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Chinese Ying Scholar Viewing Stone

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Western Americana Start Price:10.00 USD Estimated At:150.00 - 200.00 USD
Chinese Ying Scholar Viewing Stone
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23" long by 14 1/4" high by 12 1/4" deep. 31400 grams. Very heavy, shipping will be expensive. Ying stones have long been valued for their aesthetic qualities in China. They were cited in Tu Wan’s Stone Catalogue of Cloudy Forest, an early 12th-century book of stones. This early publication described Ying stones as various colored rocks, with peaks and hollows, taken from rivers. Ying stones are also illustrated in Lin Youlin’s Plain Garden Stone Catalog Suyuan Shipu published in 1613. Ying stones from the southern provinces were prized in the Song dynasty 960-1279 CE, but according to Mowry they were replaced in popularity by the darker colored Lingbi stones from Anhui province by the Ming dynasty 1368-1644 CE. The Lingbi stones occurred much closer to the cultural centers and gardens in Wuxi, Yangzhou, Nanjing, and Suzhou than the Ying stones. Transporting large stones during the Ming was a significant challenge and may have contributed more to the preference shift for Lingbi stones. Ying stones were displayed in the gardens of the Imperial household in the Forbidden City in Beijing.