Shoushan Stone Carving

Shoushan stone carving works the pyrophyllite mined at Shoushan in Fuzhou's northern outskirts. Said to have begun in the Southern Dynasties and flourished in the Ming and Qing, it is a major school of Chinese stone carving and one of Fuzhou's 'three treasures.'

Carvers 'read the stone' to exploit its colors and veins, using round, thin-relief, openwork and relief techniques to suit each piece, turning famed stones such as tianhuang and furong into seals, ornaments and scholars'-desk treasures.

Warm and richly colored—with tianhuang revered as the king of stones—Shoushan carving unites the beauty of seal-cutting and painting, and was inscribed on the first national ICH list in 2006 (item VII-35).

Its heartland is the Shoushan area of Fuzhou's Jin'an district, and its works are often shown at the Fujian Museum and dedicated Shoushan-stone galleries in the city.