Chinese Scholar's Rock

Scholars gave their desks a mountain. This one has holes you can see through.

This scholar's rock comes from Pingxiang Town, Guangxi, China, and is of indeterminate age, a stone set on a hard wood base. In China, educated men kept such stones in their studios for contemplation, treating a single rock as a small mountain to wander in the mind. The pale, knobbled stone splits upward in two lobes, pierced by hollows and openings. A carved base rises in wavelike folds over curving legs joined by scrolled stretchers. Eighteen inches high.

The mountain is portable. The patience is not.