Image Stone

The image stone is also known as pictographic stone and is a common type of ornamental stone. It usually refers to stones with peculiar shapes that resemble the natural landscape, animals and plants, humans or the abstract concepts. It is also a type of ornamental stone associated with a higher level of traditional Chinese stone culture and research and a more comprehensive coverage of theory. In March 1921, Hongyi Zhang, the first president of the Chinese Geological Society, proposed the term ‘image stone’ in the monograph ‘Shi Ya’ (Stone Elegance); in which he stated ‘natural lives are endowed with their own shapes, which do not fully cover their entire bodies but manage to leave their images.’ The encyclopaedia follows this naming convention, and the stones are generally rocks with simple mineral compositions (e.g., carbonate rocks and siliceous rocks). Due to internal and external geological processes, ornamental stones of various shapes can form. In the past, the rock...