- Provenance
- Provenance research underway.
- Label
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This modern rubbing was made from a stone stele carved in 993 during the Song dynasty. Its text was based on a rubbing taken from a stele erected in 219 BCE during the Qin dynasty, and the calligraphy in small-seal script was attributed to the famous statesman and calligrapher Li Si, who died in 208. The original stele, which no longer exists, was erected on Mount Yi in Shandong province during the First Emperorās tour of the east in 219 BCE. According to the postscript written by Chen Wenbao in 993, his teacher Xu Xuan (916ā991) made a rubbing of the stele in Changāan (modern Xiāan, Shaanxi province), and Chen used that copy to recarve the steleās inscription. (Today the recarved stele is housed in the Stele Forest Museum in Xiāan.) This rubbing was taken from the back of the stele. The front, showing the first part of the text, is seen at left. Although Xu Xuanās copy does not reproduce the original small-seal script, his reinterpretation has played an influential role throughout the last millennium, as seen in the hanging scroll to the right that was created by a calligrapher and seal-carving master in the late eighteenth century.
- Published References
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- Shodo Zenshu. 27 vols., Tokyo. vol. 1: figs. 82-3.
- Chi-ku ch'iu-chen. .
- Collection Area(s)
- Chinese Art
- Web Resources
- Google Cultural Institute
- SI Usage Statement
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Usage Conditions Apply
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CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)
This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.
Usage Conditions Apply
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.
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International Image Interoperability Framework
FS-5763_11