Stone Application, Development and Investment Guide

Author: Chief Editor: Li Yunbi
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1999-05-01
Features:
Fragment: Stone is one of the earliest building materials used in human history. Stone, with its hard strength, excellent performance, and extremely abundant resource reserves, has been favored by people of all eras. As the cornerstone of construction, stone has withstood the harsh winds, rains, and cold for thousands of years and still stands tall in the modern architectural landscape. Stone has written an immortal chapter in the history of world architecture; to this day, many masterpieces of stone architecture remain in various countries. Building stone is not only used as a construction foundation but is also widely applied in the indoor and outdoor environments of buildings due to its unique colors and textures, especially in architectural decoration, where stone has always played a significant role. In buildings from ancient and modern times, whether on walls, floors, columns, window sills, or stairs, the use of stone decoration adds charm and brilliance to the architecture. Among the world's outstanding buildings, almost all have used stone decoration. In the history of world architecture, stone is both the eternal foundation material of buildings and a decorative material that enhances them; at the same time, it is also a historical material that never fades. Stone is divided into two major categories: marble and granite, each with hundreds or even thousands of varieties. They are rich in color and diverse in texture, forming a vibrant world of stone. After polishing and processing, the surface of stone becomes smooth as a mirror and the colors are vivid. Many marbles have clear, artistic textures, exuding an extraordinary and elegant charm that leaves people in awe; some granites have bright and luxurious colors, appearing grand, solemn, and refined. To praise the beauty of the colors and patterns of stone, people have given them many beautiful and moving names, such as "landscape painting," "purple rose," "hongfu red," "scenery green," "lotus green," "peacock green," "agate jade," "colorful clouds flying," "phoenix tail green," "butterfly black," "emerald sea jade," "dream black," "colorful stone," "peacock blue," "Panxi blue," "Tianshan blue jade," "empress red," "hongfu red," "general red," "azalea red," "zhonghua red," "immortal red," and so on. In summary, these beautiful names reveal the inherent quality and beauty of stone. In modern architecture, the development, application, and processing technology of stone have reached unprecedented heights, and the potential for stone applications is limitless. The art of stone architecture will undoubtedly shine brilliantly.
Section 1: A Review of Stone Development and Application
The decorative art created with natural stone has a long history in the world. From ancient times to the present, the art of stone tools, stone sculpture, and stone architecture has flowed like an eternal river. From the ancient Stonehenge in England, the Newgrange tomb in Ireland, the marble-built Parthenon in ancient Greece, the marble and travertine-built Roman Colosseum, the pyramids of ancient Egypt, the Karnak Temple, the ancient city of Jericho in Israel, the giant stone figures and animal statues on Samalut Mountain in Turkey, and the stone structure ruins of Great Zimbabwe in Africa; to later the Sun Pyramid and Feathered Serpent Pyramid of Teotihuacan in Mexico, the Valley of the Statues in Colombia, the single-stone statues and buildings of Tiwanaku in Bolivia, the stone statues on Easter Island that have contemplated the sea for thousands of years, the granite observatory of the Maya, and the numerous immortal stone sculptures by the Italian sculptor Michelangelo, as well as countless stone art works, all record the glorious position of stone art in the history of human civilization.
In China, our ancestors' history of discovering and utilizing stone dates back 800,000 years to the Lantian people and the Hongtuo and people of the Old Stone Age. Through long-term struggles with nature, they gradually learned to select pebbles, flint, and quartz stones, shaping them into edged stone flakes to cut plants as tools. This marked the early stage of human use of stone. During the Neolithic Age, the production of stone tools entered the grinding stage. Most stone tools were thinned and polished, taking on certain shapes, thus appearing as stone knives, stone axes, stone adzes, stone rings, and stone grinding stones, each with specific purposes. Stone tools promoted the development of human society. By the Xia and Shang dynasties, stone tools were no longer just ordinary tools but had entered the realm of stone art. For example, the bird and beast ornaments unearthed from the Yin Ruins, such as the ox, fish, and taotie, were exquisitely crafted with primitive and unique shapes; the stone chimes unearthed from Anyang during the Shang Dynasty had extremely precise carvings on their surfaces. During the slave society, the unearthed stone sculptures became even more refined and could even be used to make musical instruments. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, stone was carved with characters on natural stone, such as the Ten-Faced Stone Drums unearthed from Tianxing County (now Fengxiang County in Shaanxi), which were inscribed with four-character poems and were products from the 6th and 7th centuries AD, marking the earliest stone inscriptions in China. Additionally, the Xi'an Stele Forest preserves a natural granite horse sculpture from 424 BC. The use of natural stone for architectural decoration likely began in the Qin and Han dynasties. For example, a section of the ancient Great Wall from the Qin and Han dynasties in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, used a large amount of hatchet stones and block stones. During the Western Han Dynasty, natural stone was already used in mausoleum construction, such as the stone sculpture "Horse Trampling the Xiongnu" from Huqiu's mausoleum (a of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty), a rare treasure of stone sculpture art. From then on, it pioneered the art of stone sculpture for stone statues in front of Chinese imperial mausoleums. Additionally, stone sarcophagi and relief sculptures unearthed from Han tombs in Chengdu, Sichuan, Shandong, northern Jiangsu, Nanyang, Henan, and Suide, involving historical, astronomical, and mythological stories, were extremely rich in content.
