Dear tourists, we have enjoyed the colorful and simple ancient city wall inthe morning or sunset of the car shop these days. Now we come to the foot of thecity wall, please walk on the wall tour.
You have to figure out what the wall really means. The word "city wall" wasoriginally derived from the word "city". According to Shuowen, "Cheng" is theinterchangeable word of "Sheng", and "Sheng" is to accept the people, so theoriginal meaning of the word "Cheng" is to encircle the people and form acountry, which leads to the meaning of city wall. The "city" of the Great Wall,known as the backbone of the Chinese nation, also means the city wall. However,with the development of society, the word "city" contains the explanation oftoday's city.
The word "city" first appeared in the inscriptions of the Zhou Dynasty,which vividly reflected the military use of ancient city walls. The militaryfunction of the city wall is to protect the private ownership, and in ideology,the size of the city wall is the strict embodiment of the hierarchicalpatriarchal system. Obviously, the ruler built the city wall to protect himselfand declare the national power. The Xi'an City Wall we see now is one of themost famous city wall buildings in Chinese history. It took eight years from thethird year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (1370 A.D.) to the eleventh year of Hongwu(1378 A.D.). It was built on the basis of the imperial city of Sui and TangDynasties. After repair, it basically adhered to the appearance of completefeudal city wall architecture, reflecting the outstanding achievements ofancient Chinese city building technology.
Tourists, how big is the Xi'an city wall? What is its structure? Accordingto the calculation, the perimeter of Xi'an city wall is 11.9 kilometers,including 2590 meters for the east city wall, 2631.2 meters for the west citywall, 3441.6 meters for the south city wall and 3241 meters for the north citywall. Such a scale is rare at home and abroad.
You can see a small city with a guard gate outside the four gates of thecity wall, which is called the urn city. The so-called urn means that once theenemy enters, he will be attacked from all sides on the wall of the urn, justlike a turtle in the urn, unable to escape. Outside the urn, there is also asmall city called Yangma city. In ancient times, there was a fixed time for thegate to open and close. After closing the gate, people who had not yet returnedto the city could go to Yangma city and the park around the city with their ownsheep and horses to rest and wait for the gate to open before entering the city.The Yangma city in Xi'an was completely destroyed in the late Qing Dynasty. Iremember that in 1986, about 17.5 meters outside the north gate of Wengcheng,Andingmen (West Gate) of Xi'an City, the north gate of yangmacheng was found,5.5 meters long and 2.4 meters wide. Now you can see the restored Yangma city onthe outside of the South Gate urn. The wall is 198 meters long and 9.5 metershigh.
Outside the moat, there were four rammed earth cities named Guocheng, whicharched the four gates. According to "Xi'an Fu Zhi" volume nine records: TangTianyou years, Han construction Dongguo town and Xiguo town. Song, Jin and YuanDynasties are all due to this. During the Hongwu Period of Ming Dynasty, most ofDongguo small cities were wrapped up in big cities, and those left outside werecalled Dongguo new city. Xiguo town in the late Ming Dynasty. At present, onlypart of the wall of Siguan Guocheng remains, and Guomen only has its name on theplace name.
