Cloud Bone Stone

Cloud Bone Stone

During the Three Kingdoms period, this site was once a quarry. Through continuous carving by generations of skilled craftsmen, it has been transformed into uniquely shaped stone pits, caves, and cliffs with an almost miraculous artistry. Over the centuries, with the influence of religion, the embellishment by literati and celebrities, and further development by later generations, it has now formed attractions such as the Heavenly-Crafted Grand Buddha, Furnace Pillar and Morning Mist, Seven Star Caves, Eight Trigrams Platform, Wenchang Pavilion, Silkworm Flower Cave, and Lotus Listening to Sound.

Known as the “No. 1 Stone Under Heaven,” the Cloud Bone Stone has been praised through the ages as the “Soul of Stone” and the “Ultimate Wonder.” Its peak resembles a bamboo hat, while its base stands like a standing cone—full at the top and tapered at the bottom, exuding a unique sense of wonder and peril. Inscribed in bold clerical script during the early years of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty, the two large characters “云骨” (Cloud Bone), larger than a person, are vigorous and vivid, embodying both form and spirit, highlighting its character and strength. The Cloud Bone Stone stands 31 meters tall, with a base circumference of 4 meters, yet the thickness at its narrowest near the ground is less than 1 meter. Though it appears top-heavy, it has stood firmly through over a thousand years of wind and rain.

The Cloud Bone rises straight from the flat ground toward the sky, its form twisting and changing, reminiscent of Su Dongpo’s poetic line about Mount Lu: “Viewed horizontally, a range; viewed vertically, a peak; near or far, high or low, each view is different”—a true spectacle. Viewed from south to north, the Cloud Bone Stone stands like a cone, graceful and elegant, resembling an upside-down pagoda, appearing so delicate it seems on the verge of collapsing in the wind. Viewed from east to west, it looks like idle clouds drifting from the mountain valley, light and free, or like the rising smoke from a furnace curling into the sky, gradually fading into the ethereal—hence its alternate name, “Furnace Pillar and Morning Mist.” Atop the rock also grows an ancient cypress, lush and verdant, with gnarled branches stretching sideways. It is said to be over a thousand years old and is also known as the “Soul of Stone.” Legend has it that the Cloud Bone Stone served as an ancient stonemason’s height measurement benchmark, commonly called a “vertical marker,” used to ensure the accuracy of stone quarrying dimensions.

To the southeast of the Cloud Bone stands the “Stone-Worshipping Pavilion,” where a couplet reads: “Ten thousand masons could not carve it all away; one pillar stands complete in the sky.” From here, the view of the Cloud Bone is indescribably wonderful. It is said that Mi Fu, the Northern Song Dynasty calligrapher famed as the “Stone Obsessive,” could not bear to leave upon seeing the Cloud Bone. He circled it for days before finally worshipping the stone in this pavilion and becoming “ecstatic.”

The Ke Mountain Stone Buddha is a seated Maitreya statue, carved from a rock about ten zhang (approximately 33 meters) high by a Tang Dynasty monk. Standing 10.6 meters tall, the Buddha has a kind expression and exquisite craftsmanship. With broad cheeks and a wide forehead, the Buddha’s dignified demeanor makes it one of the Four Great Stone Buddhas of Zhejiang. Most remarkably, the Buddha’s ears are interconnected, allowing a person to walk through them freely. To ensure that the prayers of mortals could reach the Buddha’s ears, the sculptor ingeniously employed a romantic technique, hollowing out the ears to connect them. The height of the ear cavities reaches 1.2 meters, wide enough for a child to stand upright inside.

The Ke Mountain Stone Buddha also differs from many other famous stone Buddhas in its carving method. Most stone Buddha carvings use relief techniques, but the Ke Mountain Buddha was created using the rare suspended carving method—the back of the Buddha was hollowed out, making it stand independently from the rock face, connected only at the base.

The “Lotus Listening to Sound” is the largest stone lotus in China. Located at the center of the scenic area, it is paved with 99 massive stones, forming a circle with a radius of 9.9 meters, symbolizing the Buddhist concept of “returning to unity through nine nines.” On clear days, at exactly 10:10 a.m., if you stand at the heart of the lotus, your shadow and the Buddha’s shadow will align in a straight line—a phenomenon called “Unity of Human and Buddha.” On the east side, facing the stone lotus, there is an arc-shaped brick wall known as the Echo Scripture Wall, engraved with the entire Buddhist scripture Diamond Sutra, consisting of over 5,700 characters. Chanting this scripture is believed to enlighten the mind and enhance wisdom. When standing at the center of the lotus and facing the wall to recite the scripture, the echo resonates like a voice from the valley, with Buddhist chants lingering in the air. Even a whisper spoken from one end of the brick wall to the other can be heard with remarkable clarity.