September 28 to October 8, 2025

A Grand Lingbi Stone Exhibition in Yugou Town

by Ge Xing

Yugou Town(渔沟镇), known as the hometown of Lingbi stones, hosted a grand exhibition from September 28 to October 8, 2025. This small town, belonging to Suzhou City(宿州市) in Anhui Province(安徽省), is the core place of origin for Lingbi stones since the Song Dynasty (960-1279). The exhibition was the largest in scale in the past 20 years, displaying around seven hundred Lingbi stones.

Famous for its comprehensive aesthetic perspectives of shape, texture, color and sound, Lingbi stones are among the most popular viewing stones in China. They have been collected, appreciated and cherished by stone fans for centuries. 

Despite stone fans in China continuing to appreciate Lingbi stones in the way of scholar’s stone (文人石) or Gong Shi (供石), several new trends of appreciating Lingbi stones were unveiled at the exhibition.  

First of all, an increasing number of stone fans now choose not to polish the stones. There has been a tradition that Lingbi stones should be brushed and polished for enhancement after they are collected from beneath the earth. The Yun Lin Shi Pu (《云林石谱》), published in Song Dynasty, says that people then used an iron knife to scrape the stone’s surface, and polished it with a brush. 

Nowadays, some stone fans do not polish the stones. It is partly due to a change in aesthetic views as people now prefer things that are ‘pure nature’. On the other hand, the rising price of Lingbi stones has led to an increasing number of fake stones. An unpolished Lingbi stone itself can indicate that it is not a fake one. 

Another trend is the stand for the stones. Traditionally, unique stands are designed for each Lingbi stone to highlight their beauty. But as is shown in the following two photos, a Lingbi stone can now be placed without a wood stand, or on a stand that looks like a platform rather than a well-engraved stand. Such a retro trend shows Chinese stone fans’ taste of chasing the old fashion Ming (1368-1644) or even Song (960-1279) Dynasty styles, instead of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) style which is now considered to be too complicated.