Now we come to the northeast of Xi'an, which used to be the palace city ofthe Ming and Qin Dynasties. In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanjin appointed hissecond son as the king of Qin and ordered him to stay in Xi'an to strengthen hiscontrol over the northwest. The whole city is divided into two walls. The outercity wall is called Xiao wall, which is made of soil. The inner city wall iscalled brick wall because it is built with green bricks outside. After the MingDynasty, Xiaoqiang was destroyed. During the reign of Emperor Yongzheng of QingDynasty, temples were built in Xi'an, and most of the buildings in the palace ofKing Qin were demolished, and the brick city was changed into the Eight Bannerschurch. At present, there are only a few remnant parts of ramming Earth City inthe brick city of Qin Wangfu. m.lVyougl
When Xi'an city was built in Ming Dynasty, there were four gates:"Changle", "Yongning", "anding" and "Anyuan". The name of the gate is engravedon the blue stone gate outside the gate. The building built on the gate of thebig city is called the city tower, also called the main tower, which is thecommand post of the commander guarding the city. The building built on the gatehole of Wengcheng is called Jianlou, because there are arrow windows on the wallof the building, which was used for shooting arrows at that time. In theRepublic of China, four more gates were opened, commonly known as Xiaosigate
Zhongshan Gate (small East Gate), at the east end of Dongxin Street at themoment, was built to commemorate Sun Yat Sen; Wumu gate (small South Gate), atthe south end of Sifu street today; Yuxiang gate (small West Gate), at the westend of Lianhu Road, was demolished after liberation; Jiefang gate (small NorthGate), formerly known as Zhongzheng gate, was built at the north end of JiefangRoad when Longhai Road was opened to Xi'an. In 1952, it was demolished becauseof the expansion of the railway station. After liberation, Xi'an also opened upnew city gates, including Jianguo gate, Heping gate, Wenchang gate, Zhuque gateand Hanguang gate. The north wall has Shangde gate. The east wall has ChaoyangGate.
Most tourists understand that there were 98 enemy towers on the walls ofXi'an in the Ming Dynasty. However, in 1982, the Xi'an city wall managementoffice found that none of the ancient enemy towers were left, and only some ofthem still had foundation stones. After that, Xi'an rebuilt 12 enemy towers,which were brick and wood structures, with two stories of double eaves and twocorridors on the ground floor.
The ancient city wall facilities not only built the enemy tower and arrowtower to prepare for martial arts, but also built the Kuixing tower to sacrificeKuixing, the God who dominated the cultural movement. Kuixing tower in Xi'an wasbuilt in the east of the South Gate Tower, which was destroyed by the fire.Later, Kuixing building was rebuilt on the original site, which is worthseeing.
Dear tourists
Hello everyone! Welcome to Xi'an.
Xi'an, a famous historical and cultural city, is located in the middle ofWeishui plain on the West Bank of the Yellow River. There is fertile land, avast expanse of eight hundred Li Qinchuan, natural treasures, outstandingpeople. On the land of China, this dazzling pearl inlaid in the southern end ofthe Loess Plateau, once had a world-famous, extremely brilliant history andculture, but also had green waters and mountains, extremely beautiful naturallandscape.
In the East and west of Xi'an, the Qinling Mountains, known as the"Oriental Alps", are crisscrossed and meandering. On this beautiful scenic line,there are Huashan Mountain, which is known as the first of the five mountains,Lishan Mountain in Lintong, which is famous for its hot spring soup pools,Zhongnan mountain, which is green in all seasons and rare in its interior, andTaibai Mountain, which is called a wonder for its snow cover in June. They forma natural and unique scenery group. In ancient Chang'an, there were eightrivers, Wei River, Chan River, Ba River, Lao river, Feng River, Mao River, ZaoRiver and Yu River, which were surrounded by blue waves.
This thousand year old capital at the foot of the Qinling Mountains and onthe Bank of the Weihe River has Tongguan in the East and Sanguan in the West. Inthe north, the chidao, which was built in the Qin Dynasty, is a thoroughfare forfighting against Xiongnu and supplying supplies. In the south, Ziwu Road,TangLuo Road, Baoxie road and Chencang road can cross Hanzhong to Bashu. In thesoutheast, Wuguan road in Shangluo Mountain is the throat leading to Chu. Inancient times, Chang'an had convenient transportation, both land and water,dangerous terrain, easy to defend and difficult to attack. It has always been aplace for military strategists and emperors to make contributions.
Xi'an is an important birthplace of Chinese history and culture, and alsoone of the earliest developed areas of human civilization. In the thousands ofyears of history of the Chinese nation, perhaps no city can enjoy such a loftystatus and incomparable brilliance as Xi'an: it is the capital of 13 dynastiessince the Western Zhou Dynasty and the epitome of the first half of Chinesefeudal society.
