你看到观赏石的时候，会想些什么呢？

The new magistrate was too busyextemporaneously, yet extravagantly, revering a rock to meet the waitingadministrators.

宋代大书法家米芾曾到无为州任监军，同僚都在等他。

The eccentric scholar was paying his firstformal visit to Wuwei county as its just-appointed judge to meet the officialshe'd work with, when he encountered this splendid stone outside their gate inthe early 1100s.

他却看中了门口一块奇石。

The bureaucrats waited, watchingdisbelievingly, as Mi Fu addressed the stone as "elder brother", anddelivered a protracted, stirring speech to the handsome boulder. He thenperformed the Confucian rites designated for (human) older male siblings.

于是大家目睹了米芾拜倒下跪称呼石头为“兄”。

This account earned him the nickname"Crazy Mi" and has remained a motif of painters and poets.

“米颠”的称呼由此而来。

But while his behavior may seem extreme,China has been crazy about rocks for centuries. They're often literally put onpedestals.

虽然他的行为看上去很极端，但是中国人几百年来都很欣赏奇石。

Gongshi (scholars' stones) are still foundon wooden stands atop the desks of literati, executives and officials. Entiregardens, including some of the country's most celebrated, have been builtaround rockeries.

放在木头基座上的公石，现在还出现在学者、老板和官员的办公桌上。一些中国最知名的花园里也有很多奇石。

Some credit this legacy to Tang Dynasty (618-907)poet Bai Juyi, who served as prefect of Suzhou, a city known as China's Edenfor its abundance of magnificent gardens, including their spectacularrockeries.

唐朝诗人白居易曾担任苏州刺史。苏州建有大量花园，被称为中国的伊甸园。

It's said he encountered two infatuatingstones while walking near Taihu Lake that he took home.

相传白居易在归家途中，在太湖边偶遇两块奇石。

He paid homage to them with the poem, APair of Rocks. "Turning my head around, I ask the pair of rocks: 'Can youkeep company with an old man like myself?' Although the rocks cannot speak,they promise that we will be three friends."

他由此赋诗一首《双石》，写到：“回头问双石，能伴老夫否。石虽不能言，许我为三友。”

Still, Bai Juyi warned against too much ofa good thing in his later treatise, Account of the Taihu Lake Rocks. Hesuggests people limit the time spent adoring them to "a few hours aday".

不过白居易也在自己的文章里告诫人们不要赏石过久，一天几小时即可。

Some even credit unrestrained petrophiliaas a contributing factor to the Northern Song Dynasty's (960-1127) fall.Emperor Huizong is said to have exploited his subjects to procure scholars'stones for his imperial garden.

有些人甚至认为赏石是导致北宋灭亡的原因之一。宋徽宗就大量囤积奇石。

He personally named them, labeled them withgold calligraphy and wrote odes to them. It's also believed he even removedvital bridges to enable boats carrying beautiful boulders to pass along thewaterways.

宋徽宗给每块石头命名题字，还为它们写诗。据传为了运石头，他还命令拆掉重要桥梁。

All the while, his country was facinginvasion by nomadic Manchurians.

北宋当时一直受到金军侵犯。

In the end, his trove of rocks was used ascatapult fodder and lost forever alongside his empire.

最终，宋徽宗的石头和他一起随着王朝的覆灭一去不复返。

Ultimately, his obsession led not only tothe demise of his dynasty but also to the annihilation of the stonesthemselves.

他对石头的狂热态度导致了北宋和这些石头的灭亡。

"Crazy Mi" identified fourcharacteristics upon which gongshi should be evaluated. Shou is the verticaldirectionality. Lou describes the prevalence of rifts. Zhou refers to thefinely crinkled texture. And tou are holes through which light can shine.

米芾将石头特征分为四种。瘦是指石形健美；漏是指石形不规范；皱是指表面不光滑；透是指光线能透过。

Other qualities for evaluating gongshiinclude asymmetry, glossiness, a resemblance of landscape formations likemountains and how they sound when struck.

鉴定公石的其它标准包括形状不对称，光泽度如何，是否形似山峦等，敲击时候的声音如何。

Most scholars' rocks are limestone, whichdissolve to form tou, making them appear like melting honeycombs. This includesthe three major categories that take their namesakes from their places oforigin — Taihu Lake (Jiangsu province), Lingbi (Anhui province) and Yingde(Guangdong province).

多数公石石灰岩，具备透的特点，看上去就像蜂巢。根据来源地，公石主要分为太湖石、灵璧石和盈德石。

Academics attribute the Chinese celebrationof such stones to philosophical traditions such as Taoism and Confucianism thatimbue natural objects like rocks, water and trees with virtues like wisdom andintegrity.

学者认为中国人推崇赏石源自道家和儒家等哲学传统，因为它们将石、水、树这些自然景物融入智慧和正直等品格。

I'd honestly never paid much attention tostones that weren't at least semiprecious or fossils before coming to China.

实话说，来中国之前，我从未关注过宝石和化石之外的石头。

But now I take a few seconds — not hours —to appreciate gongshi when I see them in gardens or on desks.

不过我现在会花上几秒钟欣赏公园里或书桌上的公石。

I even bought some for my home office, asmy only Christmas present to myself.

我甚至还买了一块石头作为圣诞节送给自己的礼物。

China showed me that staring at stones canbe more thought provoking than I'd, well, thought before I did it.

在中国经历告诉我，盯着石头看会激发思考，而我之前从未考虑过这一点。