Xi'an Beilin Museum has recently completed renovation and expansion and reopened to the public. It is worth mentioning that the "Stone Carving Art Room" in the west wing of the old museum mainly displays exquisite stone carvings from the tombs of the Han and Tang dynasties. This time, the replicas of Li Shou's tombstone and the Eastern Han Dynasty's double beast stone carvings have been replaced with original cultural relics for exhibition; the seventh exhibition room has added interactive exhibits, and with the renovation of the exhibition hall's lighting, visitors can appreciate the calligraphy of emperors, famous officials, calligraphers and the "Two Wangs" from close range, greatly improving the exhibition experience. In response to this, a visitor in the exhibition hall exclaimed: Changing the lights is like changing your face.
One of the entrances to the "Xi'an Stone Carving Art Room" of the Xi'an Beilin Museum
The history of Xi'an Beilin Museum can be traced back to the Northern Song Dynasty. It was built to preserve the Kaicheng Stone Sutra and many famous calligraphy steles from the Tang Dynasty. After centuries of development, it has become an art palace that mainly collects, studies and displays steles, epitaphs and stone sculptures from past dynasties. The renovated and expanded museum is divided into two main areas: the old museum area and the northern area. The old museum area adopts a "one axis and two wings" layout and exhibits more than 800 cultural relics.
The old museum area presents a "one axis and two wings" spatial layout
Duan Zhiling, director of the Exhibition and Research Department of the Beilin Museum, said in an interview with the Xi'an Daily that the renovated old museum area has a "one axis and two wings" spatial layout, consisting of the first to seventh exhibition rooms of the Beilin, the Xi'an Stone Carving Art Room, and the Stone Carving Art Museum. It is based on the protection and inheritance of the historical features of the Xi'an Beilin, and has effectively improved the display effect of the stele cultural relics by optimizing the visiting route, enriching the exhibition content, improving the auxiliary exhibition information, and adding interactive exhibits.
Many precious cultural relics have been added to the old museum area. Among them, the Xi'an Stone Carving Art Room has replaced the tombstone of Li Shou and the replicas of the two beasts stone carvings of the Eastern Han Dynasty with the original cultural relics, and added more than 10 pieces of stone figurines of the zodiac tiger and zodiac dog from the Tang Dynasty and stone reliefs of Fuxi, Nuwa, Queen Mother of the West, King Father of the East, hunting, and auspicious beasts from the Eastern Han Dynasty.
The first exhibition room, "Treasure Carved Confucian Light - Kaicheng Stone Sutra Exhibition", revolves around the Kaicheng Stone Sutra itself, with the background of its engraving, its migration process, its protection throughout the dynasties and its research results as the main line, and the remains of stone sutras from seven dynasties, the history of stone sutra engraving and the formation of the Confucian classic system as the auxiliary lines, comprehensively displaying the historical significance and documentary value of the Kaicheng Stone Sutra.
Xi'an Forest of Steles Museum
The second exhibition room, "Thematic Exhibition of Qing Dynasty Carved Mencius", displays the inscriptions of "Mencius", "The Great Learning", "The Doctrine of the Mean" and other inscriptions in the Qing Dynasty, and uses multimedia equipment to guide the audience to understand the details of the inscriptions and the content of the inscriptions. The third exhibition room mainly displays the inscriptions of the Han Dynasty "Cangjie Temple Stele" and other dynasties, focusing on the types, development and evolution of the inscriptions and the characteristics of the times. It is worth mentioning that the seventh exhibition room displays the "Guanzhong Edition" "Chunhua Ge Tie", which has added interactive exhibits. With the renovation of the exhibition hall lighting and exhibition facilities, the audience can appreciate the calligraphy of emperors, famous officials, calligraphers and the "Two Kings" from a close distance, greatly improving the exhibition experience.
Stone Carving Art Room: Displays Han Dynasty stone bricks, Tang Dynasty stone carvings, etc.
The visual atmosphere of the "Stone Carving Art Room" exhibition room uses three colors: black, vermilion and gray, which successively present the solemn and mysterious Han Dynasty stone bricks, the vigorous and bold Tang Dynasty high-level tomb stone carvings, and the fine stone carvings from many eras such as Tang, Yuan and Qing dynasties.
In the west wing of the old museum area, you can see many horse hitching posts, and in the middle of the courtyard you can see a plaque that reads "Xi'an Stone Carving Art Room", but there is more than one door to enter the Stone Carving Art Room. According to the museum, the stone carvings in this exhibition hall are large in size, so in order to make the exhibition hall more ventilated and convenient for visitors to visit flexibly, three doors are opened and all of them can be entered and exited.
