Yang Jin Yang Enquan
From the ancient Chinese historical documents, we can often see that historians use words such as "Hundred Barbarians" and "Southwest Yi" to summarize the ethnic groups in Yunnan, and use language that can no longer be simplified to record the history of Yunnan, as if Yunnan is really an uncivilized barbaric land. Facts are often unexpected, if in the eyes of Emperor Wu of Han at that time, the southwest Yi was really an insignificant barbaric land, how could he dig a Kunming pond next to Chang'an to prepare for the battle, and how could he twice send two Sima who were known for their literary talent and intellectual insight to send envoys to the southwest. Through modern archaeological discoveries, it is confirmed that Yunnan, as early as 2,000 years ago, was already an important economic and cultural exchange channel in the world and the center of trade exchanges.
Although we cannot confirm whether there is a written character in the Yunnan culture, from the strong realism and narrative of the Yunnan bronze culture, people at that time wanted to leave more information to posterity through these seemingly eternal artifacts, and had to use relatively complex sculptures and depictions to express it, which inferred that people at that time did not use a relatively mature script. Interestingly, in the early yunnan historical books such as the "White Ancient Tongji" and "NanzhaoYe History" compiled since the Ming and Qing dynasties, as well as various documents such as Fang Zhi, the earliest temples in Yunnan were not dedicated to the Buddha god but to the book Saint Wang Xizhi. It can be seen that the people at that time were full of awe and respect for the influx of Chinese characters and calligraphy art. The lack of early calligraphy art in Yunnan did not affect the emergence of important inscriptions in Yunnan, but some inscriptions have landmark significance in the history of Chinese calligraphy. Looking at the ancient inscriptions in Yunnan, although they were discovered late, the number is small, and a complete system has not yet been formed, but in the development process of ancient Chinese calligraphy, the status of ancient inscriptions in yunnan in the history of calligraphy and the influence on future generations cannot be underestimated.
The Yunnan Printing Society, a golden stone printing group with the mission of "studying printing and preserving golden stones", jointly held the "'Nanzhong Jijin - Yunnan Dynasty Inscription Rubbings Exhibition", which concentrated a large number of Yunnan dynasty inscription rubbings, providing a more superior condition for studying the Yunnan dynasty inscription rubbings, and we also took the opportunity to personally visit the fine inscription rubbings of Yunnan dynasties and perceive the cultural relics left by the sages; here, in chronological order, the important inscriptions of Yunnan ancient times are introduced one by one:
Early stone carvings in Yunnan appeared in the middle and late Western Han Dynasty, and were mostly concentrated in the Zhaotong region of present-day northeastern Yunnan. Zhaotong was a vassal state of the Eastern Han Dynasty called Juti, an important gateway connecting the interior to the Indian subcontinent. Zhu Ti was an important place for the manufacture of official bronzes at that time, and the Han Dynasty bronze ornaments of fish and insects and the washing of the Ji language were also produced here, and it can be known from the craft manufacturing and pattern writing that it was the earliest area in Yunnan that was influenced by Han culture at that time. The earliest Chinese character stone carvings with a clear date found in Yunnan are from this area. The stone seat inscription of the "cash cow tree" in the first year of the Eastern Han Dynasty is in the shape of a bucket, and one side is engraved with nine characters of "March of the first year of the founding of the first year", and the other three sides are engraved with "Suzaku", "Ruihe" and "Xuanwu". However, as a complete stele carving system, Yunnan is only the Han "Meng Xiaoju Stele".
Meng Xiaoju stele sand and stone material, excavated when it was mutilated, the stele is 1.33 meters high, 0.96 meters wide, the inscription has a total of 15 lines, each line remains 21 characters. The upper end of the whole stele is broken, and there are green dragons and white tigers on both sides of the inscription (sealed by cement when the pavilion was moved for reinforcement and protection after the founding of the People's Republic of China), and the upper section and the missing amount of the stele should be Suzaku. In the 27th year of qing guangxu (1901), it was excavated in the white mud well outside Zhaotong City, and it is now in the Third Middle School of Zhaotong City, Yunnan Province. In that year, Xie Chongji moved the library building of Fengchi Academy in Zhaotong City, and engraved an inscription by Xie Chongji. According to Xie's inscription, "It is a stele with a dragon carved on the side of the stele, and the shape of the lower inscription, if a turtle and a snake, its words are ancient, the characters and paintings are vigorous, and the Fang Zhidian middle ancient carving is on top of the two stele." Because it is a stele, there is no clear chronology, according to the text, there are mainly six theories such as the fourth year of Heping in the Western Han Dynasty (25 years BC), the twelfth year of Jianwu in the Eastern Han Dynasty (36 years), the eighth year of Yongyuan (96 years), the second year of Yongshou (156 years), the third year of Yongshou (157 years), and the twenty-first year of Jian'an (216 years). Later, after Xie Chongji and Fan Xiuming of En'anzhi County, Zhaotong Province, Yunnan Province, examined it according to the official inscription, font, and style of the original stele, and it was more credible to set it up as a stele erected in the second to third year of the Eastern Han Dynasty Yongshou.
