Stele Forest
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 The pavilion of the stele of Shitai Xiaojing | |||||||||
| Chinese | 碑林 | ||||||||
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The Xi'an Beilin Museum (simplified Chinese: 西安碑林博物馆; traditional Chinese: 西安碑林博物館; pinyin: Xī'ān Bēilín Bówùguǎn), commonly known as the Stele Forest, is a museum of inscribed stone monuments and stone sculpture in Beilin District, Xi'an. Its historical collection was established at the local Confucian temple and prefectural school in 1087. The museum preserves texts and sculptures dating from the Han dynasty to the Qing dynasty, including Confucian classics, major works of Chinese calligraphy, religious inscriptions and funerary sculpture.[1]
History
[edit]The collection developed around two groups of Tang stone texts: the Kaicheng Stone Classics and the Stone Platform Classic of Filial Piety. The Kaicheng project, commissioned under Emperor Wenzong of Tang, engraved twelve Confucian classics between 833 and 837. Its 114 stones carry more than 650,000 characters and were first erected at the Imperial College in Chang'an.[2]
After the fall of the Tang, the stones were moved several times within the reduced city. They were installed at the prefectural school in 1087, an event generally treated as the foundation of the present Stele Forest.[1] The site remained a Confucian temple and school through the imperial period. Most surviving buildings date from the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Collection
[edit]The museum holds nearly 3,000 steles and a large collection of carved stone. In addition to preserving the texts of the Confucian classics, the stones document the development of Chinese scripts and calligraphic practice over many centuries.[1]
Among the calligraphic monuments are the Eastern Han Cao Quan Stele, the Song recarving of the Qin Mount Yi Stele, and Tang works associated with Ouyang Xun, Yan Zhenqing, Huaisu and Liu Gongquan. The original Yan Family Temple Stele by Yan Zhenqing is preserved in the museum; its standard script influenced later calligraphy and printing.[3] The museum's Song recarving of the Mount Yi inscription transmitted a version of the small-seal text traditionally attributed to Li Si.[4]
The collection also includes the Xi'an Stele, erected in 781 with Chinese and Syriac text recording the presence of the Church of the East in Tang China. It was transferred to the museum in 1907 after the Danish visitor Frits Holm attempted to acquire it for removal abroad.[5]
Stone sculpture
[edit]The stone-sculpture galleries contain Buddhist images, tomb sculpture and four of the Six Steeds of Zhao Mausoleum, reliefs commissioned for the mausoleum of Emperor Taizong of Tang. The remaining two reliefs are held by the Penn Museum in Philadelphia.[1]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 "Xi'an Beilin Museum (Stele Forest Museum)". Xi'an Municipal People's Government. January 31, 2019. Retrieved August 28, 2026.
- ↑ 碑林博物馆与陕文投签署合作协议 [Beilin Museum and Shaanxi Cultural Industry Investment sign cooperation agreement] (in Chinese). Xi'an Beilin Museum. February 29, 2012. Retrieved August 28, 2026.
- ↑ "Yan Family Temple Stele". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved August 28, 2026.
- ↑ "The Mount Yi Stele in seal script and colophon in standard script". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved August 28, 2026.
- ↑ Keevak, Michael (2008). The Story of a Stele: China's Nestorian Monument and Its Reception in the West, 1625–1916. Hong Kong University Press. pp. 117–121. ISBN 978-962-209-895-4.
External links
[edit]
Media related to Stele Forest at Wikimedia Commons
- (in Chinese) Xi'an Stele
- Xi'an Stele Forest Museum
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