Gray, a traditional color of varying degrees between black and white, is more concealed, subtle, blurred, and low-keyed than black. It is also more flexible, potentially more powerful and tenacious than black.

The Chinese people are best knowledgeable with gray, which has virtually stemmed from the color of tiles and bricks of traditional Chinese buildings.

Huangshan Mountain in Anhui Province is often said of "no peak being not of a stone and no stone not having a story." Its unique and exquisite peaks have become the most common topic for landscape painting by scholars in history.

Stones in the nature are mainly gray. Chinese people have a special feeling toward stones.

It can be found in the Chinese landscape painting that people show favor to peaks with many stones. Yet the beautiful stones in the nature are usually far away from the cities and townns. It is impossible for people to see them everyday. Therefore, people move these stones into gardens so that they can appreciate anytime. In Chinese classic gardens, it is often seen a view of a piece of stone or an artificial mountain with piled-up stones either in front of or behind a hall or by the side of a pond on the wall corner. Most of these stones are in unprocessed natural shape. They are tall and straight and delicately shaped. With the smart arrangement and combination of the builder, the stones boast graceful bearing but natural.

Most men of letters in history loved stones. Some called the stone as brother or teacher and some slept by holding a stone. They gave more life and intelligence to the stones. Among the four classic books in ancient China, Journey to the West and Dream of Red Mansions, their main characters incarnated from stone. The first name of Dream of Red Mansions was Stories of Stones.

The rockery in Chinese gardens is just like a naturally made abstract sculpture, leaving people unlimted space for imagination.