The whole stele records the life deeds of Meng Guangzong (Zi Xiaoju), the son of Wuyang Ling in the Han Dynasty. Its writing is elegant, and the words reveal the good character of Meng Xiaoju in a corner of Nan'an, "Twelve Officials Receiving Han Poems, Two Volumes of the Classic of Filial Piety, and Reading (Qunshu)" admiring Sinology, paying attention to filial piety, and knowing the good character of etiquette. From the perspective of calligraphy, its body is square and flat, simple and ancient, exaggerated, horizontal and vertical, wide and square, with a round and strong pen, dense and murky layout, magnificent and generous, and also a product on the Han monument. In particular, the inscription square pen Lishu, taking the position of horizontal flat, stretching left and right, the strokes are thin and simple, which not only breaks the ugly theory of "northern and southern circles", but also explores the "traces of Han Li and present Li" (Liang Qichao). It also provides valuable physical materials for the study of the ancient ethnic history of Southwest China.
Cuan Baozi Stele The full name is "Tomb of the Former Zhenwei General Jianning Taishou CuanFu Jun" stele. The stele is sand and stone, excavated in the 43rd year of the Qianlong Dynasty (1778) in the Village of Yangqitian in the south of Nanning City (present-day Qujing City), and was used by a local tofu factory to make tofu for 74 years. In the second year of Xianfeng (1852), when Deng Erheng (son of Deng Tingzhen), who was then the prefect of Qujing, usurped the "Chronicle of Nanning County" to search for jinshi characters, he stumbled upon the visit and carved an inscription. Later, the monument was moved to the Wuhou Ancestral Hall in the county town (now Qujing City), and in 1937, it was moved to Qujing First Middle School for protection.
The Cuan Baozi Stele, commonly known as the "Xiao Cuan" stele, was erected in the fourth year (404) of the Eastern Jin Dynasty Taiheng in the early April of the year of Yi, Taiheng was changed in the year of Emperor An of Jin (402 AD), the following year was renamed Yuanxing, and in the following year it was renamed Yixi (405 AD). Yunnan is far away in the borderlands, and it is not known that the era name of the mainland has changed, so it still uses the Taiheng era name. The monument is rectangular, with a height of 1.83 meters, a width of 0.68 meters and a thickness of 0.21 meters. The head of the stele is semi-circular, and the inscription on the forehead of the stele is "Tomb of the Jin Dynasty Zhenwei General Jianning Taishou Cuanfu Jun", 5 lines and 15 characters. The inscription is 400 words, 13 lines, 7 to 30 words per line. There are 13 lines of inscriptions under the main text of the stele, each line is 4 words, all of which are authentic books. Except for the last word, the rest are clearly recognizable. The main content of the inscription is not only to describe the main merits of The Jianning Taishou, who had died at the age of 23, who had inherited the position of Zhenwei general, as well as the life and family lineage of his Cuan clan ruling Nanzhong. According to the Nanzhong Zhi (南中志), the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Jin Dynasty ( The Chu clan ) has been called Xiongnanzhong ( 南中). In 1971, Luliang County unearthed a stone carving, which reads "Tai (Tai) and five years old in the tomb of The Eighth Day of the Eighth Month of the First Month of The Fifth Month of the Fifth Month of the Fifth Month" can be just as evidence. At the end of the stele, there are 13 large and small officials such as the main book, the recorder, the Western Cao, the governor, the provincial affair, the shuzuo, the thousand officials, the small officials, and the Weiyi, and it is even more possible to examine the setting of local officials at that time to make up for the lack of historical records, which has a high historical value.
The excavation and discovery of this stele makes up for the limitations of the Southern Dynasty forbidden stele on the inscription calligraphy, and the "Tomb of Wang Xingzhi and His Wife" excavated in Xiangshan in Nanjing in the early 1950s has become an important basis for the study of the Southern Dynasty canon. Its writing style is majestic and simple, folded with a pen, clumsy and clever, full of ancient atmosphere, and the book body is between Li kai, reflecting the signs of the transition of Chinese characters from Lishu to Kaishu, and is an important physical example for studying the evolution of Chinese calligraphy. Many predecessors praised it, Kang Youwei called his calligraphy "simple and ancient, full of strange postures" and "simple and ancient Buddha's appearance"; Li Gengen said that the stele was "as strong as iron under the pen, and as beautiful as a goddess".
