{"id":34480,"date":"2022-03-07T16:10:40","date_gmt":"2022-03-07T16:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.accartbooks.com\/uk\/book\/spirit-stones\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T12:11:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T12:11:42","slug":"spirit-stones","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.accartbooks.com\/uk\/book\/spirit-stones\/","title":{"rendered":"Spirit Stones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shaped by nature and selected by man, scholars’ rocks, or gongshi<\/em>, have been prized by Chinese intellectuals since the Tang dynasty, and are now sought after by Western collectors as well.<\/p>\n

They are a natural subject for the photographer Jonathan Singer, most recently acclaimed for his images of those other remarkable hybrids of art and nature, Japanese bonsai.<\/p>\n

Here Singer turns his lens on some 150 fine gongshi<\/em>, ancient and modern, from the world-class collection of Kemin Hu, a recognised authority on this art form. In his photographs, Singer captures the spiritual qualities of these stones as never thought possible in two dimensions; he shows us that scholars’ rocks truly are, in Hu’s words, “condensations of the vital essence and energy of heaven and earth.”<\/p>\n

Hu contributes an introductory essay on the history and aesthetics of scholars’ rocks, explaining the traditional terms of stone appreciation, such as shou<\/em> (thin), zhou<\/em> (wrinkled), lou<\/em> (channels), and tou<\/em> (holes). She also provides a narrative caption for each stone, describing its history and characteristics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This book features brilliant photographs of scholars’ rocks, or Chinese ornamental stones, from a leading collection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":69086,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":""},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[5485],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34480","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-photography","7":"author-photographs-by-jonathan-m-singer","8":"author-text-by-kemin-hu","9":"author-text-by-thomas-s-elias","10":"publisher-abbeville-press","12":"first","13":"instock","14":"shipping-taxable","15":"purchasable","16":"product-type-simple"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSpirit Stones - ACC Art Books UK<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Title: Spirit Stones, Pages: 216 Pages, Publish Date: 28th Jan 2014, Author: Photographs by Jonathan M. 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