A Survey of Cultural Objects in Western Shaanxi

kaicheng stone Scripture

"Kaicheng Stone Sutra" is known as "the largest and most complete stone book in China" and is now displayed in the first exhibition room of Xi'an Forest of Steles Museum. The forest of steles, as a specific place where steles of past dynasties were preserved, was gradually formed during the process of relocation of the Kaicheng Stone Sutra several times between the late Tang Dynasty and the Northern Song Dynasty. It can be said that without the "Kaicheng Stone Sutra", there would not be today's Xi'an Forest of Steles.

There have been many scriptures carved in Chinese history. The earliest to the "Xiping Stone Sutra" carved in the fourth year of Xiping, Emperor Ling of the Eastern Han Dynasty (175), were seven Confucian classics carved. Later, there were the "Zhengshi Stone Sutra" of the Cao Wei Dynasty, the "Kaicheng Stone Sutra" of the Tang Dynasty, the "Guangzheng Stone Sutra" of the Later Shu Dynasty, the "Jiayou Stone Sutra" of the Northern Song Dynasty, the "Shaoxing Stone Sutra" of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the "Qianlong Stone Sutra" of the Qing Dynasty. Except for the Qing Dynasty's "Qianlong Stone Sutra", which is completely erected in the Imperial College of Beijing, only the Tang Dynasty's "Kaicheng Stone Sutra" is the most well-preserved among the other six carved scriptures. "Kaicheng Shijing" was published in the second year of Kaicheng (837) in the middle of the Tang Dynasty. It was originally placed in the Imperial Academy of Wubenfang, Chang 'an City, in the Tang Dynasty. It was moved to its present location after the war in the late Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty.

The stone is composed of 114 stone tablets. Each existing stone tablet is about 2.16 meters high and 0.93 meters wide. The steles are engraved on both sides, and each side is divided into 8 columns above and below. Each column is engraved with about 37 lines, with 10 words on the full line. The scriptures are all in small Tang script with strict laws, and the title of the first chapter of each scripture is engraved in Tang script. At the end of the stone scripture, the inscription "Ding Si in the second year of the first year is the second year of the first year of the second year of the first year of the second year of the year of the first year of the second year of the first year of the first year of the second year.

In the middle of the Tang Dynasty, 1,200 years ago, woodblock printing had not yet been promoted to publishing and engraving books. The books read by the Tang Dynasty were mainly hand-copied volumes. During the Zongdali period of the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Shen, the official secretary of the State Council, surveyed the five classics of Confucianism in detail and wrote them on the east and west walls of the Lecture Hall of the Imperial College, so that students of the Imperial College could learn a model. However, over time, due to the "peeling and slander" of the walls, the handwriting gradually became blurred. Qi Hao, the son of the country, and Wei Gongsu, a doctor of the Taichang Dynasty, used tall and solid wood to make large plates and stood in front of the wall. They organized students to re-write the Confucian scriptures on them, and became popular all over the world under the name of "Five Classics on the Wall". In the fourth year of Emperor Wenzong of the Tang Dynasty (830), Zheng Qin, a scholar of the Hanlin Academy, proposed to revise the six books and imitate the project of engraving the "Xiping Shijing" in the Imperial College of the Eastern Han Dynasty, hoping to revise the model and use it as a model for future generations in view of the long-term fact that the Confucian classics were still copied and passed down.

Four years later, the motion was finally approved-allowing the creation of the Shibi Nine Classics, the "Filial Piety Classics","The Analects of Confucius" and "Erya" in the two corridors of the Imperial Academy Lecture Hall. Zheng Qin, who was promoted to Shangshu Youpushe, Tongping Zhang Shi, and concurrently serving as a national son sacrifice wine, presided over this large-scale cultural project. In September of the second year of its founding, the stone scriptures were completed, including classics such as "Book of Changes","Shangshu","Mao Shi","Zhou Li","Yi Li","Book of Rites","The Legend of Zuo's Family in the Spring and Autumn Period","Gongyang Zhuan","Guliang Zhuan","The Book of Filial Piety","The Analects of Confucius","Erya","Five Classics Words" and "Nine Classics Words", etc., totaling 160 volumes, with a total of 650252 assigned lettering.

The pulse of history has made classics of culture and art. The Tang Empire was already fading after the Anshi Rebellion, and the publication and engraving of "Kaicheng Stone Sutra" was a cultural masterpiece that bloomed in the middle and late stages of the empire. In the second year after the stone scriptures were carved (838), the Tang Empire's national examination used "Poetry on the Creation of the Stone Sutra" as the topic for the interview at the Gongyuan, leaving a story that has passed through the ages in the country's cultural history. During the war at the end of the Tang Dynasty and the changes of the Five Dynasties, Chang 'an City in the Tang Dynasty was completely destroyed, and many monuments and tablets engraved with famous scriptures were abandoned in the countryside. "Kaicheng Stone Sutra" went through the successive relocation of local officials such as Han Jian and Liu, and gradually moved to the western corner of Shangshu Province of the original Tang Dynasty. In the second year of Yuanyou of the Northern Song Dynasty (1087), under the chairmanship of Lu Dazhong, deputy envoy of the Northern Song Dynasty, the huge Tang Dynasty's "Kaicheng Stone Sutra" and the towering "Shitai Filial Piety Sutra" migrated from the old place of Shangshu Province of the Tang Dynasty, where the land was mixed with folk houses. Beiyong, Fuxue, together with famous calligraphy steles such as Yan, Liu, Ou, Chu, etc., laid the foundation for the Xi'an Stele Forest. The "Kaicheng Stone Sutra" broke 44 square meters in the disaster of the Guanzhong earthquake during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. Later, Ye Shirong, a scholar of the Ming Dynasty, and others re-engraved the missing characters on a small stone of 97 square meters, which was also displayed behind the stone Sutra.

In the third year of Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1664), Jia Hanfu, governor of Shaanxi Province, and others collected 17 copies of "Mencius" from the Tang Dynasty's "Kaicheng Stone Sutra". These steles are round-headed square steles, each stone is 225 centimeters high, and a total of 36506 characters are engraved. 1937-1938 In 1998, Mr. Shao Lizi, then director of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang, presided over the renovation of the Xi'an Stele Forest. He moved the carved stone of "Mencius" in the third year of Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, which was composed of Tang characters, from the outdoor to the east side of the exhibition room of the Tang Dynasty's "Kaicheng Stone Sutra". It was then collectively called the "Thirteen Classics" with the Tang Dynasty's "Kaicheng Stone Sutra", allowing Xi'an Stele Forest to completely preserve the earliest versions of Confucian classics that have been seen so far during the ups and downs of more than 900 years of historical changes.

From this point of view,"Kaicheng Stone Sutra" is much luckier than other ancient carved scriptures such as "Xiping Stone Sutra" and "Zhengshi Stone Sutra". After more than 1,100 years of historical ups and downs, it has been completely preserved until today., it has become an important historical and cultural heritage of the Chinese nation.

(Originally published in "Nine hundred years of vicissitudes: A picture of Xi'an Stele Forest" Northwest University Press)

Source: Xi'an Forest of Steles Museum