Stone beasts of the Eastern Han Dynasty
Entering from the south gate of the stone carving room is the preface of the exhibition hall. Two beasts from the Eastern Han Dynasty greet the audience in a majestic manner. They were unearthed in Xianyang City. One of the beasts has a long beard carved under its jaw, which is lifelike and majestic; the other has smooth mane carved on its neck and a small animal stepped on by its right paw. They are mythical beasts with ceremonial functions and are masterpieces of Han Dynasty sculpture art. The museum has restored them all to original cultural relics.
Stone beasts of the Eastern Han Dynasty
Entering the exhibition hall, this area mainly displays Han Dynasty stone reliefs from northern Shaanxi, which is an area that many artists, folklorists, archaeologists, and historians like to stop by. The museum has adjusted the display atmosphere of this unit to black, which symbolizes majesty and solemnity in the Han Dynasty, and carries the Han people's awe of life and death and worship of mysterious power.
Han Dynasty Stone Relief
Han Dynasty stone reliefs are an art form that combines painting and carving. Especially during the Han Dynasty, stone reliefs were mostly used as decorations for tombs, stone coffins, ancestral halls, and stone towers. In the past, these Han Dynasty stone reliefs were mostly displayed "flat", but now they are mostly adjusted to "three-dimensional" or "mounted on the wall" display. These stone carving treasures from northern Shaanxi during the Eastern Han Dynasty used knives instead of "pens" and stones as "paper" to carve a "visible" Han Dynasty.
Han Dynasty portraits are displayed on walls instead of lying flat
Han Dynasty Portraits
A batch of stone reliefs unearthed in Mizhi and Suide counties in northern Shaanxi are very exquisite. For example, the Mizhi "Guan Zhuang Tomb No. 2 Tomb Door Stone Relief", the tomb door is a whole stone with the middle part chiseled out and then two door leaves inlaid. This form is the only one currently seen in Han Dynasty stone reliefs in northern Shaanxi.
Mizhi: "Guanzhuang Tomb No. 2 Tomb Door Stone"
These stone reliefs range from divine birds and auspicious beasts in myths and legends to kitchens and banquets in real life, as well as various stories of sages and secular scenes, such as the stone reliefs of the Queen Mother of the West, doormen, and ox carts, the stone reliefs of the King of the East, auspicious beasts, and ox carts, the stone reliefs of Returning the Jade Intact to Zhao and Confucius meeting Laozi, the stone reliefs of brackets, ox plowing, music and dance, and pay homage, etc., vividly showing life scenes such as eating, living, farming, hunting, music and dance, and acrobatics in the Han Dynasty.
Stone relief of the tomb chamber in Guanzhuang Tomb No. 1
In addition to the common Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise, Azure Dragon and White Tiger, the door knocker of the Housijiagou tomb in Suide has a special image of a human face with upturned horns, drooping jaws, an elongated face and a crown. These stone knockers with regional characteristics always provide a constant source of inspiration for creators of animation, film, art and other fields.
From the Han Dynasty stone relief exhibition hall to the Tang Dynasty high-level stone carving cultural relics exhibition area, the visual atmosphere changes to the warm red color, which symbolizes enthusiasm and vitality, showing the vigorous, bold, open and inclusive style of the Tang Dynasty. The change of visual atmosphere makes the audience's eyes light up. This exhibition area is centered on the Tang Dynasty tomb stone carvings, most of which are large in size, magnificent, and exquisite in stone carving skills.
Tang Dynasty Stone Tiger
The stone coffin, tomb door and epitaph of Li Shou's tomb, among which the tomb door is a model of Tang Dynasty tomb stone carvings, consisting of the door lintel, door door, door pillars, door threshold, etc., each part is exquisitely carved. The monsters on the door lintel, the grape vines on the lintel and door pillars, and the red bird and peacock on the door are lifelike and are often copied by many art academy students.
Stone carvings in Li Shou's tomb
The museum displays Li Shou's epitaph and cover separately so that visitors can clearly read the text on the epitaph. Li Shou's stone coffin not only has exquisite patterns on the outside, but also on the inner wall. The museum specially hand-painted these patterns on the inner wall one by one and presented them through multimedia means. When some visitors saw these patterns originally hidden on the inner wall, they marveled at the superb skills of Tang Dynasty craftsmen and also appreciated the museum's display method.
