The earliest known reference to Lingbi rocks is found in the classic ancient historical text, Shang Shu. It states that a Qing stone had been discovered beside the Si River.

The Qing was an ancient musical instrument made from stone.

Music featured in even the most primitive society. At the dawn of Chinese civilization, people produced music by singing and clapping. This simple form of music was combined with dancing to celebrate the harvest and perform acts of worship. Later the Yellow Emperor, the ancestor of all Han Chinese, initiated a “study of rites and music”. The work contained a record of the music produced by tapping a Qing made from Lingbi rock.

There were two forms of Qing made from Lingbi rock; the Te Qing, or Chime Stone, and the Bian Qing, or Stone Chimes.

In 1950, a Chime Stone with a Tiger Design was discovered in Anyang in Henan Province. Experts who examined it declared that it had been used to provide the music at ceremonies to worship heaven and honour ancestors. It seems likely that it was used on royal occasions, since Yinxu in Anyang was the political center of the late Shang Dynasty. In fact, the Anyang chime stone was not just a musical instrument; with its finely-carved dormant tiger, it was also a work of art, suggesting that Qing-making was highly advanced at the time.

In August 1978, archaeologists working at the 2,400-year-old Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng in Sui County, Hubei Province, unearthed a magnificent set of Qing stone chimes. The 32 chimes are arranged in two horizontal rows suspended on a bronze frame. Such Stone Chimes are known to have been played at the imperial court.

The Temple of Heaven and the Temple of Confucius each houses a set of stone chimes. Both were made of Lingbi rock on the orders of Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty. He is said to have had fond memories of the Qing made of Lingbi rock he played when he was a monk at Huangjue Temple in Bozhou, Anhui. On Double Ninth Festival in the 15th year of his reign, which was 1383, he visited the temple again. After a moment lost in thought, he suddenly announced that the Qing made of Lingbi rock was a divine gift, and that a special hall should be built for it. He also ordered that stone should be quarried to make 36 sets of imperial chimes; some would be installed in the Imperial Ancestral Temple, the Temple of Heaven and Guozijian, or Imperial Academy, and others would be sent to the provinces, where they would be used in ceremonies to honour Confucius.

The town of Yugou in Lingbi County is generally considered to be the home of Lingbi rock. Evidence of stone quarrying going back almost a thousand years, to the Song Dynasty, can be seen there.

Qingyun Mountain in Yugou is the site of a Song Dynasty cliff carving. Below was where the quarrying was done. A narrow path leading up from the foot of the mountain on its southern slope, suddenly opens onto a broad platform. On the north side is a huge rock with hundreds of carvings on it. The year when they were carved is clearly visible; the 3rd year of the Zhihe Reign in the Song Dynasty; in other words, 1056. Each carving bears the names of the Buddha and of the sculptor, and together they constitute a very rare and exquisite group of stone carvings.

A well-preserved stele pavilion also stands on the platform. It was built in honour of the Song Dynasty quarry, which supplied Lingbi rocks for the Genyue Imperial Garden. The garden, built on the orders of Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty, featured the most famous flowers and most unusual rocks from all over China.

The Floriate Stone Convoy was the name given to the caravan teams that brought rocks from the south. Emperor Huizong was particularly fond of the Lingbi rocks they brought.

However, no sooner was work on the Genyue Imperial Garden finished than the armies of Jin attacked the Song capital at Bianliang, which is today Kaifeng. Most of the decorative rocks there were destroyed in the fighting. A few of the Lingbi rocks did survive, but they were plundered and carried away.

At the quarry, there are still traces of the hammering that took place in the Song Dynasty. They, and the stele pavilion, remain as testimony to an appreciation of Lingbi rocks that has lasted many centuries.

When two rocks are knocked against each other, they produce a crisp sound.

Under modern scientific analysis, Lingbi rock has revealed its mineral content:

Calcite > 95%, dolomite < 3%, pyrite and iron oxides < 2%

The experts explain that it is the mineral content of Lingbi rock that is the key to its ability to produce music. The calcite that is the dominant component is made up of identical or near identical fine crystalline grains with a diameter between 0.0l and 0.018 mm. This makes it tightly structured, hard, and capable of producing a crisp and melodious sound.