Since Zhou and Qin Dynasties, Xi'an has been in the center of politics,economy and culture for a long time with its unique historical position. In the11th century B.C., the Zhou people grew stronger and stronger in Qishan andFufeng areas in the western part of Guanzhong, and finally established theircountry after destroying the Shang Dynasty, and established their capitals inFengjing and Haojing. Qin people successively established capitals in Yongcheng,Liyang and Xianyang, and went out of Hangu in the east to destroy the six statesand establish an unprecedented unified Qin Empire. The capital of Qin Dynasty isstill Xianyang, which is near the water on the tableland. After the destructionof Qin Dynasty by Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu of Han Dynasty, he took a fancy to theeight hundred Li Qinchuan River, which is a vast expanse of fertile land, andchose to establish the capital on the South Bank of Weihe River, which is justacross from qinxianyang. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mangusurped the Han Dynasty and established a new dynasty, inheriting the capitaland system of the Han family. When the Huangjin army rose, Dong Zhuo burned allthe palaces in Luoyang, and the princes of the 18th route begged for Zhuo.Therefore, Dong Zhuo forced Emperor Xian to move westward to Chang'an. TheEastern Han Dynasty had six years here.
The scenic Fenghe river is full of a large number of cultural treasuresfrom the Western Zhou Dynasty 3000 years ago. It is a magical and attractiveplace. Emperor min of the Western Jin Dynasty was the emperor in Chang'an, andhe was destroyed in only three years. The former Zhao, the former Qin, the laterQin, the Western Wei and the Northern Zhou established their capitals here.Chang'an city experienced a long period of war and shortage of soldiers afterthe Han Dynasty. In 581 ad, Yang Jian, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, unifiedChina again. Later, in the southeast of Chang'an City in the Han Dynasty, YuWenkai, a famous architect, designed and supervised the construction of DaxingCity, the capital of the Sui Dynasty. The scale, layout and scientificfacilities of Daxing City obviously exceeded that of Chang'an City in HanDynasty, which laid the foundation of Chang'an City in Tang Dynasty. TangDynasty is the heyday of Chinese history, and Chang'an city is also anincomparable brilliant model in the history of Chinese capital. Chang'an is notonly the political, economic and cultural center of the Tang Empire, but alsothe largest international city in the east of the world.
"The ancient imperial state in the middle of Qin Dynasty". History choseXi'an and Xi'an enriched history. Today, whenever people talk about the formerChang'an in Xi'an, they are full of national pride and admiration for the richand incomparable ancient courtesy of China for thousands of years.
If history chose Xi'an as the capital of emperors, making it the centralstage of China's politics, economy and culture for more than a thousand years,then the emperors who once made great achievements in Xi'an chose Guanzhong'sprofound and extensive loess land as their final destination. As a result, thedense and grand mausoleums of emperors spread all over Guanzhong with thearrogance of the past and the present, becoming one of the most unique culturallandscapes in Xi'an.
The imperial mausoleum in Shaanxi can be traced back to the mausoleum ofthe Yellow Emperor more than 5000 years ago. It is the mausoleum of XuanyuanYellow Emperor, the forefather of the Chinese nation. It is on the top ofQiaoshan mountain in Huangling County, north of Xi'an. Ever since ancient timesand every year, countless Chinese and Miao descendants have come here to payhomage to the mausoleum, find their roots, ask their ancestors, and remembertheir saints. In addition to the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor, more than 70emperors were also buried in Guanzhong during the 20__ years from the WesternZhou Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
Ancient Chang'an was not only the political and economic center of Chinafor a long time, but also the center of religious culture. In the Tang Dynasty,with political stability and economic development, the religious culture ofChang'an reached its peak. At this time, not only the native Taoist culture inChina was widely spread, but also the foreign Buddhist culture was in aprominent position in social life.
