Construction started in 1117 and was completed in six years. According to The History of the Song Dynasty: Annals of Geography, plants and strange rocks from various parts of the country "converged" in the garden. Unlike previous gardens that had inherited the traditional formula of "one pool and three rockeries" established during the Qin and Han dynasties, the Genyue Garden had a circumference of three kilometers, within which there were many huge rockeries. The two main peaks, the highest being 150 meters, stood respectively in the south and the north and extended both eastwards and westwards into two ranges that gradually closed up at the end. In the center was flat ground. Emperor Huizong conferred different titles on the rocks and granted some of them gold belts. He also made a map of them.

    Bianliang was beside the Yellow River and had no natural hills or rocks that could be used to construct a garden. The Lake Tai area in Jiangsu was, and still is, the best garden rock producer. So Emperor Huizong established a special bureau in Suzhou and commissioned it to collect unique flowering plants and rocks. Meanwhile, central and local officials spared no effort to indulge the emperor's hobby. They utilized their power and marshaled military and civilian resources to quarry and transport rocks. Lake Tai was about 1,000 kilometers from Bianliang, and tribute rocks quarried in the area were usually huge. According to historical records, the Suzhou Tribute Collecting Bureau "acquired a huge Lake Tai rock that exceeded 10 meters both in width and length; it was transported by a huge boat towed by 1,000 laborers, and necessitated the waterway being expanded, bridges removed, dams torn down and sluices dismantled. It took several months for the rock to arrive at its destination."

    In the snowy winter of 1126, over a decade after the construction of the Genyue Garden, the invading Jurchen Jin armies besieged Bianliang. As a way of appeasing the resentment of the besieged citizens, new Emperor Qinzong (his father Huizong had been forced to abdicate) ordered the dismantling of wooden structures in the Genyue Garden to use as firewood. He also chiseled the garden's rockeries into cannonballs, and killed its birds and animals for food. Over 100,000 citizens flocked to the garden to tear down its houses and pavilions.

    After Jin troops captured the city, they continued to loot the garden, taking its rockeries, along with the captured emperors Huizong and Qinzong, and their imperial relatives, to Jin territory. On the journey back, many captives died and some rocks had to be discarded due to the difficulty of transporting them. The remaining stones were finally left at Yanshan Prefecture (now Beijing, which was made the Jin capital soon after the invasion). Today these rocks can still be seen in Beijing's Beihai Park, the Palace Museum, Zhongshan Park and the Summer Palace.

    Suzhou's gardens also have some Lake Tai rocks that were originally intended for Genyue Garden, but were not transported for various reasons. The most famous of them is the 5.6-m-high Guanyun (Crowning Cloud) Peak in Liuyuan (Lingering Garden).

Witnesses to History

    With the development of carving, stone was widely used in ornamental architecture and tomb building, and thus became a faithful witness to Chinese history. Archeologists have found many tombstones engraved with epitaphs that provide invaluable material for the study of ancient times, even though many of the tombs have been looted of other treasures. The Han Dynasty was outstanding in this respect, and many Han stone carvings have been unearthed, including a spinning and weaving motif that vividly presents the household-based textile industry of the Han Dynasty, and the advanced pedal looms that were used 2,000 years ago.

    Inscribed stone steles and other stone and cliffside inscriptions also faithfully represent the past to those in the present. Taishan Mountain has the largest number of cliffside inscriptions from various dynasties, the earliest being an imperial decree in the handwriting of Prime Minister Li Si of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.). Sometimes, even blank stone steles speak, such as the one that stands in front of Empress Wu Zetian's mausoleum. The decision of Wu Zetian to let history speak for itself by leaving her tomb stele blank has enabled people today to read unspoken messages between the lines of historical records, and discover for themselves the statesmanship and charisma of this female ruler.