The Cuan Long Yan Stele, commonly known as the "Great Cuan" stele, was erected in the second year of the Reign of Emperor Xiaowu of the Southern Dynasty (458 AD), and now exists about 10 kilometers southeast of Luliang County, Yunnan Province, zhenyuan fort (also known as Xueguan fort). The stele is rectangular, semi-circular in the forehead, and 3 meters high. 38 meters, upper width 1. 35 meters, lower width 1. 46 meters, thickness 0. 25 meters. Compared with the Baozi Stele, it is 155 cm tall, with an average width of more than 71.5 cm and a thickness of more than 4 cm, which is worthy of the name of "Big Cuan". There are green dragons, white tigers, and suzaku reliefs on the forehead, and there are piercing (holes) in the lower part, and on the left and right are reliefs of the sun and moon, and there are birds in the sun and toads in the moon. The main book of Beiyang has 24 lines and a total of 904 words. The inscription is the inscription, divided into three paragraphs, the upper, middle and lower paragraphs, a total of 313 words, all of which are written in the main book. The inscription describes the origins of the Cuan family, traces the history of the three generations of the deceased's ancestors and grandchildren, and indicates the exceptional strength of the Cuan clan at that time and its relationship with the central government. The stele was erected 12 years after the death of Cuan Longyan, 53 years later than the Cuan Baozi Monument, and has a history of more than 1500 years. The inscription was written by Cuan Daoqing.
This stele is recorded in the "Yunnan Zhiluo" of the Yuanren Li Jing, and it is also recorded in the "Yunnan Tongzhi" during the Ming Dynasty. In the seventh year of the Qing Dynasty, the viceroy of Yungui and the epigrapher Ruan Yuan visited Luliang Zhenyuan Fort (present-day Xueguan Fort), and Zhang Haojianting of Zhizhou protected it and wrote a poem, which has been famous ever since.
The inscription of the Cuan Longyan stele is quaint and elegant, the knot is dense, the pen is vigorous, the mood is strange, inheriting the Law of the Han Stele, rao has the will of the Book, and the pen is rounded in the middle, which is a typical example of the transition from the Book of Letters to the Book of Letters. It is one of the most valuable inscriptions in Yunnan during the Jin and Song dynasties, and is revered by epigraphers and calligraphers. When clearing the light, Nguyen Phuc praised: "... It is a pity that during the eighty years of Liu Mo and Xiao Qi, there was no stone in Uchi. This monument, far away from the border, is still standing. Fan Shouming of the Qing Dynasty listed the famous monuments of the Southern and Northern Dynasties compared with the Great Cuan and believed that "it is the most important of the five inscriptions of the stele ... Gai was divided into subordinates, opening countless methods of the Six Dynasties, Tang and Song Dynasties. In the Jin Dynasty, these two monuments (the Great Tablet and the Song Gaoling Temple Stele) were the originators of the calligrapher. The most prosperous praise for this monument is Kang Youwei, who said that "the painting is like a kun knife carving jade, but it is beautiful; the cloth is like a seiko painter, each with its own intentions, when it is Li, Kai Ji Ze", "Hun Jin Pu Jade", "The Sect of Majestic And Powerful Maomei", "The First ancient and modern Kaifa", listed as the "first of the divine qualities" of Chinese calligraphy, almost reaching the supreme realm, and even comparing it with the ancient sages: "The Dragon Yan Ruo Xuanyuan Ancient Sage, the Crown Hanging On", the lyrical cloud of poetry: the iron stone vertical and horizontal body is strange, and the Xiangsi brushwork is passed on? After the Han Jing, the sound dust was extinguished, and only the first monument of Long Yan was there.
