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Forest of the Stone Steles Museum
History
Forest of the Stone Steles Museum, the former Shaanxi Provincial Museum,
is located in the site of the Confucian Temple in Sanxue Street, Xi'an.
Tracing back to its original set-up, it was just the Imperial Aancestral
Temple of Tang Dynasty. Later in the Song Dynasty, it changed into Confucian
Temple when a large Confucian collection of steles cut in A.D.837- the
oldest existing texts of the Confucian classics- was moved here for safekeeping.
In 1950, it was enlarged into the museum that we can see today. Specifically
speaking, uare meters, the Forest of Stone Steles used to be the principal
museum for Shaanxi Province since 1944. Then because of the large number
of stone steles, it was officially named as the Forest of Stone Steles
Museum in 1992.The different structure of the temple that distinguished
lot from other Chinese temples may arouse people's doubt. For it had built
up two gates facing east and west separately, but not following the traditional
principle of one-way gate facing south. As a matter of fact, all the temples
are opened on both the east and west sides for different meaning of courtesy
and righteousness.
Composition
The temple possesses a long history of more 900 years; it houses numerous
collections of the ancient stone steles of various periods that last from
Han Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. Totally more than 3,000 steles fulfilled
the museum, and the contents can be divided into four categories: works
of literature and philosophy, historical records, calligraphy and pictorial
stones. On the whole, from the exhibition area, it also be divided into
seven exhibition halls.
Exhibition Rooms
The "Kaicheng Stone Classics" composed of twelve lections engraved
on 114 steles are on display in the first room, where you can find the
must-read books for the intellectuals of the feudal society.
Calligraphies in Tang Dynasty, which are all masterpieces of famous calligraphers
as Ou Yangxun, Wang Xizhi etc, are turn out to be great value in researching
today in the second room. The most distinguished Tang stele is "the
Preface to the Holy Buddhist Scriptures" in the handwriting of Wang
Xizhi.
The room three has draw an outline of the development of the Chinese characters,
where one can
Classify Chinese calligraphy in five basic script forms, namely: seal
script, clerical script, regular script, running script and cursive script.
Through more than 5,000 years of creative work various forms have constituted
the abundant treasure and unique traditions of Chinese calligraphy.
The portraits of Confucius and Bodhidarma and the allegorical pictures
and picture-like texts were painted on the stone in room four.
To the reference of the ancient emperors, some records of the temple building
and city wall solidity of different dynasties engraved on the steles and
preserved in room five.
There is no doubt that if one enjoys the poetic inscriptions, he would
certainly want to go to Room Six.
Emperors, noted ministers and well-reputed calligraphers of various dynasties
have left many inscriptions, some of which are shown in Room Seven.
All of these record
some achievements in the development of the Chinese culture and reflect
the historical facts of the cultural exchanges between China and other
countries. |
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