Since the introduction of Buddhism into China in the Han Dynasty, it hasbecome the ideology of the gentry through the southern and Northern Dynasties.In the Tang Dynasty, it became a common practice to respect and worshipBuddhism. As the eastern end of the "Silk Road" and a cosmopolitan metropolis,Chang'an has gathered eminent monks and missionaries from all over the world.Inside and outside the city of Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty, there are manypagodas and temples, and there are many people who preach and listen to theDharma. According to historical records, there are 122 monasteries and 31nunnery monasteries in Chang'an city. Emperors and court dignitaries are proudto build monasteries and spend time with monks. The scale of these monasteriesis also amazing. For example, Ci'en Temple, which is called "Chonglou Fudian,Yunge Dongfang, more than ten monasteries, has a total of 1896, covering 342mu.". In the enlightened and open Tang Dynasty, not only the various sects ofBuddhist temples and Taoism as the national religion were very active, butNestorianism, Manichaeism and Islam also spread to China one after another,making an indelible contribution to the prosperity of Chinese and foreigncultures.
Today, there are still many religious and cultural relics inside andoutside Chang'an city. The towering big wild goose pagoda of Ci'en Temple andthe beautiful small wild goose pagoda of Jianfu temple have become the symbol ofXi'an, a famous historical and cultural city. Famen Temple has become a Buddhistholy land again because of the excavation of four Buddhist finger relicscollected in the Tang Dynasty. Daxingshan temple, Qinglong temple, Xiangjitemple and other famous temples have also become symbols of friendly exchangesand tourist attractions between China and foreign countries. The famous TaoistLouguantai, Baxian palace and Huajue Lane Muslim temple in the city areimportant places for the spread of Taoist and Islamic culture.
In history, the ancient city of Xi'an provided a broad and bright stage forChina to show its great and brilliant posture to the world, and made immortalcontributions to the survival, improvement and development of the Chinesenation. Perhaps it is just out of the reward for Xi'an that history generouslypresented this magical land with numerous historical relics and cultural relics.It is an invaluable treasure. It not only makes every Chinese proud and feel theresponsibility of history, but also as one of the cream of human culturalheritage, let people from all over the world comprehend the clear trajectory ofsocial courtesy development and the endless creativity of human beings.
The historical relics in Xi'an and Guanzhong area have the integrity ofrare historical sequence. This outstanding advantage is determined by thelong-span characteristics of Xi'an's long history, which is difficult for manyhistorical cities to match. There, the Paleolithic artifacts of the Lantian apeman 1.15 million years ago and the painted pottery basin of the mud illusion ofthe matriarchal clan settlement in Banpo 6000 years ago jointly outline thecontext and footprints of the survival, reproduction and development of theprimitive ancestors; the deep, dignified, mysterious and treacherous bronzes ofthe Shang and Zhou dynasties represent the living atmosphere of the aristocratsin the slave society; The magnificent terracotta warriors and horses andexquisite stone portraits of the Qin and Han Dynasties are wrapped with thepolitical situation and flames of war in the early feudal society; the gorgeousmurals and colorful gold and silver wares of the Sui and Tang Dynasties recordthe glorious chapter of the golden age; and the steles, porcelain products,calligraphy and paintings of the song, yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties are thewitness of the continued development of politeness in Xi'an after the loss ofthe prosperity of the imperial capital It is no exaggeration to say that it isno different to read a condensed general history of China to search the culturalrelics of Xi'an in chronological order.
Xi'an and its surrounding areas are rich in cultural heritage materials andcomplete categories, which is another major advantage. Not to mention thelarge-scale sites such as FengHao of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Xianyang palaceof the Qin Dynasty, Chang'an city of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and the ancientbuildings, temples, and grottoes of Meilun and meimian, the number of movablecultural relics alone has reached more than 600000 pieces (groups) according topreliminary statistics. Including ceramics, bronzes, jade, gold and silver,murals, stone and brick carvings, inscribed steles, seals and other categories.In this sense, the ancient city of Xi'an itself is a natural history museum, apalace of cultural art.