The Monument of Wang Renqiu is located in the small stone village of Anning in present-day Kunming, and was erected in the first year of the Wu Zetian Holy Calendar of the Tang Dynasty (698 AD). The height of the stele is about 2.81 meters, the width is 1.5 meters, and there are 34 lines, each line is 53 words, and the amount of the stele is 10 words. The inscription and the Book of Erjun were written by lu qiujun, a famous scholar in Chengdu, Shudi, and Wang Ren asked his eldest son Wang Shanbao to write a book. The stele is composed of red sand stone, which is composed of a stele body and a stele, and the stele is carved with a mot. The head of the stele is carved with six long-legged dragons, the stele is chiseled with a Buddha niche, and two Buddhas are carved and seated, the head is mutilated, the Buddha's clothes are also damaged, and the two Buddhas are knotted with meditation seals, and the knot sits on the foundation of the lotus altar. The inscription on the stele under the Buddha statue reads "Monument to the Assassination history of hedongzhou in the great Zhou Dynasty", and the inscription is "Inscription of the Protector Of the Royal Palace in the History of the Imperial Guard's Palace in the History of the Military Hedong Prefecture of the Tang Dynasty". The inscription details Wang Renqiu's family lineage, talents, and achievements. Wang Renqiu's tomb brick inscription reflects that this tomb is a relocation tomb, circumstantial evidence of the stele and inscription that are both "Tang" and "Zhou".
This stele was once deserted in the weeds, and during the Ming Jiajing period, it was found for Yang Shen, and two poems were specially given to him, "Visiting Shi Chun Village to Tang River East To Assassinate Wang Ren to Ask for a Monument". During the Qianlong period, the epigrapher Wang Chang came to Yunnan to consult the Yunnan Provincial Chronicle and learned that Wang Renqiu's tomb was in the Peaceful and Lush Mountain, the tomb had long been abandoned, and the stele still existed. He immediately asked someone to expand his return and add an inscription to include it in volume 62 of the Golden Stone Compilation. Ruan Fu's "Records of ancient gold stones in southern Yunnan", Daoguang and Guangxu's three "Yunnan Tongzhi" all record inscriptions, but unfortunately there are many errors. In volume 84 of the Jinshi Examination IV, the "New Yunnan Tongzhi" refers to the inscription recorded in volume 19 of the "Anning Zhou Zhi" revised by Yongzheng in the ninth year, and corresponds to the original stele one by one, which is the most complete version of its interpretation.
The early study of Jinshi studied wang renqiu stele as a historical document, "read it in detail, the Dian of that year, you can get its overview", and talk about Wang Shanbao's calligraphy, whose calligraphy style is "chungu, with the flavor of the early Tang Dynasty", which has basically become the consensus of researchers.
Nanzhao Dehua Monument Located in the Northern Suburbs of Dali City, Nanzhao Taihe City Ruins Park, it is a bluestone inscription, 4 meters high and 2 meters wide. 4 meters, thickness 0. 6 meters. The stele was erected in 776 AD (the fifteenth year of the Zanpu Zhong, that is, the first year of the Tang calendar), after the Nanzhao king Ge Luofeng was forced to rebel against Tang and surrender to Tubo, in order to explain that "the reason for blocking the imperialization, subject to the meaning of Xi Rong" had to rebel against Tang, and was written by Zheng Hui, the Qingping official of Nanzhao, and written by Tang Liuyu Nanzhao Yushi Du Guangting. The main text of the stele is more than 3800 words, due to the local rumor that this stele can be used for medicine, for thousands of years, it has suffered serious long-term man-made damage, and only 220 words remain today. It focuses on the original close contact between Nanzhao and the Tang Dynasty and the process of the two sides' confrontation, the two sides met each other three times, and finally Nanzhao returned to Tubo. The inscription on the stele has 41 lines and more than 3,000 words, and only 556 words remain. The content is the inscription of an important official of Nanzhao. The content of the existing inscription is the first record of Li Yuanyang, a famous Yunnan writer and theorist in the Ming Dynasty, in the "Wanli Yunnan Tongzhi".
The Nanzhao Dehua Monument provides extremely important documents for studying the formation of Nanzhao, the social system, the relations between various ethnic groups in Yunnan, the relationship between Nanzhao and the Tang Dynasty and Tibet, and the structure of the ruling class and the official system in the early days of Nanzhao. For the study of yunnan ethnic history, Tibet local history of physical materials.
The Duan clan and the Thirty-Seven Guild Alliance Monuments were excavated in the north of Qujing City in the eighteenth year of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty (1679), and now coexist with the Cuan Baozi Monument in Qujing Yizhong. It was established in the third year of the Reign of SuShun Ming in the Dali State, that is, in the fourth year of the Northern Song Dynasty (971). The stele is small, with a height of 1.25 meters, a width of 0.58 meters, and a thickness of 0.61 meters, which is divided into two sections. At the top of the stele there is the 29th year of Daoguang Yu Huaixin; the upper section of the stele is the main text, 11 lines, 13 characters per line, the left line, the main book; the lower section of the stele is the official title inscription, 8 lines, all personal names, the line book. This stele is special and the text is straight. From left to right, it can be read through; the upper and lower inscriptions and inscriptions need to be from right to left to be in order. The whole stele has a total of 403 characters, the calligraphy is in italics, and the calligraphy is thick and energetic, and the calligraphers of the past generations have highly evaluated it.
