Chinese Scholar's Rock

A hole straight through the middle, and a long point reaching out to the right like a wave about to break.

This scholar's rock comes from Yunnan Province, China, and is stone. Chinese literati prized stones with perforations, hollows and dramatic silhouettes, qualities often summed up in classical writing on rocks as thinness, openness, perforation and wrinkling. This one is a flat, upright slab of sandy, granular stone in honey and cream. A round hole pierces the upper body, a deep curve cuts in below it, and a tapering arm sweeps off to one side. It rests in a fitted black stand. It is 10 inches wide and 11.5 high.

Weather and water made the shape. The stand just made it official.