It is a time honored practice to display rocks in outdoor gardens or indoors on pedestals for appreciation. The great calligrapher and painter Mi Fu loved rocks to distraction. Bowing to them nearly everywhere he encountered them, he became known as ‘Mi the Eccentric’. The famous poet Su Shi had a passion for rocks as well and composed many beautiful verses about them:
“I returned, carrying this rock with me,
So the Eastern Sea was cradled in my sleeves.”
“The clouds and smoke beyond three mountain peaks
Could all be viewed in a fistful of Ningxian rock.”
These examples attest to the long history of rock appreciation.