Historically, the earliest Chinese gardens were large parks, built by the aristocracy for hunting and pleasure. Smaller, intimate gardens were associated with scholar-gentlemen (literari). Traditional Chinese gardens were meant to evoke the larger natural world, with rocks representing mountains. Rocks eventually became more prominent in their selection for fantastical arrangements of artificial mountains and the formulas for rock gardens became more complex in their composition, always maintaining the juxtaposition and balance of yin and yang.

According to Chinese rock garden principles, holes in rocks hold qi . Astrophysicist's even hint that life came from outer space, brought to this planet in water droplets of ice lodged into the crevices of meteors. By the Tang Dynasty (618 - 906 CE), a particular aesthetic for Chinese garden rock selection included three key features of preference:

1) Shou: leanness. The use of vertically placed stones, and a preference for top heavy stones.

2) Tou: perforations. More holes and cavities in a rock collect and hold the prized qi.

3) Zhou: surface texture. This references a surface texture heavily marked with crags, furrows, striations, or pitting.

The more complex textured rocks, especially those that were strangely contorted and full of holes, became the most valuable because they expressed the erosive effect of water, an element of yin, acting upon stone, an element of yang.

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