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Fish Bone Stone
A piece of limestone stands beside the winding bridge, which is tall and elegant. There are three somewhat round holes on the stone, which looks like a fish bone without flesh. If one covers the lowest hole, the stone looks very much like a Chinese character “Chou”, meaning ugliness.
Su Dongpo a writer of the song dynasty, being once the prefect of Yangzhou. As soon as he took office, he banned a secret society called Ten Thousand Flower Society because it disturbed people. Though undoubtedly he had never seen this ‘ugly’ stone in Yangzhou, he once said: “Though stones are ugly, they have myriad shapes and postures.” What he said may be regarded as an interpretation for fish bone stone and the prefect became its bosom friend. To confirm what the prefect said is true, the stone still stands quietly in mountain forest of the city. Jia Pingwa, a contemporary writer, also talked about the ugliness of stones, saying: “stones are beautiful because of its ugliness; the extreme of ugliness is the extreme of beauty.” This kind of refined stone is something that can only be found accidentally. It is no exaggeration to call fish bone stone “The Treasure of the Garden.” Behind it is a fish-shaped stone, opening its mouth and wavering its tail and with a vivid expression. The stone fish and the golden fish in the pond make a pleasant scene. On the right side of the stone fish stands a Yunnan gasminum mesnyi Hance on Lake Taihu stone rockery. Its drooping branches almost touch the water surface.
When breeze blows, they flickers gracefully as though they were green waterfalls hanging before rockery and aid vitality is the garden.
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