What is the history of Taihu Stone?

The mining history of Taihu Stone can be traced back to at least the Tang Dynasty. According to Qing Louis, people began to like it in the late Jin Dynasty of the Five Dynasties, especially in the Tang Dynasty. The Song of the Stone in Taihu Lake in Tang Dynasty vividly describes the causes and methods of the water stone in Taihu Lake: "The lake below Dongting Mountain is full of clear water, and the stone is hidden in the waves through the ages. Obtained by looking for iron chains. Who can know the grotesque? " Bai Juyi once wrote "Taihu Stone" and "Taihu Stone Record", describing the origin and shape characteristics of Taihu Stone. In the Song Dynasty, stone-hiding and stone-appreciating became more popular and developed rapidly as a cultural phenomenon. For example, Su Dongpo, a great writer, pioneered the offering of stones to the Buddha. Wandu's "Yunlin Stone Spectrum" embodies the essence of the literati's view of appreciating stones in the Song Dynasty. The "Huashi class" at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty was also related to Taihu Stone. In the Ming Dynasty, Lin wrote "Su Yuan Shi Pu", which recorded that "the work of Taihu Lake in Pingjiang (present-day Suzhou), taking aniseed, or one or two feet high, first carved into the rushing water, collided with it, and smoked or dyed it for a long time".

Celebrity's interest in stones: Niu Senru bought a mansion and a villa in the east and south of Luoyang respectively. He "has no valuable property to run a family, and he has nothing to offer for himself". Friends who work everywhere know that he has a stone addiction, so they try their best to find strange things and offer roses. "Make public this thing is not cheap, but it is the first in the east and the second in the south ... with three mountains and five mountains, hundreds of holes and thousands of valleys.

Niu Sengru loves to store stones, mostly Suzhou Taihu Stone. Once, his friend Li worked as a local official in Suzhou, and when he turned around, he got several "grotesque" stone peaks in Taihu Lake. "When the pond first appeared, jade was light. The dizzy soul is still shocked, and the meaning of Zhou Guan is gradually flat. Like every three friends, like brothers for ten years. Wang Xing's magic will not only disturb the night. " In addition to admiration, Niu Monk-ru wrote a 40-sentence five-character poem and presented it to Bai Juyi and Liu Yuxi. Both of them were greatly surprised when they visited, and each presented one. Bai Juyi praised him as "a stunner in the world, such as a man who lost his talents" and lamented that although he had done Suzhou secretariat, he had no chance to get this wonderful stone. "* * * ... There is no such thing, he is in charge of Taihu Lake." Liu Yuxi also mentioned in his poem: "Those who contend for congratulations are happy to listen to their words." A state is shocked to read treasures, thousands of miles away. "Reading makes people want to see its style. Niu Senru's poem "The Story of the Stone" and his masterpiece "Singing with Friends", Li Suzhou's grotesque Taihu Stone was given a happy dream because of the theme of 20 rhymes, and Feng and Niu Xianggong's "The Theme of Sending Taihu Stone from Gusu" was given to Li Suzhou because of the theme of 20 rhymes, which became an eternal masterpiece of China Stone Garden.

Celebrities' interest in stones: Li Deyu's interest in stones surpassed that of Li Deyu, a former prime minister. Li Deyu has Pingquan Villa in the suburb of Luoyang, which "delights in the garden pool with strange trees and rocks in the world" and has become a major local landscape. Strange stones collected from all over the world, such as Taihu Stone, Taishan Stone, Wushan Stone and Luofushan Stone, have been carefully laid into the shape of famous mountains and rivers. While collecting and appreciating beautiful stones, Li Deyu also wrote many poems about stones, such as Strange Stones, Like Deer Stones, Stalagmites on the Sea, Stacked Stones, Taishan Stones, Wushan Stones and Six Chapters of Mountain Dwelling? Luofu Mountain, Diaoshi, Yipingquan Tree and Stone Poems, etc. He wrote in a poem entitled "Louvre Stone": "Why go to a famous mountain? There are many peaks here. " Very proud. Li Deyu cherishes these strange stones and trees very much, and once warned future generations: "Those who bury springs are not my descendants; Giving a tree and a stone to others in Pingquan is not a good boy! "Every time Li Deyu gets a strange stone, he gives it a title and engraves the word" Youdao "on the stone table, which probably means" makes sense in it ".

