A stele can be divided into several parts: the upper end of the stele, the place where the inscription is inscribed, called "stele", or "stele head". The rectangular section below, used to engrave the inscription, is called the "stele face". Its reverse side is called "Stele Yin". Since the term "Stele Yin", some people have referred to "Stele Face" as "Stele Yang", but this term is generally not used. The stele is a stone plate, either thick or thin. The thick stele, quite wide on both sides, can also be used for engraving. This place is called the "side of the monument". The side near the first line of the inscription is called the "right side", and the side near the last line of the inscription is called the "left side".
"Jin Shi Cong Dialect", Shi Jingcun, Beijing Publishing House, October 2020.
The early stele, the stele and the stele are the whole stone plates connected together. The Han monuments were relatively short, and after the Wei and Jin Dynasties, they became taller and taller. In the Tang Dynasty, the production of monuments became more and more refined. The stele and the stele are assembled with two stone plates carved. The front of the stele is carved in a delicate pattern of dragon flowers and grasses. Its width and thickness are larger than the stele, which has a protective effect on the stele, so that rain and snow will not be directly poured on the stele. There are many Tang stele standing upright in the field, and the handwriting of the upper half is still intact, and the damage is mostly in the lower half. Although some of them are due to the beating of peasant shepherd children, the role of the generous forehead of the monument is also obvious. After the stele and the stele are divided into two pieces, the lower one is called the "stele body".
At the bottom of each stele, there is a blank space and no inscription. The stele is erected on the ground, and this part is buried in the soil. Over time, the stele will sink and gradually bury the last few words of each line. Therefore, the ancient Tuoben often does not expand the full line, and each line will lose one or two words or three or four words. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, gold and stone archaeologists have often hired workers to lift sinking stele stones or dig up the soil around them, which is called "ascending monuments". The year of the ascension of the monument is also the symbol of the Tuoben Chronicle, so the ancient Tuoben has the difference between "the expansion before the ascension of the monument" and the "expansion after the ascension of the monument".
The Eastern Han Dynasty "Xianyu Huang Stele" expanded the text
In order to prevent the stele from sinking, the huge stele often makes another rectangular or square planar stone plate, according to the width and thickness of the stele, carved into a raised groove, the stele is embedded in the trough, erected on the ground, so that the area of the bottom of the stele is increased, it is not easy to sink. Or make a tall stone ballast, which can take a variety of different forms, with a total name of "stele". The large or imperial stele of the Tang Dynasty (the inscription is a stele written by the emperor), the stele is carved into a huge turtle. A groove is chiseled on the turtle's back and the stele is planted in the groove. This big turtle has a proper name, called "bìxì". It is said that the dragon gave birth to nine sons, one of whom was called Gantu, who had the greatest strength and liked to bear weights. Therefore, according to this myth, later generations carved a giant turtle and used it as a monument. The stele is also known as the "stele". The heel is the heel of the foot, and the stele is the heel of the stele to maintain its uprightness. The inscription carved into the giant turtle is called "turtle", which means turtle-shaped stele.
The Eastern Han Dynasty "Hengfang Stele" expands the part
The form of the Han stele also maintains the form of the ancient "stone", with the upper tip and the lower flat, and there is still a round hole under the spire. There are several Han tablets, and three rope lines are carved next to the round hole to symbolize the original role of the stone. This round hole is called "wear". The stele with the tip of the head is called "Guishou Monument", or "Guitou Monument". The existing "Lu Jun Monument" and "Wu Rong Monument" in Jining City, Shandong Province, and the "Xianyu Huang Monument" excavated in Tianjin in 1973 are all Guishou monuments. Later, the spire became a dome, such as the hengfang stele of the existing Tai'an Dai Temple. Or even the round hole has been cancelled, such as the "Zhang Qian Monument", which is also in the Dai Temple. The forms of these inscriptions, which are called by cultural relics bibliographers as "Guishou has worn", "round head has worn", or "round head has no wear". Guishou stele is worn.
In general, wearing is the dividing line between the forehead and the surface of the stele. Wear the above, inscribed inscription, but there are also engraved on the right side of the wear. Wear the following inscription. Only the surviving Jingjun Ming of Jining, which is chiseled very low, is in the middle of the inscription. There are also three lines of inscriptions, eight characters on each line, which is probably a special exception.
The inscriptions of the Han stele all use seal characters or lizi, so they are called "seal forehead" or "subordinate amount". After the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the inscription was written in orthography, but when it was written, no one said "italics", only "erzhengshu". Sometimes the inscription of the orthography can also be said to be subordinate, because the calligrapher believes that the inscription is a contemporary lishu. Therefore, there is a difference between "Han Li" and "Present Li", and this Li is the Kai Shu.
The seal characters or lizi on the forehead of Han tablets have always been cherished by calligraphers, especially the large characters of the Han seal book, which are now only visible on the inscriptions. For example, the seals of "Han Renming" and "Zhang Qianbei", with their beautiful fonts, are the modernization of Qin seals. The seal book of the "Xianyu HuangBei" is another school, that is, the example of Kang Youwei's so-called "Han seal folding". The inscriptions on the foreheads of the wei and Jin dynasties are also very good. As I can see, the inscription of the Northern Wei "Southern Grotto Temple Stele" is the most magnificent. The Tang stele has the six characters of the Feibai book "Monument of the Prince of Shengxian" written by Wu Zetian on the forehead of the "Monument to the Prince of Shengxian", which is in the shape of a bird, which is simply a modern art character.