Buddhism was introduced to China from India during the late Han Dynasty. By the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhist culture flourished in China, with temples and cave sculptures spreading across the Central Plains, gradually forming vast museums of cave architecture with countless Buddha statues. Countless stone Buddha statues, stone Bodhisattva statues, stone Dhyani Buddha statues, and exquisite cliff carvings were everywhere, such as the Dunhuang Mogao Caves founded in the second year of the Western Qin Dynasty (366 AD), the Datong Yungang Caves carved during the Northern Wei Dynasty (460–494 AD), the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan, and the Longmen Grottoes in Gongyi, Henan. The unification of the Sui and Tang dynasties brought China to a period of prosperity, and the development and utilization of natural stone in decorative technology and art reached a new height. For example, the Anji Bridge (Zhaozhou Bridge) in Hebei, completed in the early Sui Dynasty, featured a magnificent structure and a single-arched open-spandrel (hollow) design that was a world-first at the time; the eighteen Tang emperors' mausoleums in northern Weihe, Shaanxi, with their stone tablets, winged birds, ostriches, unicorn statues, lions, and stone officials and warriors, were known as the "300-Li Stone Sculpture Museum."
During the Song, Liao, and Jin dynasties, the development and application of natural stone on a large scale. For example, the stone statues of the Song Dynasty mausoleums in Gongyi, Henan, the twin stone pagodas of Lingyin Temple, the white stone pagoda of Zhakou, the stone pagoda of Fahuai Temple in Mishi, the Zhenuo Pagoda and Renshou Pagoda of Kaifeng Temple in Quanzhou, and the Lugu Bridge in Beijing built during the Jin Dynasty all featured exquisite shapes and stone sculpture art. During the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, the artistic style of stone architecture and sculpture continued to evolve. The Yuan Dynasty, established by the Mongols, had a different style of stone decoration from the traditional Han Chinese style. For example, the four statues on the gate of the Juyong Pass in Beijing, considered a representative of Yuan Dynasty stone sculpture, though using a carving technique with weak light and shadow contrast and shallow relief, still vividly depicted the dynamic posture of the heavenly kings. The development and utilization of natural stone during the Ming and Qing dynasties, though based on the Tang Dynasty, reached a new height. For example, the Jinshui Bridge in front of Tiananmen in Beijing, the Dragon Imperial Path and stone steps inside the Forbidden City, the Round Altar in the Temple of Heaven, and the stone archway in the Temple of Heaven were all decorated with white marble; the stone statues along the sacred way of the Ming Thirteen Mausoleums and the stone decoration of the underground palace of the Dingling Mausoleum were all simple and robust. The Qing Dynasty emphasized the application of stone in gardens and palace decorations, such as the 17-hole bridge, the jade belt bridge, and the stone archway in Kunming Lake at the Summer Palace, the exquisitely carved stone pillars in front of Tiananmen, and the remaining stone pillars from the ruins of the Yuanmingyuan. The stone sculptures in the Qing Xiling Mausoleum in Yi County, Hebei, and the Qing Dongling Mausoleum in Zunhua were also very exquisite.
During the Republican era, continuous wars affected the development and application of stone. However, the Nanjing Zhongshan (completed between 1926 and 1929) still used a large amount of stone products, becoming a milestone in stone architecture. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially since the reform and opening-up in the 1980s, with the rapid development of the national economy, the development and utilization of natural stone in China have advanced by leaps and bounds. Various types of natural stone products are widely used in hotels, hotels, public buildings, transportation facilities, and other construction fields. It can be said that the use of stone is everywhere, deeply integrated into the daily lives of the people.
Section 2: Examples of Early Human Use of Stone
Stone is one of the earliest building materials used in the history of human architecture. Stone, with its indestructible strength, has endured the harsh cold and heat for thousands of years as a building material and still stands tall in the modern architectural landscape. Stone has written an immortal chapter in the history of world architecture, and stone buildings have left many masterpieces and mysteries in various countries. Below are introduced only a few famous stone structures in the world.
1. Newgrange Tomb in Ireland
Located about 48 km north of Dublin, Ireland, the Newgrange Tomb (see Figure 1-1-1) is a prehistoric megalithic tomb built around 4000 BC, older than the Stonehenge in England or the pyramids of ancient Egypt. It indicates that in the Boyne River Valley at that time, there existed a technologically advanced, prosperous, and flourishing Neolithic society.