In response to the huge academic controversy caused by the article "The Stone Carving of Qin Shihuang's Envoys Collecting Herbs from Kunlun Found at the Source of the Yellow River in Qinghai: Evidence of the Geographical Location of Ancient "Kunlun", Tong Tao, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who first proposed that the stone carving of the source of the Yellow River was left by Qin Shihuang after he unified China, accepted an exclusive interview with the "China Social Sciences Daily" on this matter, responding to the academic community's doubts about the age of the stone carving, the interpretation of the text, and the historical rationality. Peking University professor Xin Deyong published articles on July 1 and July 2, continuing to question Tong Tao's views from the aspects of history, climate and geography.
Tong Tao believes that controversy in academic research is a common phenomenon in academic development and an important force in promoting academic progress. Historical research is complex and multifaceted, requiring researchers to speculate and demonstrate from multiple perspectives, and there are often different understandings and interpretations of the same research object.
Liu Shaogang, a scholar of ancient characters and researcher at the Center for the Study and Protection of Excavated Documents of Tsinghua University, wrote in Guangming Daily on July 2 that judging from the style of the Kunlun stone carvings, the density and size of the characters, and the strokes of the brush, it is highly likely that the stone carvings are forged.
Professor Xin Deyong of Peking University published articles on July 1 and July 2, questioning Tong Tao's viewpoint from the perspectives of history, climate and geography. Some scholars in the calligraphy community compared the style of the calligraphy with the existing Qin stone carvings and believed that the style and composition of the calligraphy were not consistent with the solemnity, dignity and elegance that should be expected in the occasions where it was used, and that it was most likely a fake.
The cliff where the stone carvings are located
On the discovery of stone carvings: the inevitability of chance
Tong Tao said in an exclusive interview with the China Social Sciences Daily that the discovery of this stone carving can be traced back to 2022. "At that time, the People's Government of Maduo County, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province invited us to investigate a Tubo period site that had been severely stolen-Mogdawa, and formulated a protection and excavation plan for it. In July 2023, after the investigation of the ancient city of Mogdawa was completed, we, led by local staff, visited the Niutou stele, rock paintings, pagodas, tombs and other relics in the Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserve. We saw this stone carving at the base of a protruding rock halfway up the hillside on the north bank of Zhaling Lake." He said that the surface of the stone carving was severely eroded and weathered at the time, with many stone flakes damaged and peeling off, and the remaining handwriting was very blurred. The remaining characters could be roughly identified as "Emperor", "Big" (later verified to be the word "Cai"), and "Music" (later verified to be the word "Medicine"). Since this stone carving was not our focus at the time and we were told that it belonged to the Qing Dynasty, we did not pay enough attention to it. "It was probably in early 2024 when we were sorting out and formulating the excavation plan for Mogedewa that we noticed the two characters 'Jimao' on the stone carving. I immediately realized that this might be a stele with a clear date, and coupled with the small seal script, I boldly speculated that this might be an earlier stone carving."
