored rocks—Lingbi,
Ying, Qilian, and Taihu—rely upon inventive shapes
and textured surfaces for their aesthetic appeal, while
the more brightly hued stones—malachite, turquoise,
and yellow wax rocks, among others—depend upon
enticing colors, often exhibiting smooth or only
lightly textured surfaces. From Song times onward,
traditional connoisseurs have voiced a preference for
lustrous surfaces, which they term run 潤 , or “moist”,
over matte surfaces, which they call gan 乾 , or “dry”.
Identified already in the Tang dynasty and codified
in the Northern Song period (960–1127) by Mi Fu,
the earliest specific criteria for judging rocks were
based on Taihu stones, which were the best-known
of the day: shou, tou, lou, and zhou.21 Petrophiles of
all succeeding periods have applied those criteria not
only to Taihu stones but to all foraminate stones to
which they can be applied without serious injustice.22
Shou 瘦 means “thin”; applied to stones, it indicates
that a particular rock is not only vertically oriented
but of elegantly slender proportions.
Tou 透 means “transparent” or “penetrable”; applied
to rocks, it might be better translated as “openness”,
a collective reference to the hollows, cavities,
dimples, depressions, furrows, and perforations that
relieve rocks of a portion of their visual weight, thus
imparting lightness and airiness while also imbuing
rhythmic movement and visual drama.
specifically to the apertures that perforate rocks
from any number of families. A more inclusive term,
tou refers to a variety of spherical indentations, or
cavities, in a rock’s surfaces, while lou, a more specific
term, designates only the perforations themselves.
Zhou 皺 means “wrinkles”; applied to stones, it refers