Multimedia Display
Multimedia Display
Li Shou Coffin
After visiting Li Shou's stone coffin, you can see the majestic crouching lion, stone rhinoceros and stone tiger. The crouching lion was originally erected in Yongkang Mausoleum in Sanyuan County; Yongkang Mausoleum is the mausoleum of Li Hu, the grandfather of Emperor Gaozu of Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan. The stone lion is one of the earliest stone carvings in front of the mausoleum in the Tang Dynasty. The stone lion leans back with its front limbs stretched straight, guarding the emperor's mausoleum with a majestic and solemn posture, demonstrating the dignity and majesty of the royal family.
Stone Lion
After adjusting the lighting, the scales and armor of the stone rhinoceros are fully revealed, vividly showing the shape and strength of the rhinoceros. It was originally erected in the tomb of Emperor Gaozu of Tang, Li Yuan. According to historical records, the Linyi Kingdom once presented a rhinoceros to the Tang Dynasty. The words "Emperor Gaozu Huaiyuan's Virtue" are inscribed in official script on the bottom plate of the right front foot of the stone rhinoceros. The stone tiger, which also came from the tomb of Emperor Gaozu of Tang, is carved from a whole piece of bluestone. It has a sturdy body, strong limbs, and wide-open eyes. The overall style follows the simple and majestic characteristics of Han and Wei stone carvings. There are many stone carvings of the Tang emperors' tombs on display in this exhibition hall, so the museum added a magnificent "Schematic Diagram of the 18 Tang Tombs" on the entire wall.
The Stone Rhinoceros in Li Yuan's Mausoleum
Li Yuan Xian Mausoleum Stone Sculpture
Stone carvings at Li Yuan's Mausoleum
In addition, the stone carving of an ostrich displayed in the exhibition hall was originally erected in the tomb of Li Yanduan, Emperor Wuzong of the Tang Dynasty in Sanyuan County. The ostrich has a vivid shape and smooth lines. The museum displayed two Tang Dynasty walking lions originally erected in Wu Village, Liquan County, at the entrance to the next exhibition area. The mane on the walking lion's neck is clearly portrayed, and the muscles of the limbs and claws are fully revealed. It is led by a trainer and looks sideways at the gate with its mouth open, as if saying to the audience, "Enjoy your visit."
Lion Dance in the Tang Dynasty
Lion Dance in the Tang Dynasty
Ostrich Stone Carving (originally erected at the Mausoleum of Emperor Wuzong of Tang, Li Yanduan, in Sanyuan County)
"Changing the lamp is like changing your face!" A frequent visitor couldn't help but say in front of a large Tang Dynasty stone lamp. This lamp is one of the most intact and exquisite Tang Dynasty stone lamps in China. It was originally stacked in 9 layers, and now only 7 layers remain. It was originally erected in Shiniu Temple in Xihu Village, Qian County. The museum moved the lamp to the center of the exhibition hall.
Stone lamp
There are many niches on the walls around the stone lamps, each with a small stone carving. Among them, a group of Tang Dynasty zodiac tiger and dog figurines are newly added this time. Common zodiac figurines of the same period are made of pottery, while stone zodiac figurines are relatively rare.
Stone zodiac figurines
Gray Harmony Reflects Balance
From the stone lantern exhibition area, enter the gray atmosphere exhibition area, where you can find stone carvings from the Sui, Tang, Yuan, and Qing dynasties. Gray belongs to the "earth" in the Five Elements Theory, and is a neutral and balanced color, which fits the pursuit of balance and harmony in Chinese philosophy. Stone artifacts such as Western Wei stone statues, Sui Dynasty stone coffins, Tang Dynasty epitaphs, stone tablets, stone cows, stone statues, Yuan Dynasty dragon head stone components, and Qing Dynasty stone statues are displayed here.
Stone artifacts on display at the exhibition
Dragon head stone component
At the entrance of the exhibition area, the statues of Zhou Cang and Guan Ping from the Qing Dynasty are exhibited. Both statues are from Fuping County. They are both wearing armor, Zhou Cang holding a broadsword and Guan Ping holding a sword. Zhou Cang and Guan Ping stand on both sides of Guan Yu in the Guandi Temple as Guan Yu's follower and adopted son protector respectively.