"The process of determining that this stone inscription is a Qin Dynasty inscription is very complicated, but also quite rigorous. First of all, it is mainly based on the text itself, including the characteristics of the times in terms of content and writing. The stone inscription is engraved in typical Qin Xiaozhuan, which has a strong sense of the times. Although it has been imitated in later generations, the difference is very obvious. Secondly, the title of "Wu Dafu" mentioned in the stone inscription was established after Shang Yang's reform and was used until the Eastern Han Dynasty. Moreover, the words "Wu Dafu" are written in a combined way, which is a special way of creating and writing characters in ancient times. It basically disappeared after the Qin and Han Dynasties. This provides us with important clues to determine the age of the stone inscription. In addition, the identification of the character "陯" in "昆陯" in the stone carving is another key example. The character "陯" is very blurred, incomplete, and extremely rare, making it very difficult to read and taking a long time. The radical of "陯" is "阜", and this writing method has basically disappeared after the Western Han Dynasty. I finally confirmed the character after comparing it with the clear photos of the Qin bamboo slips generously provided by Mr. Zhang Chunlong, the excavator of the Liye Qin bamboo slips. It can be said that the successful reading of the character "陯" played a decisive role. On this basis, we can reasonably speculate and identify the relevant inscriptions such as "昆陯", "方士", "采药", etc., thus realizing the complete reading of the entire stone carving text. "
Regarding the fact that Professor Hou Guangliang's team from Qinghai Normal University had discovered this stone carving before him, Tong Tao said: "To be honest, before the article was published, I did not pay attention to the fact that Professor Hou Guangliang had discovered this stone carving. After the article was published, I learned from my colleagues that Professor Hou Guangliang had discovered the stone carving during a field survey in July 2020, and published his preliminary understanding of the stone carving in his monograph "Kunlun Up and Down". Professor Hou Guangliang believes that the stone carving may be from the Yuan Dynasty or the Qing Dynasty, and is related to the exploration of the source of the Yellow River in these two dynasties. Since then, some other local scholars have visited this place in 2021. Judging from the timeline, there is no doubt that Professor Hou Guangliang has the merit of being the first to observe it."
Stone rubbings and line drawings
Response to controversy: open attitude, hope to strengthen the protection of stone carvings
Regarding the different opinions raised by the academic community on the calendar and seasons of the inscription, Tong Tao said that he always maintains an open and rigorous attitude towards disputes. Regarding the date of the stone carving, the preliminary reading is "March of the 26th year", which is a preliminary conclusion reached after careful consideration and weighing based on the existing data. There seems to be a vertical remnant in the middle box of the character "二十", which seems to be readable as "卅", but the remnant is tilted from the upper right to the lower left, and is not perpendicular to the first horizontal line. In addition, there is a diagonal crack in the lower left of the character that runs through the next two characters, which seems to be connected to the diagonal remnant in the middle of "二十", so it was inclined to be "二十". The second character is a horizontal stroke that curves downward, with a short vertical stroke in the center and a right bend at the end. It was also read as "七" at first, but on the one hand, the "七" in the bamboo slips does not have such a long arc-shaped horizontal stroke with two ends bent downward. Moreover, after checking the calendars, there is no "Jimao" day in "March of the 27th Year", while the calendar reconstructed by Mr. Rao Shangkuan's "Spring and Autumn Warring States Qin and Han New Moon and Leap Year Table" has "Jimao" day. Taking all factors into consideration, it is inclined to be read as "二十六". However, the argument about the information of the reign title needs to be further confirmed in combination with the ultra-high-definition image of the stone carving.
Regarding the logic of plateau transportation, he believes that there were no bridges in the upper reaches of the Yellow River during the Qin Dynasty. Swamps blocked the road in summer, but ice became a window for passage in winter. This is incomparable with the transportation conditions with improved infrastructure after the Yuan Dynasty. "Only in the cold winter when the water is dry and ice forms can vehicles and horses pass through on the ice. The construction of the bridge system in the upper reaches of the Yellow River occurred after the Han Dynasty, and was gradually improved after the opening of the Tang-Tibet Ancient Road during the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Only then did it become possible to cross the plateau by car during the summer flood season."
Tong Tao believes that controversy in academic research is a common phenomenon in academic development and an important force in promoting academic progress. Historical research is complex and multifaceted. The research object often spans a long period of time and space, and is often accompanied by missing and fragmented information. Researchers are required to speculate and demonstrate from multiple perspectives, and there are often different understandings and interpretations of the same research object.
"I never expected that this stone carving would attract so much attention. I sincerely thank my academic colleagues and netizens for their professional insights, which have enabled us to have a more comprehensive and objective understanding of the new material. At the same time, through these controversies and open discussions, the attention of all sectors of society to this uninhabited area on the plateau will be greatly enhanced, which is conducive to the study and protection of this precious cultural relic." Tong Tao said.
He hopes that there will be two main research directions in the future. On the one hand, he hopes to conduct more in-depth archaeological excavations in the area where the stone carvings are located. On the other hand, we hope to further improve the chain of evidence through multidisciplinary cooperation. In addition, we hope to strengthen the protection of the stone carvings.
