A MALACHITE ROCK MING DYNASTY

The Chinese have many names for malachite, a green basic carbonate of copper, but it is most commonly referred to as kongqueshi or "peacock stone." Other names include langgan, qinglanggan, and  shilu, meaning "stone green" and "mineral green," referring to its use as a bright green pigment used in paintings. 

Malachite has been in use in Chinese art since the Bronze Age - depicted as small sculptures of tigers and turtles, and used as pigment in paintings, ground up into powder and added to Daoist elixirs, and came to symbolize Mount Kunlun, the Penglai Isle of the Immortals and paradises in general.  However, it was not until the late Ming dynasty that scholars began to accept malachite as material for a scholars' rock. 

Compare a similar small boulder in the Richard Rosenblum Collection, illustrated in Robert Mowry, Worlds Within Worlds, Harvard University, 1996, cat.no. 70; and another illustrated in Gerard Tsang and Hugh Moss, Arts from the Scholar's Studio, Hong Kong, 1986, cat.no.132.

The characters Bi yu may have been inscribed by Song Jue (1576-1632), zi Bi yu, hao Yi zuo jue, a native of Putian, Fujian province.  The reverse characters Dao zhou may have been inscribed by Huang Daozhou (1585-1646), zi You xuan, hao Shi zhai.  A native of Zhang puxuan, Tongshan village, Huang was a prominent scholar, calligrapher and painter during the late Ming dynasty.