In the west we generally expect philosophy to come from books.In the east,more wisely,
There's an awareness that it may also come from other things. For example:
rocks
this is a brief history of a remarkable Eastern tradition of
Philosophical Rock appreciation
826 AD, Tang Dynasty, Lake Tai, Jiangsu Province, China
A middle-aged gentleman is taking a stroll around a large lake on the yangtze Delta plain in Eastern China
When something on its shore catches his eye
It's an apparently trivial yet momentous discovery : a pair of oddly shaped rocks
This is perhaps no less than the founding moment in Chinese petro-philia. This cultivated pedestrian is someone special
After numerous ups and downs in his career as a state official,
Including periods of imperial disfavor in exile, Baidu has finally made it. He's been appointed
prefect of the nearby city of Xu Zhu. He also happens to be one of China's major Poets.
It's not a chance combination of talents. The ideal administrator doesn't just know maths and timekeeping. In China
He's meant to be a man of learning and the arts. Many of China's leading poets and painters have careers in public service.
So struck is Baidu by these rocks with their twisted angles and perforations that he has them taken back home to Xu Zhu.
Soon after his return he sits down and writes a poem about them : A pair of rocks.
Baidu starts by admitting that the rocks are not typically beautiful:
Dark sallow, two slates of rocks, their appearance is grotesque and ugly
They're also covered in dirt and begrimed with smoke. Their cavity's thick with green moss.
He describes himself washing and scrubbing them. Such as what is the value of these unprepossessing specimens?
Daoism which began as a philosophy in ancient China, before turning into a popular religion,
cherishes nature and it's evidence of Nature's Force that Baidu welcomes in these rocks. The holes
perforations and indentations sing the patient mighty forces of the universe which we should respect, admire, and
attempt to find harmony with. The ancient rocks are also a consolation for an
Ageing-by, who feels excluded from the world of youngsters. As he writes:
Turning my head around I ask the pair of rocks
"Can you keep company with an old man like myself?" Athough the rocks cannot speak they promise that we will be three friends.
Thanks to Baidu's enthusiasm and poetic talent a wave of interest in rocks follows.
12th Century AD, Northern Song Dynasty, Wu Wei District, China
Mi Fu, another rather eccentric scholar official has just been appointed as a magistrate in Wu-Wei County.
On arrival he has to pay an important social visit.
He's been invited to meet and greet all the other important administrators with whom he'll be working.
They stand waiting for him in the front garden of the official residence
But as he walks towards them they're shocked at a sudden breach of protocol on his behalf
For he's been stopped in his tracks by an unusually large rock in the garden
instead of offering his respects to his hosts, Mi Fu turns and bows ceremoniously to the rock, then addresses it as
"Elder brother rock" and makes an elaborate speech in its honor
Only after fully expressing his devotion to this amazing rock does Mi finally turn to his
flabbergasted hosts.
It was this story that earned Mi Fu his soubriquet :
"Crazy Mi" and captured the imagination of East Asia's painters for whom Mi Fu and Elder Brother Rock
Remained a favorite image for centuries to come.
Mi Fu goes on to write a treatise on rocks that enumerates four main aesthetic qualities
he detects in them: 1) Su -an elegant and upright stature 2) Zu -a wrinkled
in-furrow texture 3)Lu - or cracks that are like channels or paths through the Rock and
4) Tu - the holes in the rock that allow air and light to pass through. In
The Eleventh and twelfth Century, Chinese Northern song Dynasty the passion for collecting rocks among scholar officials like Mi Fu
Takes off in earnest. Stones are mounted on wooden bases and placed on desks as constant sources of inspiration.
The decorative stones become known as "Gongshi" -
Spirit Stones
Popularly mistranslated as "Scholars Rocks" in English.
They're peculiarly twisted Shapes are admired as evidence of the Qi energy that is believed to animate nature and the human body alike.
Any cultivated person is expected to have an appreciation of rocks
They're valued quite as highly as any painting or calligraphic scroll.
During the song Dynasty, the most favored rocks are quarried from the Limestone of Lingbi be in the Northern Anhui province.
Lingbi rocks are dark black and glossy in texture.
January 1127 AD, end of the Northern Song Dynasty, Kaifeng, Northern China
The imperial capital of China, Kaifeng, is under siege and about to fall to the Jurchens, a nomadic people from Manchuria.
Soon the Song Emperor Huizong will be taken captive and forced to abdicate, while his son
Qinzong will flee to the south to establish a new court and the Southern song Dynasty.
China will be split in two. In his desperate final days of the Northern Song, the order is given for the trees in Huizong's
spectacular imperial Garden at Kaifeng to be cut down for
firewood and for its incredible array of fabulous rocks to be pulled out of the ground and used in catapults against the invaders.
It's a sad end to what was reputed to have been one of the most remarkable gardens in World history
The Royal Park is said to have been teeming with striking rocks
but emperor Huizong's passion for rocks has clearly got rather out of hand and
explains his neglect of security issues. Huizong had in previous years
Appointed a royal official to explore the whole of China in search of precious rocks for his garden
Tales are bounded of his officials abuse. It's said that he dismantled a bridge to let boats with huge rocks
Pass by on a particular canal a love of rocks appears to have hastened the collapse of the Northern Song Empire.
1450 AD, Muromachi Period ,Japan
In 15th Century Japan a new type of Rock Garden develops. As with much in Chinese culture the obsession with rocks has crossed over to Japan
But has been adapted there in a particular way. In Japan the spirit rocks are called "Soseki" and the Japanese favor much more subdued
smooth rocks than the Chinese.
In Japan, rocks are treasured for their weathered appearance that exemplifies the worn simplicity of the aesthetic known as "Wabi-sabi".
in Japan the rocks are not so much placed on wooden stands as
positioned in trays surrounded by sand or water and are meant to evoke mountains and corresponding lakes.
At several Zen Buddhist temples and most remarkably at Ryōan-ji in Kyoto the stones start to be set in very minimal settings
So as to emphasize their qualities. The raking of the gravel around the rocks by Temple monks grows into a careful and precise art.
There are various patterns ones meant to use, including the "water pattern of
Concentric rings"- or ripples, like those produced when a stone is dropped in a lake. "The stormy water pattern"of
Haphazardly overlapping semi circles and "the continuous wave effect" of parallel or gently undulating lines.
The originator of the East Asian Reverence for Rocks , Baidu,
Was well aware of how powerful a love of rocks can become. In his essay
"Account of the Lake Tai rock" he speaks of an addiction that some rocks can bring about. "Truly wise people should", he says,
"Restrict their rock worship to a few hours a day".
When few of us spend more than a few minutes a year looking at a rock the advice seems less than urgent
Indeed the tradition of Rock reverence has a lot to teach us
That wisdom can hang off bits of the natural world
Just as well as issuing from books. That we need to surround ourselves with objects that embody
Certain values we're in danger of losing sight of day to day
And that some of our most precious moments can be spent in the presence of nothing more chatty,
prestigious, or costly than an old stone ripe with years.