Chinese Stone Gongshi

Someone saw a marsh in a yellow stone. It is hard to disagree.

This gongshi is hulu stone from Guangxi, China, on a hardwood base. Its age is indeterminate. Chinese scholars and officials set such stones on stands in their studios, treating them as aids to thought and as nature brought indoors. The top is yellow going to green, crossed by a net of brown lines that read like reeds. The sides swell in soft lobes, a dark band runs low around the stone, and the stand sits on small feet. Fourteen inches wide and six high.

The stand was made to fit. The stone made no such effort.