scholar's rock

English

Lingbi stone from Anhui. Ming Dynasty, 15th century

Noun

scholar's rock (plural scholars' rocks)

1. An unusually shaped rock, traditionally appreciated by Chinese scholars.
   • 2004, Robert N. Linrothe, Paradise and Plumage, page 24:

     The many Tibetans who traveled to Yuan and Ming China would have developed knowledge, experience, and appreciation for scholars' rocks.

   • 2007, Emily Prager, Wuhu Diary, page 122:

     The scholar's rock is placed across from the old moon gate I love so much, and LuLu decides to investigate it.

   • 2020, John Finlay, Henri Bertin and the Representation of China in Eighteenth-Century France:

     What the missionaries had sent to Bertin was the type now commonly referred to as a scholar's rock, sometimes fantastically contorted stones which would have been an indispensable fixture of a Chinese scholar's studio.