The Romance of Scholar’s Stones: Adventures in Appreciation

The Romance of Scholars’ Stones Adventures in Appreciation shou, zhou, lou, and tou? Were ink mountain stones the earliest collected stone form, and were they valued primarily for their utilitarian function? What are the Qingzhou stones mentioned in one early text, but ignored in subsequent writings? What should we be looking for when we evaluate an ancient stone? How can we tell if it is ancient without written records and how much weight can be given any documentation? Finally, using the tools of connoisseurship and textual evidence, is it possible to verify that a stone first collected in the former Han dynasty is the stone we are looking at today? Kemin Hu is one of the foremost experts on Chinese scholars’ stones and author of several books on the subject, including Modern Chinese Scholars’ Rocks, Scholars’ Rocks in Ancient China: the Suyuan Stone Catalogue and The Spirit of Gongshi.