Ｇｒｏｔｅｓｑｕｅ Ｓｔｏｎｅｓ Ｉｎｓｐｉｒｅ Ｆａｓｃｉｎａｔｉｏｎ

China stands out alone in the world as a nation that loves stones. I am not talking about stones used as seals or about artists seeking the beauty of calligraphy in stones and carving poetic pithy inscriptions on seals. Nor am I talking about jades loved by primitive tribes in immemorial times. I am talking about stones pure and simple. We Chinese made stone totems; we have an ancient legend about a goddess using stones to repair the leaking sky; we have an equally ancient legend about a girl becoming a bird and trying to fill the sea up with pebbles after she got drowned in the sea.

Stones are part of the Chinese culture. Stones of various sizes and colors have been desktop decorations in studies for ages. Chinese intelligentsia has loved stones since ancient times. Stories about some big-name scholars’ passion for and fascination with stones well describe their personalities. Some painters name themselves after stones. And the timeless novel the Dream of the Red Mansion was originally called the Story of Stones. In the Song Dynasty (960-1279)， a scholar named Song Guan wrote an encyclopedic book on stones and in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) another scholar named Lin Youlin produced a book on aesthetic stones.

I fell in love with stones when I was in Nanjing， also known as the city of stones. Nanjing is best known for its colorful pebbles known as “Rain Flower Stones”. I just couldn’t tear myself away from these stones. I often visited stone vendors at the market near the Confucius Temple by the Qinhuai River. Sometimes I traveled tens of kilometers by bus to search stones in the countryside during long weekends. In these remote places， local villagers picked only small-sized rain-flower gems and ignored big-sized ones. So I would search among these ignored large-sized stones to see if I could find something that appealed to me.

The stones I have collected give me pleasure more than I can describe. They are poems; they magically illustrate famous classical poems; and they are music in my ears; and they set fire on my imagination.

Once I was sightseeing in Zhangjiajie， a scenic tourist attraction in Hunan. I was fascinated by the colored stones in the streams in its mountains. On the noon of last day， we stopped at a restaurant for lunch. I hastily finished lunch and sneaked out to a nearby stream. When my friends found me missing， they began to look for me. My wife guessed right and suggested they looked for me in the stream. They found me there. Fascinated by the beautiful stones in the riverbed， all of us began to pick the most appealing ones. Our driver found a stone as large as a brick. On its purple and reddish background was a milk white pattern that looked like a Chinese character. At first we failed to see what the pattern was. Then I examined it and found it present a painting. Looking at it at a certain angle， you could recognize five soldiers marching in the snow with their backpacks and caps. We agreed about the image and then we decided upon an appropriate title for the image after a brainstorming. Today， this stone is in my collection. A look at it reminds me of the trip and reveals the magic of nature.

Another wonderful stone in my collection was a good buy at the market at Confucius Temple in Nanjing. The black stone has a white irregular circle in the center. It looked ordinary at first sight and the vendor thought it uninteresting. I bought it for a song， thinking I could probably find its real value later. That evening， I examined it from every angle. Then suddenly I knew what it was: the pattern looks like a baby unborn in mother’s uterus. So I called it “embryo”. But few days later， I found the name was too direct and scientific. So I changed it to “new life”. Still not satisfied with the name， I pondered for another few days. Then I remembered “人之初”， the very beginning of a famous Chinese classic entitled Three-Character Primer. That title is most appropriate in addition to be classy and philosophical.

Stones bring peace and relaxation to me. I have made friends through stones. I have stories to tell about the stones in my collection and I can talk about images in stones for a long while. Some of my friends have become stone collectors because of my stones and my stories.

The author used to be the vice director of the PLA Daily and a leader of PLA Nanjing College of Politics.