Chiseling history into stone creates enduring legacies

Inscribed stone tablets, a marvelous combination of calligraphy and carving, stand as silent poetry, etching history into eternity. For millennia, Chinese literati have turned to stone to immortalize their words, believing that only through the chisel could the emotion and spirit in their calligraphy outlast time itself.

An ongoing exhibition, The Inheritance and Glory of Craftsmanship of Suzhou Stone Inscription, at the Beijing Stone Carving Art Museum, brings this ancient tradition into focus. Featuring the forgotten carvers and the enduring legacy of inscription mastery in present-day Suzhou, Jiangsu province, the exhibition runs until Aug 9.

According to Li Qing, the museum's director, in ancient China, craftspeople were often required to carve their names on the artifacts they made so that each piece could be traced and remain enduring enough to be passed down through generations. The system, which began in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), lasted for more than two millennia.

Following this system, the exhibition guides visitors on a journey that traces the stele-carving techniques of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) in Suzhou through 45 rubbings of precious stone tablets from the Suzhou Museum of Inscribed Stone Tablets, thereby paying tribute to lesser-known carvers.

"In the Song Dynasty, when Suzhou flourished, its tablet carving also became prosperous," says Wang Yihan, curator of the display. "Carvers emerged as recorders of their times and immortalized the city's memories, secrets of star maps, geographical outlines, and emperors' lineage on stones, creating four famous tablets that still stand as national treasures at the Suzhou Confucian Temple today."

The four tablets' rubbings are highlights of the exhibition. They show the city layout of Pingjiang prefecture (now Suzhou), a star map based on celestial observations, the geographical reach of the Northern Song (960-1127) era, and the emperors' lineage from Huangdi, known as the Yellow Emperor, the first ancient emperor of Huaxia, ranked first among the "Five Emperors" and revered as the "Primordial Ancestor of Chinese Civilization", to Emperor Lizong of the Southern Song (1127-1279) period.

Among them, two rubbings of Suzhou's layout are showcased, demonstrating one of the earliest Chinese efforts to restore cultural relics. More than 700 years after the stele was created, Suzhou scholar Ye Dehui and several others noticed it in 1917, though by then it was severely weathered. However, they managed to restore it. The two rubbings show the tablet before and after its restoration, says Wang.

In the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), literati gathered in Suzhou, which was then the cultural and economic center of the Jiangnan region (the area south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River). Their close cooperation with the carvers became a legend at the time, helping forge the careers of some famous carving families.

Another rubbing on display shows a stele erected to pay tribute to Northern Song politician and writer Fan Zhongyan (989-1052). The image of Fan on the tablet appears grand in posture, gentle yet firm, alongside words commending his contributions.

According to Wang, Suzhou has many steles commemorating Fan because of his service as the top administrative official there. He made many contributions, the most important of which was the development of education.

"Fan established Suzhou Prefectural School, one of the largest and earliest schools in that era, which was also the Suzhou Confucian Temple. The pattern of functioning as both a school and a temple to worship Confucius influenced many other areas," says Wang.

"The school's establishment also laid a solid foundation for Suzhou to become a place that values the cultivation of talented people. In its later history, it produced more than 3,000 people who successfully passed the imperial exams and 51 top candidates," she adds.

The stele was carved by Wu Yingqi, a member of the Wu family, which was known in the Jiangnan area for its members' proficiency in tablet carving since the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).

"The Wu family worked as carvers for generations. With their stable carving techniques and profound understanding of calligraphy, they were deeply involved in the artistic creations of literati in the Jiangnan area," says Wang.

"Every chisel mark reveals the craftsman's heart; every stone tablet records the passage of time. This is the strength and spirit that runs through the exhibition," she adds.