"Collecting herbs in Kunlun" stone carving. Image source: Yihe
Question: There are flaws in history, geography, calligraphy style, etc.
Xin Deyong, a professor at Peking University who questioned whether the stone carving was a forgery, wrote on July 1: "I still say that I have read "Records of the Grand Historian" and "Book of Han" for more than 40 years. Because of this, I know it must be fake." On July 2, he published another article "DeepSeek: Can tanks go from Xi'an to Zhaling Lake on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau without taking roads?", questioning the Qin Dynasty's impossibility of reaching the location of the stone carving on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from the Qin Dynasty capital. "The answer is clear: in the real world, it is absolutely impossible to reach Zhaling Lake from Xi'an by tanks completely off-road. Even the army carrying out the most difficult missions will not attempt such a nearly suicidal action."
Stone carving of "Collecting herbs in Kunlun". Photo by Xin Deyong
Previously, he said that the title of "Emperor" was not agreed until July of the 26th year of Qin Shihuang's reign, but the stone inscriptions recorded that the envoys had already used this title in March, which was a logical loophole of "foreseeing the future". In addition, there were doubts about the feasibility of the climate. The average annual temperature in Heyuan District is -4.1℃, and the extreme low temperature in winter is -48.1℃. The Yuan Dynasty chose summer to explore Heyuan, and the Qin envoys' "walking on ice in March (the first month of the lunar calendar)" can be called a "suicidal expedition."
Ancient Chinese character scholar Liu Zongyi previously proposed that the term "collecting medicine" was not seen in the pre-Qin and Western Han Dynasty documents, but was similar to Taoist terminology in later generations; the writing of "Kunshan" was highly similar to the Liye Qin Bamboo Slips "Langya Offering Kunshan Five Apricot Medicines" published in 2017, and it was suspected that the forger was a reference to newly unearthed materials.
The stone carvings are located in the core protection area of Sanjiangyuan, which requires professional equipment and is prone to altitude sickness. The Qinghai Cultural Relics Bureau confirmed that Hou Guangliang's team reported the discovery in 2020, but did not identify it; Hou Guangliang's team initially inferred that it was a relic of the Yuan or Qing Dynasty worship of the river god.
Langya Stone Inscriptions from the Qin Dynasty
Rubbings of the Remaining Stone of Mount Tai
Professor Yi Xuefeng, a calligraphy researcher who founded the calligraphy major at Shandong University of the Arts, wrote an article to investigate the style of the calligraphy and prove that it was a fake. "The credible stone inscriptions of the Qin Dynasty all have a solemn, dignified and elegant style. Its layout, both vertically and horizontally, has a relatively strict grid order." He believes that when facing national events such as the stone inscriptions of "Zhaoming Ancestral Temple" and "Song of the Emperor's Merits", this vertical and horizontal grid is a symbol of national dignity, order and legitimacy. The fundamental flaw of the Kunlun Stone Inscription is that its layout has no vertical and horizontal grids, and its style of calligraphy cannot match the solemnity, solemnity and elegance that it should have in the occasion of use. It is probably a fake carving that mixes Qin stone inscriptions, Qin edicts, Qin bamboo slips, Qin seals, the Eastern Han Dynasty "Yuan An Stele" and even modern seal scripts, or even a prank by the forger.
Liu Shaogang, a scholar of ancient characters and researcher at the Center for the Study and Protection of Excavated Documents of Tsinghua University, wrote in Guangming Daily on July 2 that judging from the style of the lines, the density and size of the characters, and the strokes of the brush, this stone carving is very likely to be a forgery. "All the Qin inscriptions that are undoubtedly authentic, such as the large number of Qin edicts and the second emperor's edicts, are like this without exception. This reflects that the Qin unified characters are quite strict in terms of fonts. If you want to identify the authenticity of cultural relics, you need to conduct various interpretations and demonstrations, but if you want to identify the forgery, you only need to point out one point."