The Eastern Han Dynasty "Han Renming" expands the part
Since the inscription of the Han stele is connected with the stele, the title of the inscription is engraved on the stele, and there is no need to repeat it on the stele. Therefore, the first line of the stele begins with the main text. Most of the inscriptions of the Tang stele are another stone, which is easy to lose, so the first line of the inscription is still inscribed. For example, the inscription of the "Order of the Holy Teachings" is "The Order of the Three Tibetan Holy Religions of the Great Tang Dynasty", and the first line of the stele is "Emperor Taizong wen of the Tang Dynasty wrote the Order of the Three Tibetan Holy Religions".
The number of words on the Han stele is not much, so the stele does not need to be tall. The entire inscription is engraved on the stele. The inscriptions are generally engraved with the names of the people who erected the stele, such as "Kong Biao's Stele", "Jing Junming", "Cao Quan's Stele", etc., or engrave the inscription of "Former Official", or engrave the title of "Protégé Former Official". The style of the inscription is generally the official position, place of origin, surname, first name, word, and number of money. For example, the inscription of the "Ceremonial Instrument Stele" has the inscription "Zhao Guo Handan Song Town Yuan Shi Two Hundred", which is the Zhao State Handan County people Song Zhen, the character Yuan Shi, out of the money two hundred, donated to erect the monument. Another example is "Shangshu Shilang Lu Kong Biao Yuan three thousand", "Shang Shu Shi Lang" is Kong Biao's official position, he is a Lu guoren, the word Yuanshang, paid three thousand, to help erect this monument. Most of the Han stele yin is the inscription of those who paid for the erection of monuments or the construction of ancestral temples, and these people have protégés, former officials, and righteous soldiers. The Tang stele also has inscriptions, such as the "Shengxian Prince Stele" yin engraving "Congchen inscription", and the "Yushitai Jingshe Stele" yin engraving of the historical history inscription, its meaning is different from the Han stele. But it is collectively called "stele inscription".
The inscription of the stele has documents related to the stele. For example, "Tang Li Ji Xin Tombstone". Ji Xin was a man from the time of Han Gaozu, and his tomb still exists in the Tang Dynasty, but the tombstone has been lost. The Tang people re-erected a tombstone for him, so the word "Tang Li" should be added when bibliographing, otherwise it is easy to mistake it for a Han stele. This stele was engraved using a stele that was abandoned in the field without inscriptions, so it was inscribed on the stele with a description of "Remembering the Beginning and End of the Stele". Another example is the inscription of the "Mihara Shenquan Poetry Sequence", which is engraved with the "Mihara Shenquan Poem" composed by everyone. Engraved above the yin of the "Monument to the Prince of Shengxian" is Wu Zetian's poem "You Xian". This type of stele is carved at the same time as the stele.
The Eastern Han Dynasty "Zhang Qianbei" expands the part
Tang 'Shengxian Prince Monument' expands the part
Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei's "Hanging Bi Gan Wen" was erected in the eighteenth year of Taihe (494), and Tang Taizong's "Gift to Bi Gan Taishi Zhao and Sacrifice Text" was erected in the nineteenth year of Zhenguan (645). By the time of the Northern Song Dynasty, the two tablets had been so badly written that they were illegible. The Song Dynasty people simply grinded the plains to carve, according to the old Tuoben, re-hooked and re-engraved, and carved a "Re-engraving Record" to explain the situation in the stele. Although the stele and the stele of these two stele are engraved at the same time, the era represented is different, and the calligraphy is not from the hand of one person. The above type of stele yin text, all those related to the stele surface, in addition to the inscription, are called "stele yin record".
There are also many stele, the stele yin originally did not have an inscription, posterity used this blank stone surface, or erased the original stele yin text, and engraved a new inscription. For example, the "Ode to Huayue" written by Zhao Wenyuan of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the stele yin is engraved with the "Huayue Temple Stele" of the Tang Dynasty. The wall of the Shaolin Temple is embedded with a stele of "Guanyin Portrait" carved by the Jin Dynasty, and when the temple was renovated in recent years, it was found that the stele was the "Tang Tai Religious Stele" that had been missing for more than 800 years. This situation is not uncommon. About the inscriptions that appear in temples or places of interest, tombstones will not be engraved by posterity. This kind of stele, in fact, both sides are stele faces, and it doesn't matter if the stele is yin. However, when making a bibliography, it should also be engraved earlier as the stele, and the posterity should be engraved as a stele yin.
On both sides of the stele, there are often inscriptions, such as the Han "Yang Shu Gong Remnant Stele" side is engraved with the title of the book. The inscription is long, the inscription on the stele cannot be finished, and there are also continuations on the left side. The famous stele, the side of the stele is carved with dragon flowers and grass patterns, is a stone carved art decoration.
Very long inscriptions can be engraved on the four sides of the stele, such as Yan Lugong's "Yuan Jie Tomb Table" and "Yan Qinli Stele", which is called "four-sided carving" when bibliography.
Tang 'Yan Qinli Monument' expands the part
There is no writing on the stele or the turtle, and most of the stele of the ancient stele is lost, so there is nothing to say.
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