Chrysanthemum stone was born in Permian more than 270 million years ago. Liuyang was still a shallow sea at that time. The geological movement caused great changes. All kinds of fossil remains and silt are deposited with stones. Magmatic movement under high temperature and high pressure caused metasomatic erosion of sedimentary rocks. Finally, it is radial in appearance, resembling a chrysanthemum in nature, and named after the chrysanthemum stone. Chrysanthemum stone is named after the calcite crystal contained in the stone resembles chrysanthemum, and it is also called "singing stone".
The main producing area of chrysanthemum stone is Liuyang, Hunan Province, and the earliest chrysanthemum stone was found on the banks of Yonghe Daxi River in Liuyang, Hunan Province. In the five years of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, people at that time took dikes to build dams and found chrysanthemum stones at the bottom of the Daxi River. A scholar named Ouyang Panqian accidentally picked up the chrysanthemum stone, took it back and skillfully carved it into an inkstone. Because the inkstone is handsome and lovely, the chrysanthemum is elegant and delicate, and the ink preserved for several months does not dry up. The smoothness of the earth and ink was once called a strange thing, and its reputation became a tribute of the court.
Most of the chrysanthemum stones seen on the market now are produced in Liuyang, and many of them are excavated at the bottom of the Daxi River dozens of meters. After carving by masters of arts and crafts, the works of art formed will make a crisp sound when tapped on the surface, so they are also called singing stones. "