Good morning, Ladies and gentlemen. Today we are going to visit the treasure house of ancient calligr aphy and stone carving art of China, the Museum of Forest of Stone Tablets, which is located at the site o f Confucian temple in SanXue Street, Xi’an. This museum was set up in 1087 and it collected more than 30 00 stone tablets from the Han dynasty through the Qing dynasty. The whole area consists of 3 parts: Confuc ian temple, exhibition of stone tablets and stone carvings.//总述
Here we can see this museum is very beautiful because it used the tradition Chinese courtyard style. So compared with other places, this museum is always quite peaceful and ver y silence. Now I’d like to take this temple as an example to talk a little bit about Confucian, the great philos opher, educationist, politician in feudal society.
And he was highly respected by Chinese. In order to show the respect for him, all the Confuci an temple have no gate facing south, as this one showing only the gate open to the east and west what we ca lled the gate of righteousness and courtesy respectively. //简介孔子
Ok, now this way please. Inside this museum, we can see a wooden Memorial arch standing here; its C hinese name is “PaiLou”. It is set up to honor or commemorate a distinguished person; as we continue our walking, now we are on the bridge over pon d in half circle which is special structure of Confucian temple, in the ancient time only those students who passed state examination would be allowed to pass here.//太和元气坊，畔池
Now let’s go through the stone gate in the middle which was only for high ranks in the past. Here we c an see two national treasures. On the west side there is a stone horse which was one of few relics of DaXi a short period. The Da xia period is a very short period in Chinese history, and there are lots of wars at tha t time. It’s difficult to find relics of this time, so it’s very precious. In the east pavilion there is the JingYu n Bell which was cast in 711AD and was moved here from JingLong Taoist temple. This Bell is unique i n 3 aspects: first: it has exquisitely carving with phoenix anddragons.
Second, it has beautiful sound which was recorded by CCTV and was played on New Year s’ eve to welcome the New Year’s coming. Third, it has unique epigraph.//大夏石马，景云钟
Now we are going to visit 7 major stone tablet exhibition rooms. In front of the first exhibition roo m, we can see the stone-base Classic of Filial piety which is the largest and earliest one in this museum. It s tands about 6 meters high and was made up of 35 pieces of blue stones. It was engraved in 745AD and ann otated by LiLongJi(the 7th emperor of Tang dynasty). He wrote the preface to show his wish to manage the cou ntry by advocating the principles of Filial piety.//石台孝经
In the first room, let’s see the most completed and heaviest books in the world “The KaiCheng stone C lassics” which was the doctrine of the Confucius and “must readings” for all the intellectuals in feudal socie ty. In the past, copying was the popular way for students who study the doctrines. To prevent copying errors, emperor Tang Wenzong employed many sculptors to carve the 12 classics on stone tablets for the students to ge t the rubbings from them. With another classic “Mencius” carved in Qing dynasty together we call “13 clas sics”.//开成石经
In the second room, we can see many stone tablets of calligraphy in Tang dynasty. And the most famo us one is the Nestorian Tablet. This tablet is also a national treasure, as it was the first one in Syrian characters that recorded Nestorians (one sect of Chris tianity) was introduced into China from Roman Empire in 635AD. It describes its essence, ceremony, and a ctivities in China. //大秦景教流行中国碑
In the third room, various style of Chinese calligraphy can be see n on stone tablets such as the seal script, the official script, regular script, running hand and cursive hand. L et me give you very brief introduction of the development of Chinese characters. The seal scripts were onl y popular in Qin dynasty, and it was difficult for us to reading and writing. Based on that, new forms were c reated: they are the official and regular scripts. This was easy to remember because today we are still usin g it and it is popular to everybody. Running and cursive hand were also boldly used by some calligraphers a t that time, it is quite different to control.//中国文字字体发展简史
The rest exhibition rooms house calligr aphy and paintings, literatures and poems from different dynasties, And in the court yard you can see man y stone stakes with animals or figures carved on the top. In the past, they are for tying horses as well as fo r decoration.
Ok, this way please. We are going to see the stone carving gallery. The stone carvings here are the mas terpiece of stone arts from Han and Tang dynasty that arranged in chronological order. It can be divided into two parts: those are found from tombs and thos e are related to religions. Here, I’d like to introduce the six famous steeds for you. They are so beautiful an d vivid, also, they were the best friends of Tang emperor Tai zong (the second emperor of Tang dynasty), because they kept their master in safe e ach time when they wounded with arrows on battle. In memory of his horses, Tang emperor Tai zong had them carved in relief to company his tomb.
However, it’s very pity that two of the pieces were missing; now they are kept in the museum of unive rsity of Pennsylvania.//石刻艺术室(昭陵六骏)
Ok, everyone, so much for this today. We still have some free time. So next, you may look around an d take some pictures. We’ll leave at 11o’clock, so please don’t be late. You know I will miss you. And I’ll s tay here, if you have any question, please ask me. By the way, watch your step please! So next, it’s your tur n. Enjoy yourself and thank you for listening.//结束