The true origin of the art of suiseki. A stunning revelation as a result of our long term scientific research.
The true origin of the art of suiseki. A stunning revelation as a result of our long term scientific research.
It is a common believe that the development of Suiseki in Japan was influenced by the Chinese scholar's rock. Carved in the stone. Done and clear. But is that really the true story of the origin of the art of collection of stones? As a person who lives in a country where the history has been modified so many times to suit the leading minority I tend to take the bruited facts with some level of doubts. And if necessary I made an effort to discover the true story behind. So it was for the suiseki and you can find the account below.
Based on my investigation, I believe that the first historically recorded collector of stones was David. It was he who collected five stones from the broom in the Valley of Elah. While the primary purpose for that was to get some ammunition for his sling all of us who knows something about slings understand the importance of the right shape and size of the stones to be used. And as much as David was a Master of the sling he must have been a master of the stones.
A side line: To be honest some of the leads directed me even more deeper in the dark history of the mankind. Again here there are some evidences that people of that time were collecting flint stones on a purpose but as they were adjusting their surface we should not take those individuals as a true aficionados. So that return us back to David and our account what has happened.
After his victory over the Goliath David has collected the Stone that has grounded his opponent. The winning stone. An object that would remind him about his glorious victory.
Doesn't it sound familiar? Yes for sure since that time we have done such thing. A hockey player who scores a crucial point will take the puck, a baseball player will do the same with the winning ball, etc... But the true founder of this tradition has been David.
The First Stone was placed in a purpose built ark and David kept it at an outstanding place in his dwelling presenting it proudly to his visitors. As the power of David has grown people assigned also more and more power to his stone. It was perceived as a stone that gives his owner the power to win. An object that is a kind of a grail for the ambitious leaders so it is not a big surprise that we can track the stone as a part of the Alexander the Great's spoils of the war. It was Alexander who has brought the stone on his war campaign to India where it has been presented to the envoys of the Chinese emperor. They brought the glory of the stone back to China but unfortunately I assume partially due to the misinterpretation caused by a lousy translation they suppressed the original meaning of the object and raised the only fact that the famous Alexander the Great has a stone in his collection. And that was a reason good enough for the Chinese ruler of that time to do the same and even better. Quite soon his palace was full of small stones of various shapes. And from there it was just a stone's throw away from the point when the palace official after finishing their carrier in the service moved to the mountains to find the true meaning of the life and took with them some stones. They became scholars and their stones has been called scholar's stones/rocks. So this returns us to the beginning of this article. And it also brings us at the the start of a planned archaeological expedition called:
" David's pebble" . The Purpose? To find the stone that killed the Goliath.
Challenging? YES.
Impossible? NO.
To start with I have applied for a grant from the European Structural Funds. They spent a lot of money for even more obscure projects. So I am sure to succeed. Do you want to join me?
It is a common believe that the development of Suiseki in Japan was influenced by the Chinese scholar's rock. Carved in the stone. Done and clear. But is that really the true story of the origin of the art of collection of stones? As a person who lives in a country where the history has been modified so many times to suit the leading minority I tend to take the bruited facts with some level of doubts. And if necessary I made an effort to discover the true story behind. So it was for the suiseki and you can find the account below.
Based on my investigation, I believe that the first historically recorded collector of stones was David. It was he who collected five stones from the broom in the Valley of Elah. While the primary purpose for that was to get some ammunition for his sling all of us who knows something about slings understand the importance of the right shape and size of the stones to be used. And as much as David was a Master of the sling he must have been a master of the stones.
A side line: To be honest some of the leads directed me even more deeper in the dark history of the mankind. Again here there are some evidences that people of that time were collecting flint stones on a purpose but as they were adjusting their surface we should not take those individuals as a true aficionados. So that return us back to David and our account what has happened.
After his victory over the Goliath David has collected the Stone that has grounded his opponent. The winning stone. An object that would remind him about his glorious victory.
Doesn't it sound familiar? Yes for sure since that time we have done such thing. A hockey player who scores a crucial point will take the puck, a baseball player will do the same with the winning ball, etc... But the true founder of this tradition has been David.
The First Stone was placed in a purpose built ark and David kept it at an outstanding place in his dwelling presenting it proudly to his visitors. As the power of David has grown people assigned also more and more power to his stone. It was perceived as a stone that gives his owner the power to win. An object that is a kind of a grail for the ambitious leaders so it is not a big surprise that we can track the stone as a part of the Alexander the Great's spoils of the war. It was Alexander who has brought the stone on his war campaign to India where it has been presented to the envoys of the Chinese emperor. They brought the glory of the stone back to China but unfortunately I assume partially due to the misinterpretation caused by a lousy translation they suppressed the original meaning of the object and raised the only fact that the famous Alexander the Great has a stone in his collection. And that was a reason good enough for the Chinese ruler of that time to do the same and even better. Quite soon his palace was full of small stones of various shapes. And from there it was just a stone's throw away from the point when the palace official after finishing their carrier in the service moved to the mountains to find the true meaning of the life and took with them some stones. They became scholars and their stones has been called scholar's stones/rocks. So this returns us to the beginning of this article. And it also brings us at the the start of a planned archaeological expedition called:
" David's pebble" . The Purpose? To find the stone that killed the Goliath.
Challenging? YES.
Impossible? NO.
To start with I have applied for a grant from the European Structural Funds. They spent a lot of money for even more obscure projects. So I am sure to succeed. Do you want to join me?
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