Chinese Mu Gongshi or Wood "Spirit Stone" on Huali Wood Stand

A tree root that decided, somewhere underground, to become a cloud.

This Mu Gongshi, or wood "spirit stone," comes from Wenchuan County in Sichuan Province, China, and is excavated wood, set on a Huali wood stand. Chinese scholars generally prized objects shaped by nature rather than by hand, and contorted roots were admired in the same spirit as eroded rocks. The pale, honey-toned mass is pitted, folded and pierced with small openings, its surface rough as bark in places and smooth as bone in others. It rises from a carved black socket on a tall six-legged stand with stretchers. It is 30 inches wide and 87 high.

Nobody planned this shape, which is entirely the point.