「Look at the Picture and Talk about the Painting」The Cultural Bloodline in the Ink Marks of the Xiping Stone Classics

I recently bought a rubbing of the “Xiping Stone Classic” at an auction in Yongle!Anyone who studies calligraphy knows that the official script cannot do without the classic inscriptions from the Eastern Han Dynasty. The “official model” that predates those famous surviving steles is the “Xiping Stone Classics” behind these rubbings. It was a “standard calligraphy textbook” established by the imperial court over 1,800 years ago.

In ancient times, before the invention of printing and when ancient books were all copied by hand, it served as the earliest officially engraved Confucian classics. It inscribed Confucian classics such as “The Book of Songs” and “The Book of Documents” on stones and erected them at the entrance of the university. This not only ended the chaos of the copying of scriptures but also set a standard for learning for all people in the world.

The “The Book of Documents” from Yongle Auction, through the reproduction from the fragmentary stone, is a unique piece that “appears only once in the excavation”. Wu Muyao’s inscription praises it as “exquisitely perfect, unmatched by any other”, highlighting its rarity.The inscription “Purchased with a hundred gold coins to collect lost books” hidden within the seals reveals the enthusiasm of the literati in safeguarding the cultural heritage.

From the stone tablets inscribed with scriptures that were erected in the Luoyang Imperial College during the Eastern Han Dynasty, to the ink-stained fragments that circulated on the desks of scholars during the Republic of China era, these remnants of ink and traces of wear are not only models of calligraphy, but also witnesses to the uninterrupted progress of civilization. In each engraved line, there lies an imprint of the continuation of the cultural thread.

The tea for today is all gone. Next time, I’ll brew a fresh pot and enjoy art with you again.