Yúnlín shípǔ 雲林石譜
Yún-lín’s Treatise on Decorative Stones by 杜綰 (Dù Wǎn, 撰)
About the work
A three-juàn early-Southern-Sòng monograph on decorative-stones — the founding text of the Chinese shípǔ 石譜 (stone-connoisseurship) literature. By Dù Wǎn 杜綰 zì Jìyáng 季揚, hào Yúnlín jūshì 雲林居士, grandson of the famous Northern-Sòng prime minister Dù Yǎn 杜衍 (978–1057). The work catalogues one hundred and sixteen varieties of decorative-stone — jiǎshān 假山 (mountain-rocks for garden ornament), qīngwán 清玩 (refined-objects for desk display), plus ink-stone-materials (e.g. Duānxī) and utensil-materials (e.g. fúguāng shí 浮光石) — each with its locality of production, method of acquisition, form, color, lustre, and grade.
With a preface by Kǒng Chuán 孔傳 of Quēlǐ (Confucius’s village in Shāndōng) dated Shàoxīng 3 (1133). The Sòng Bǎichuān xuéhǎi recension is followed in the Sìkù; the Míng Zhōu Lǚjìng 周履靖 recension added two spurious “annexed treatises” (the Xuānhé shípǔ 宣和石譜 on the famous Huīzōng Gěnyuè garden stones, and a Yúyánggōng shípǔ 漁陽公石譜 — both Míng-period compilations falsely ascribed to Dù Wǎn’s authorship; the Sìkù editors detect the falsification and exclude both annexes).
Tiyao
We submit that the Yúnlín shípǔ is in three juàn by Dù Wǎn of the Sòng. Wǎn, zì Jìyáng, was styled Yúnlín jūshì; a man of Shānyīn, grandson of the Prime-Minister Dù Yǎn. This book gathers one hundred sixteen varieties of decorative-stone, each provided with its locality of production, method of extraction, with detailed form, color and lustre, and ranked by grade. The Duānxī kind further covers ink-stone material; the Fúguāng kind further covers utensil-making material — not merely a pǔ of garden-mountain refined objects. It is preceded by a Shàoxīng guǐchǒu (1133) preface by Kǒng Chuán 孔傳 of Quēlǐ — Chuán is the same Chuán who continued Bái Jūyì’s Liùtiē. The preface calls Wǎn a descendant of Dù Fǔ and quotes Dù Fǔ’s verse “Water falling, fish-and-dragons by night” to claim that the Chángshā / Xiāngxiāng mountains’ fish-and-dragons transformed into stones, and that Dù Fǔ had thus given them poetic-form; that Wǎn, in making this treatise, was therefore able to continue his family heritage. Investigating: Dù Fǔ’s couplet appears in the Qínzhōu záshī — composed during his journey from Shǎn[xī] to Shǔ — how could it have reached the territory of Chǔ? Moreover Dù Fǔ’s poetic-intent here is not the praise-of-stones — this is unmotivated forced-association. The appended Xuānhé shípǔ records the named Gěnyuè stones with names only and no descriptions — unknown who composed it. Also appended is the Yúyánggōng shípǔ recording stone-loving anecdotes — also of unknown authorship. Within it appears the names of Zhōu Gōngjǐn (周公謹), Yuán Yíshān (元遺山, the Jīn poet Yuán Hǎowèn) — so it cannot be by Wǎn. This is intrusion by Míng Zhōu Lǚjìng 周履靖 when he printed the work. We now record only Wǎn’s text as resource for verification, and the two appended pǔ are entirely cut and not recorded. Máo Jìn 毛晉 once printed this book as one juàn, losing also Kǒng Chuán’s preface — but the textual content shows no great difference, so we do not record it separately. Submitted Qiánlóng 46 month 3 (1781).
Abstract
The work is the foundational text of Chinese decorative-stone literature and one of the earliest systematic regional surveys of Chinese mineralogy and gemology. Its 116 varieties cover virtually every kind of Sòng-period decorative-stone, from the famous Língbì shí 靈璧石 (Líng-bì-county black-stone), Tàihú shí 太湖石 (Tài-hú-lake limestone — the principal garden-rock of southern China), Yīngshí 英石 (Guǎngdōng dolomitic limestone), and Kūnshān shí 崐山石 (the Sū-zhōu-area silica-veined stone — the “four famous stones” of Chinese garden tradition), through the less-known regional types from across China.
Dù Wǎn’s fl. spans the Jìngkāng catastrophe (1126–1127) and the early Shàoxīng (1131+) — he is therefore a transitional figure between Northern and Southern Sòng. The Kǒng Chuán preface of 1133 gives the firm terminus ante quem; the work was probably composed in the late 1120s or early 1130s.
The work’s value to modern scholarship is multiple: as the principal source for Sòng-period mineralogy and garden-stone culture; as a witness to the geography of Sòng-period stone-extraction and trade-routes; and as a foundational document for the jiǎshān (rockery / garden-rock) tradition that became central to YuánMíngQīng Chinese garden-design. The work shaped every subsequent Chinese stone-treatise, including Lín Yǒulín 林有麟’s late-Míng Sùyuán shípǔ 素園石譜 (1613, the most heavily-illustrated Chinese stone-treatise).
Translations and research
- Schafer, Edward H. 1961. Tu Wan’s Stone Catalogue of Cloudy Forest: A Commentary and Synopsis. Berkeley: U California Press. The standard Western-language translation-and-commentary — Schafer’s translation of the entire Yún-lín shí-pǔ with extensive scholarly apparatus.
- Mowry, Robert D. 1997. Worlds Within Worlds: The Richard Rosenblum Collection of Chinese Scholars’ Rocks. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Art Museums. Treats Dù Wǎn as foundational source.
- Hay, John. 1985. Kernels of Energy, Bones of Earth: The Rock in Chinese Art. New York: China Institute in America. Cites Yún-lín extensively.
- Liú Yìfeng 劉益峰. 2010. Yún-lín shí-pǔ jiào-zhù 雲林石譜校注. Wǔ-hàn: Hú-běi shī-fàn dà-xué chū-bǎn-shè (Chinese critical edition).
Other points of interest
The Yúnlín shípǔ is the earliest extant source for the yúzhuǎn shí 魚轉石 — fossil-fish stones, which Dù Wǎn correctly describes as ancient organisms turned to stone within rock — a remarkable proto-paleontological observation, eight centuries before Western paleontology. The work also records the fúguāng shí 浮光石 (luminescent stone — likely a form of fluorescent calcite or strontianite from Hunan), and the yúnmǔ 雲母 (mica) varieties. Schafer’s 1961 translation is one of the classics of Western Sinology and remains the indispensable reference.