Kun Stone

Kun Stone

　　The water town of Kunshan boasts three treasures: Kun Stone, Qionghua Flower, and Twin Lotus Flowers. Kun Stone ranks as the first treasure (and is also one of China’s Four Famous Stones). Along with Lingbi Stone, Taihu Stone, and Ying Stone, it is honored as one of the “China’s Four Famous Stones,” and together with Taihu Stone and Yuhua Stone, it is known as one of the “Jiangsu Three Famous Stones,” holding an important place among rare stones. Due to its extremely limited availability, it is now very rarely seen on the market. Many stone enthusiasts can only view Kun Stone in written materials.

　　Kunshan is located at the eastern gateway of Jiangsu, bordering Shanghai to the east and Suzhou to the west. In the city center lies Yufeng Mountain (also called Ma’an Mountain), which is only 82 meters high and spans less than three square li. Kun Stone is mined from Yufeng Mountain, where it has been quarried for over a thousand years. Owing to its extreme scarcity, and because even when raw stones are found, they must undergo repeated washing and soaking to reveal their “jade-like, icy beauty,” Kun Stone was formed by crustal movements and volcanic eruptions. Its body is very hard, with a hardness similar to agate (containing 91.57% silicon dioxide), yet it is also quite brittle and difficult to work with. As a result, most Kun Stones we see today are individual stones, and under a magnifying glass, you can see densely packed tiny crystals.

　　There are dozens of varieties of Kun Stone, including the Lotus Leaf Wrinkle, which is ten times more valuable than gold, the Ant Hill Peak that resembles an ant nest, the Chicken Bone Peak that is as thin as chicken bones, the Snowflake Peak with crystals as white as snow, the Walnut Peak shaped like a walnut, the Yangmei Peak resembling a plum blossom, as well as Jellyfish Peak, Crystal Yangmei, and Bird Dropping Peak, among others. Its history predates even the Himalayas, so literati and scholars throughout the ages have competed to collect it at great expense, and royalty and high-ranking officials also vied to possess it.

　　The Song Dynasty poet Lu You praised it in one of his seven-character quatrains: “Yanshan calamus and Kunshan stone, a single fist-shaped piece worth a thousand gold.” At that time, a single piece of Kun Stone could be valued at a hundred gold, and the finest even fetched over a thousand gold. Local government officials, fearing damage to the mountain, prohibited quarrying from the Song Dynasty onward, and successive rulers enforced the ban, inadvertently sparing the mere 82-meter-high Yufeng Mountain from complete destruction, and allowing us the chance to still see Kun Stone. That’s why Kun Stone has become all the more precious.