Part of Ming Dynasty painter Wu Bin's long scroll entitled Ten Views of a Fantastic Rock. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The practice of appreciating the rocks at home, whether putting them on tables or holding them in their hands, was a substitution for trekking into the real landscape to seek an ideal life path, according to Shao Yan, a Chinese painting history professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

She said Wu used the techniques of drawing clouds, fire and water—— elements often applied in Taoist paintings —— to paint the rock.

Zhu Wanzhang, a researcher at the National Museum of China, pointed out that Mi himself was good at drawing Taihu stones, another kind of well-known ornamental rocks mainly found in the Taihu Lake area in today's Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces, while Wu especially focused on Lingbi stones.