Yuan Dynasty Zu ping yunnan stele Existing in the foothills of the Cangshan Mountains on the west bank of the Erhai Sea, the stele stands on the back of the giant stone turtle, divided into two sections, there are stone strips to protect, there are stone frames on the side, the stele is marble, carved two plays of beads, the forehead seal "Shizu Emperor Ping Yunnan Stele". 50 lines of writing, 30 lines of upper stone, 20 words per line, 28 lines of lower stone, 25 words per line, a total of 1300 words. Due to the years, there are more than 1,000 words in existence. An inscription written by Cheng Jufu (Cheng Wenhai), a scholar of the Yuan Dynasty, by Emperor Chengzong of Yuan. The inscription praises the great merits of Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, and expresses many of the policies and strategies he adopted to pacify the Dali state. This stele is written in large characters in orthography, with a strong and thin worker, and has the legacy of Ou and Liu. Think of this as a monument to the Lord, remember the major events of the country, and do not write it if you are not a master in the sea. The book "Book History Will" also calls it "a pure font of the Matrix, a dark calligraphy under the pen, and also a large character".
Yuan Dynasty Sacred Will Monument In the Daxiong Treasure Hall of Xiaozhu Temple in the northwest suburbs of Kunming, the Yuan Dynasty Sacred Will Monument is on one side, with Chinese character vernacular on the front and Straight Mongolian on the back, both of which have high historical documentary value. The vernacular sacred will stele has such words as "The abbot of Zouzhu Temple, Yachi Chengzi, Yunnan Province, is the head monk". "Duck Pond" is the Mongol name for Kunming in the early Yuan Dynasty, also known as "Ochi" or "Yaqi", which is the same as the record in the "History of the Yuan". "Yuan Shi" Yun: "Wu Man Suo is all Achi, intercity Dianchi Lake, water on three sides." This stele does not write the year number, but only writes "April 23, 23, Year of the Dragon", that is, the 23rd day of April in the Year of the Dragon, which was erected by Emperor Yuanrenzong Yanyou in the third year of the year (1316 AD).
In addition to the important inscriptions in Yunnan listed above, during the Tang and Song dynasties, that is, during the Nanzhao, Dali and Yuan and Ming dynasties, because the "Dianmi" Buddhist culture penetrated into all aspects of the life of the country's political citizens, in a local political or regional cultural form operated by Buddhist thought and Buddhist system, a large number of artistic works and written documents related to Buddhist culture became the mainstream of this period. A large number of tombs and epitaphs engraved with ancient Sanskrit have also become representatives of yunnan's unique inscription art. However, compared with the art of Chinese character calligraphy, it is difficult for such inscriptions to express the aesthetic value of calligraphic significance in addition to the documentary historical data or the artistic value of crafts. At the time of the Ming and Qing dynasties, with the increasingly frequent exchanges and exchanges between the land reform and the interior, the real meaning was integrated into the ideological culture of Han culture as the main body, and a large number of bureaucratic literati classes in Yunnan and the establishment of sutra academies in various places promoted the derivation of Yunnan scholar culture, induced the emergence and development of native literati in Yunnan, and also promoted the overall artistic improvement of Yunnan calligraphy, especially in the art of inscription. At the same time, the large demand for stone inscriptions in a large number of temples, buildings, pagodas, and tombs and other buildings promoted the emergence of inscription art in the official and private society of the Ming and Qing dynasties in Yunnan. However, the calligraphy art value of the inscriptions in this period is still relatively different from the central plains, and there are still many deficiencies in the research and collation work, in the coming period, with the deepening of the historical and cultural research in Yunnan, especially the revival of epigraphy, there will be a more comprehensive understanding and understanding of the representative and regional cultural orientation of Yunnan, ancient and modern inscription art.
bibliography:
(1) Li Gen's "Outline of The Golden Stone of Yunnan", 1935.
(2) Sun Taichu's "Yunnan Ancient Stone Carvings Series Examination" Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1983.
(3) Selected Essays on Calligraphy in Past Dynasties, Shanghai Calligraphy and Painting Publishing House, 2002.
(4) Yunnan Literature and History Research Museum, Yunnan Calligraphy History Catalogue, Yunnan Fine Arts Publishing House, 2014.
(Editor-in-charge: Liu Yu)