The Forest of Steles, the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units (Stone Carvings No. 1), the national first-class museum, the national aaaa-level tourist scenic spot, one of the 18 special tourism landscapes in the country, is the earliest collection of ancient Chinese steles, the largest collection of famous monuments of han culture and art treasure house, located in Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, Beilin District Sanxue Street No. 15.
The origin of the forest of steles can be traced back to the "Shitai Filial Piety Classic" and "Kaicheng Stone Classic" erected in the GuoziJian of the Imperial Capital Chang'an Wu Benfang in the Tang Dynasty, and the official founder was The Northern Song Dynasty's famous minister Lü Dazhong (Lantian, Shaanxi), which was founded in the second year of the Northern Song Dynasty (1087), and gradually expanded in scale after generations of collection. At present, it has a collection of more than 11,000 cultural relics, including 134 pieces of 19 kinds (groups) of Chinese treasure-level cultural relics and 535 first-class cultural relics. The famous "Zhaoling Six Horses" have four horses hidden in the forest of steles.
The Forest of Steles in Xi'an is not only one of the concentrated places for the carving of ancient Chinese cultural classics, but also a gathering place for famous calligraphy art treasures of past dynasties, with great historical and artistic value. On March 4, 1961, the Forest of Steles was listed by the State Council as one of the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units.
In the second year of the Northern Song Dynasty (1035), Fan Yong established jingzhao fuxue near the west corner of Tang Shangshu Province; in the third year of Yuanfeng (1080), Lü Dafang moved part of the Temple of Literature and Fuxue to the current site of the Forest of Steles in Xi'an; in the second year of Yuanyou (1087), Lü Dazhong, the deputy envoy of Shaanxi, saw that the stone scriptures stored in the west corner of Tang Shangshu Province were "miscellaneous dwellings in the land, and their places were under the depression"; in the second year of Chongning (1103), Yu Ce completely moved Fuxue to "when he knew yongxing army". The southeast corner of fucheng is the current site of the Forest of Steles in Xi'an, and it has been built and renovated. At this point, the Fuxue and the Temple of Literature were in the same place as the Forest of Steles, which is the location of the Forest of Steles in present-day Xi'an.
In the fifth year of Jin Zhenglong (1160), Yin Yelülong, the prefect of Hezhong Province, and Zhou Weifu, the deputy envoy of Shaanxi East Road, repaired the stele forest. In the fourteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1285), Jingzhao Fu Xuezheng Luo Tianjun and Jingzhao Fu professor Meng Wenchang asked Liu Bin of Baqiao Tangyi to restore the fallen stele stone. In the 25th year of Zhizheng (1365), the Temple of Literature, the Fuxue And the Forest of Steles were rebuilt.
In the thirty-fourth year of Ming Jiajing (1555), a major earthquake occurred in Guanzhong, and many of the stele stones were overturned and broken. In the sixteenth year of the Ming Dynasty (1588), the forest of steles was renovated, and the damaged stone scriptures were copied and repaired and the nine classics were engraved. The Ming Dynasty Zhao Kun was first called "Forest of Steles" in the preface to "Graphite Engraving", which is the earliest record of the Forest of Steles in Xi'an called "Forest of Steles" in the materials seen.
In the third year of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty (1664), The Shaanxi Governor Jia Hanfu and Xu Jiye presided over the collection of seven articles of "Mencius" in the form of the "Kaicheng Stone Classic". In the fifty-ninth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1720), Xu Rong, the prefect of Xi'an, Zhang Zhong, a professor of fuxue, and Yao Wensi, a teacher, repaired the stele forest. In the thirty-seventh year of Qianlong (1772), Bi Yuan, the governor of Shaanxi, renovated the forest of steles, re-planned and rebuilt the building of the stele forest, sorted out the hidden stones, and sent personnel to manage and restrict the expansion of the stele, which was the most comprehensive and important renovation of the stele forest in the Qing Dynasty.
From the 26th year of the Republic of China to the 27th year of the Republic of China (1937-1938), the Republic of China government carried out large-scale renovation of the forest of steles, Shao Lizi, Zhang Ji, Huang Wenbi and others served as supervisors, and the project was specifically guided by Liang Sicheng in terms of architectural design and arrangement of stele stones, and the entire architectural form and layout have been used to this day. During this renovation, a special room will be built for display of 387 pieces of historical materials and calligraphy high value donated by Right Ren to the Western Jin Dynasty, Northern Dynasty and Sui and Tang Dynasties (i.e., "Mandarin Duck Seven Zhi Zhai Tibetan Stones"), which greatly enriched the collection system of the Forest of Steles and was an important contribution of Yu Youren to the Forest of Steles in Xi'an and the cultural undertakings of Shaanxi.
In 1961, the State Council announced the "Forest of Steles in Xi'an" as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units (No. 1 in the category of stone carvings). In January 1993, the "Shaanxi Provincial Museum" was officially renamed the "Xi'an Forest of Stone Steles Museum".
Among the famous monuments preserved in the Forest of Steles, the Tang Stele is the most prominent. The Tang Dynasty was a prosperous period of Chinese calligraphy art, during which famous people emerged, and genres were divided into true, grass, li, seal, and a hundred flowers competing for beauty. It inherits the afterglow of the Six Dynasties of Wei and Jin, the first of the five dynasties of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, is a glorious chapter in the long history of Chinese calligraphy for thousands of years, has a pioneering page in the history of traditional Chinese culture, and profoundly affects the development path of calligraphy art in China and even East and Southeast Asia.
During the Tang Dynasty, the imperial court attached great importance to calligraphy, and the Hanlin Academy had a scholar who regarded calligraphy as one of the doorways to enter the career. The central "Guoxue" is divided into six disciplines, one of which is the discipline of calligraphy, which is a special institution for teaching calligraphy, which is a continuation of the han dynasty's setting of taking scholars from books and having doctors of calligraphy in the Jin Dynasty. Hongbunkan also taught calligraphy, which was improved by officials with more than five pins, and was taught by the most famous calligraphy masters at that time, such as Ouyang Qing and Yu Shinan. This is enough to see the importance that the imperial court attaches to calligraphy and calligraphy education.
The total number of Tang Dynasty calligraphers with names and surnames recorded in the historical records has exceeded 1,000, most of whom were Jingguan or shi class who had long lived in the imperial capital Chang'an area. From the general context of calligraphy flow, Tang Dynasty calligraphy can be divided into three periods: the early Tang Dynasty, the Middle Tang Dynasty and the Late Tang Dynasty, and the typical representatives of these three periods are fully expressed in the Forest of Steles.