Liu Kezhuang, a poet in the Song Dynasty, said: "Cowherd and Lee are as hot as ice, and they love stones as one person." Seriously! In the late Tang Dynasty, Niu Sen Ru and Li Deyu both held high positions as prime ministers, and their political views were hostile for 40 years. They are the two main representatives of the famous "Niuli Party Struggle" in the political situation in the late Tang Dynasty, but they have the same hobby of strange stones, and set off a wave of collection and appreciation of strange stones in the middle Tang Dynasty. According to Xiao's Hou Wen (Volume 27), "Niu Monks and Confucians are enemies of Li Deyu, and their countries are different, but they know the same. Today, in Luoyang Gongqing Garden, there are stones, odd seals, Buddhist relics, spring-adjusting people and Deyu relics. "

Niu Sengru and Li Deyu were both famous stone collectors in the Tang Dynasty. They became friends in the Stone Appreciation Garden and became a much-told story in stone altars of past dynasties.

Celebrities' interest in stone: Bai Juyi wrote more than 3,000 poems, including Double Stone, Taihu Stone, Lotus Stone, Qin Stone for Friends, Taihu Stone for Literary Criticism, etc. Resigned in his later years, lived in Luoyang and became friends with Shi. In the ninth year of Tang Taihe (AD 835), a mountain traveler gave him a big stone. When he sat on it, he felt very cool and happy, so he wrote a sentence and carved it on a stone. He collected many kinds of strange stones, and once said, "Let's just keep one beryl from Hangzhou and five Taihu stones at home." From his poems on stone appreciation, we know that he also has several kinds of marble, such as Taihu Shuangshi, Lingbi Pian Shi, An Baili Shi, Zi Ling Shi, Lantian Qingshi, Luofushi and so on.

As a poet, Bai Juyi not only knows the origin, provenance, personality characteristics and how to clean up and use the strange stones, but also injects his own association and spiritual sustenance, which leads to various feelings about life from appreciating the strange stones. His stone poems and records have a far-reaching influence on the appreciation of stones and the evaluation of stone roads in later generations. For example, the poem "Ode to Double Stones" vividly describes the origin, shape, arrangement process and function of two stones. The two most important sentences in the whole poem can not be ignored in the construction of China's early stone appreciation theory. One is "there are two pale stones, which are extremely ugly." Up to now, some stone-appreciating cultural researchers often mistakenly think that the stone-appreciating standard of "grotesque ugliness" (so-called Chou Shi view) was put forward by Su Dongpo (Song Dynasty) and Qing Dynasty respectively. As we all know, Su Dongpo's thought of "offering strange stones" and Zheng Banqiao's thought of "being handsome in ugliness and beautiful in ugliness" probably originated from this sentence. The other sentence "Stone can't be said, but it makes me three friends" was first put forward before Niu Senru's "interacting with stone" and Fei's "worshiping stone as a brother" and "being a husband". It can be seen that it laid a theoretical foundation for later stone appreciation theories such as "taking stone as a friend", "taking stone as a medium" and "stone can't be said to be the most pleasing to the eye". "The strongest stone is the most spiritual person", and Bai Juyi and Shuangshi became "three friends". I don't know how many people have been moved by the heart of sending feelings by stones.

Bai Juyi loves stones rather than hiding them. Although he had no choice but to avoid the "party struggle between Niu and Li", he took this opportunity to show his ambition, that is, "he lived in Suzhou for a long time and never gave Taihu a stone."