Taihu Stone

Taihu Stone

　　Taihu Stone refers to stones sourced from Lake Taihu in Jiangsu, characterized by numerous cavities and wrinkled textures. These stones are often used to create artificial rockeries and embellish cultural landscapes such as gardens and courtyards.

　　As an ancient saying goes: “Layered and towering, a heap of jade in solemn green. Peaks rise like immortal palms side by side, clefts part as sword gates swing wide.” It draws us into the timeless artistic realm crafted by these renowned stones.

　　Taihu Stone is one of China’s four most famous ornamental stones (the others being Ying Stone, Lingbi Stone, and Yellow Wax Stone). It earned its name from Lake Taihu and specifically refers to limestone produced around the lake, primarily in areas near Suzhou’s Dongting West Mountain and Yixing. Among these, Yuanshan and Yuzhi Mountain are the most renowned sources.

　　 Lake Taihu, anciently known as Zhenze and also called “Lize,” is the remnant of an ancient coastal lake, situated at the border between Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, in the southern part of the Yangtze River Delta. Around 1 million years ago, Lake Taihu was still a large bay, but gradually became cut off from the sea, transitioning through a process of freshwater evolution to become an inland lake. Covering an area of 2,425 square kilometers with a shoreline stretching 400 kilometers, it is China’s third-largest freshwater lake. Thus, ancient geological movements left behind abundant stone resources. Taihu was said to span “thirty-six thousand hectares, surrounded by eight hundred li,” though in reality, factors such as sediment accumulation and human land reclamation have significantly reduced its size, exposing parts of the lakebed. As a result, while stone materials remain plentiful, their extraction is appropriately limited due to environmental conservation. Taihu Stone is a commonly used material in classical Chinese gardens, either displayed alone or stacked to form rockeries. Originally sourced from the shores of Lake Taihu at Dongting Mountain in Suzhou, the stones have been shaped over the years by constant wave action, forming numerous hollows, perforations, and channels. Their uniquely rugged shapes have long been favored by garden designers. There are three types of Taihu Stone: white Taihu Stone, bluish-black Taihu Stone, and bluish-gray Taihu Stone. Stone workers dive with tools to retrieve the stones, which are then hoisted onto large boats using thick ropes and transported to construction sites for garden landscaping. The Ming dynasty painter and garden designer Wen Zhenheng wrote in his work *Treatise on Superfluous Things*: “Taihu Stones found in water are the most valuable. Over the years, the constant impact of waves hollows them out, making every surface exquisitely intricate.” Taihu Stone is a type of limestone, mostly gray in color, with white and black variants being rare. Over vast periods, the limestone has been eroded by wave action and carbon dioxide-rich water, gradually forming the naturally sculpted, gracefully curved Taihu Stones we see today.