Shoushan Stone is one of the traditional Chinese “Four Seal Stones”. Based on the direction of the veins, Shoushan stone can be divided into three series: Gaoshan, Qishan and Yueyang. Because the Shoushan mining area was mined early, the old saying of "field pits, water pits, and mountain pits" refers to the ore mined at the bottom of fields, water streams, and caves in this mining area. After 1,500 years of mining, hundreds of varieties of Shoushan Stone have emerged. ?
In addition to being used in large quantities to produce various seals, Shoushan stone is also widely used to carve figures, animals, flowers and birds, landscapes, scenery, stationery, utensils and other various works of art.
Liang Kejia's "Three Mountains Chronicles" said that Shoushan stones began to be mined in large quantities in the Song Dynasty and used for carvings. The exquisite ones were shipped to Bianliang as tribute and became the playthings of the court. The larger ones were displayed on several cases by dignitaries for appreciation, while the smaller ones were kept as ornaments in the hands of literati.
The Shoushan stone carving art of the Song Dynasty has reached a level that can be appreciated, so there is a history of "collection", but most of them are collected by the palace and dignitaries. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Shoushan stone seals began to be used for engraving seals, which led to the emergence of the art of Shoushan stone seal buttons. The collection of Shoushan stone seal materials and Shoushan stone seal buttons became the "patent" of the literati at that time, and has continued to influence it to this day, becoming a historical social trend.
The top variety of Shoushan Stone, Tianhuang Stone, has been a coveted treasure since the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty. Because of this, the paddy fields in Shoushan Village have been dug up countless times since the Qing Dynasty. Today’s fields are Huang is almost extinct. In the Republic of China, there was a saying of "one or two fields of yellow and three taels of gold". Now its price has already exceeded "one liang of Tianhuang and ten taels of gold", reaching thousands or even tens of thousands per gram. The price of fine Tianhuang is even more astonishing. The highest auction record is a Tianhuang stone carving with auspicious lion paper weight from the 17th century of the Ming Dynasty, which cost 200 The price of gram was 40.89 million, which is 200,000 per gram.