By Thomas S. Elias

The five-volume Mustard Seed Garden manual published over several years starting in 1679 became a major multi-century guide for painting landscapes, rocks, and trees. The book on painting rocks is used here with a brush and a small Ying stone. This trio of Chinese elements combines to reinforce the elevated status that unusual rocks played in Chinese literature, poetry, and paintings. Throughout the dynasties, writers waxed eloquently about the features of certain stones, especially the Lingbi, Taihu, and Ying stones. Artists rendered the stone in simple to complex paintings, first in black ink, then with colors. The intimate link between stones, the literati, and the literature they produced reached a greater level in China than in any other country. This display attempts to convey the importance between the rock and the artist.