Statue of Zhou Cang from the Qing Dynasty
Portrait of Guan Ping from the Qing Dynasty
Turning to the east wall, you can see the complete collection of a couple from the Tang Dynasty, including the epitaph and tomb door of Yang Zhiyi and his wife Dugu Kai. Yang Zhiyi was from Huayin, Hongnong. He served as the General of the Right Jinwu Guard, the Jinzi Guanglu Doctor, and the Governor of Fuzhou. Yang Zhiyi's wife, Dugu Kai, whose courtesy name was Zhengzhen, was from Chengji, Longxi. Her original surname was Li and she was granted the title of Lady of Xincheng County. What surprised the audience was that the epitaph of Yang Zhiyi was written by He Zhizhang, a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty. The tomb door of Yang Zhiyi and his wife, along with the epitaph, was unearthed in Dizhangwan, Xianyang.
Tombstone of Yang Zhiyi and his wife, etc.
An inscription on Yang Zhiyi written by He Zhizhang, a famous Tang Dynasty poet
Next to the tombstone of Yang Zhiyi and his wife, there is a Tang Dynasty stone carving unearthed from the Zhongxing Road kiln in the eastern suburbs of Xi'an. Although only the head of the stele remains, it has attracted many foreign visitors due to its fine carving craftsmanship and high artistic value. It is carved from a whole piece of bluestone, with six dragons entwined. One side is embossed with a kalavinka with a human head and a bird body holding a precious flower pot, while the other side has a similar carving pattern but with the kalavinka replaced by two birds.
Tang Dynasty stone carving unearthed from the Zhongxing Road kiln in the eastern suburbs of Xi'an
Tang Dynasty stone carving unearthed from the Zhongxing Road kiln in the eastern suburbs of Xi'an
The majestic and solemn stone statue in the exhibition hall comes from the Yongling Mausoleum of Emperor Wen of the Western Wei Dynasty, Yuan Baoju, in Fuping County. It has been valued by historians for many years because it is a fine stone carving from the Western Wei Dynasty and witnessed the important historical period when Yuan Baoju, the grandson of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, was enthroned as emperor and Chang'an was established as the capital. It has high historical value.
Stone Weng Zhong (from the Yongling Mausoleum of Emperor Yuan Baoju of the Western Wei Dynasty in Fuping County)
Near the exit of the exhibition hall, there are two sarcophagi, one of which is the sarcophagi of Li He, a great general of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, which was unearthed in Sanyuan County. Li He was the governor of Yanzhou and died in the second year of Kaihuang in the Sui Dynasty at the age of 77. The sarcophagi are carved with patterns of "four gods" and warriors, gods and people with intaglio and bas-relief techniques. The carving is fine and the patterns are gorgeous. The museum has deliberately adjusted the placement angle of the sarcophagi to show the decorated coffin surface to the audience. The animal-faced sarcophagi of the Tang Dynasty next to Li He's sarcophagi have very rare relief animal-faced patterns on the east and west sides of the coffin. Experts believe that it may be related to the Sogdian belief. The sarcophagi are often concerned by cultural experts from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and other countries.
Sarcophagus
Relief animal face decoration on the sarcophagus
Coffin decoration
The Tang Dynasty lying bull that originally stood in the Stone Bull Temple in Xihu Village, Qian County is also in this exhibition hall. The stone bull is carved from a whole stone and looks like it is resting after farming. Its carving is vivid and lifelike, with a strong sense of life. Next to the Tang Dynasty stone bull is a Tang Dynasty stone turtle that was "moved" from the site of the Tang Ye Ting Palace north of Xiangmiyuan in the northwest corner of Xi'an City in the early years. The stone turtle has a simple shape and smooth lines, showing the superb level of Tang Dynasty stone carving art.
The Lying Bull of the Tang Dynasty, originally standing in the Shiniu Temple in Xihu Village, Qianxian County
Tang Dynasty Stone Turtle
At the exit of the exhibition hall is an independent booth where the museum displays the statue of Laojun, who is also known as Laozi. His surname is Li and his name is Er. He is a thinker in the Spring and Autumn Period and the founder of Taoism. He was later worshipped as the Taoist deity. This statue is a relic of Chaoyuan Pavilion in Huaqing Palace in the Tang Dynasty. Laojun sits upright on a square seat with a waist, looking solemn and dignified. The upper part of the square seat is carved with lotus and the lower part is carved with complex deformed peony. This statue has a gorgeous and round shape, a well-organized layout, and skillful and refined carving. It is a treasure among the stone carvings of the Tang Dynasty.
Statue of Laojun, a relic of Chaoyuan Pavilion in Huaqing Palace during the Tang Dynasty
(This article is based on relevant information from Cultural Relics Shaanxi, Xi'an Daily, etc.)