The natural landscape of Xi'an is also unique. In and around Xi'an, thereare Xiyue Huashan, which is known as "the most dangerous place in the world",Zhongnan mountain, which is cultivated by Wang Chongyang, the founder ofQuanzhen school, Taibai Mountain, which is known as "natural geological museum",Lishan Mountain, which is known as "Nuwa Butian", Louguantai, which is the mostblessed place in Dongtian, and Wangchuan, the hometown of Chinese landscape "Thehometown of ape man" -- Lantian cave and other scenic spots. The gardens inXi'an are full of royal style. Huaqing Palace tells the story of "song ofeverlasting regret" with its first hot spring in the world, warm and romanticlove story; Xingqing palace describes the eternal story of "Li Bai drunk"; asong "the sunset is infinite, just near dusk" makes leyouyuan's dusk a charminglandscape. "Last year and today in this gate, people's faces and peach blossomswere red. People do not know where to go, peach blossom still smile springbreeze If you have a chance to go to Weiqu, you must be able to feel true loveunder the peach tree with the dream of "human face peach blossom". There are 11forest parks in Xi'an, which constitute the natural oxygen bar of the ancientcity.
The combination of humanity and landscape constitutes the unique charm ofancient Xi'an.
As the first ancient capital of China, Xi'an, after more than 3000 years ofdevelopment, shoulders numerous glorious and glorious dreams of the Chinesenation, and is firmly marching towards the future.
In 1949, after the founding of the people's Republic of China, the ancientcity of Xi'an opened a new chapter in its own development history. Since the1980s, with the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy, 6.18 millionpeople in Xi'an have seized the opportunity of the times, guided by science andtechnology, tourism, commerce and trade, and made great efforts to build Xi'aninto a socialist export-oriented city. A thriving and dynamic Xi'an city isstanding in the world. Today, Xi'an is an important base for scientific andtechnological research and development in contemporary China. There are morethan 3000 scientific research institutions in the city, including not only thescientific research institutions of machinery, electric power, electronics,aviation, aerospace, geology, chemical industry, textile, instruments, metersand nuclear industry, but also the only watch industry research institute inChina and the satellite measurement and control center, the central nerve ofaerospace measurement and control network.
Today, Xi'an is an important base of China's higher education. There are 42institutions of higher learning, more than 10 mobile stations for postdoctoralresearch, about 100 doctoral degree awarding points and more than 300 master'sdegree awarding points in the city. Every year, the city trains a large numberof modern talents for the country, becoming a veritable "cradle of talents".
Today, Xi'an is a world famous tourist hot spot city. The long and vasthistorical and cultural heritages, the beautiful and magnificent natural sceneryof Northwest China, and the various and magical traditional folk customsconstitute the unique tourism resources in Xi'an, attracting countless touristsfrom home and abroad to explore. With the development of tourism, tourismfacilities and municipal engineering have been further improved. With Xi'an asthe center, high-grade highways are interwoven in all directions. The connectionof Eurasian Continental Bridge and the completion of Xi'an XianyangInternational Airport make the connection between Xi'an and other countries morefrequent and close. A large number of star hotels and modern entertainmentfacilities and places have sprung up, which not only provides a guarantee forthe development of tourism, but also adds style and charm to the appearance ofthe ancient city.
In order to enrich the cultural and entertainment life of tourists and meetthe needs of leisure and vacation, Xi'an has built more than 3700 cultural andentertainment facilities in various forms, such as tangle palace, gudu GrandTheater, Tanghua song and dance theater, shange Grand Theater, Ginza nightclub,Taoyuan Lake Bowling Club, etc; It has launched such artistic programs as TangChang'an music and dance, imitating Tang music and dance, soul of Qin terracottawarriors, and folk music and dance in Northern Shaanxi, which have won praisefrom tourists at home and abroad.
Xi'an's tourism commodity production has strong local characteristics.There are abundant folk arts and crafts, such as terracotta figurines, antiquebronzes, Qin embroidery, jade, silk, craft porcelain, Huxian farmers' paintings,Tang Sancai, porcelain plate paintings, landscape tables, straw paintings,Guanzhong paper-cut, etc. There are 26 designated foreign tourism shops in thecity, which can meet the different levels of shopping needs of tourists. At thesame time, the catering industry in Xi'an can provide tourists with uniqueShaanxi cuisine, such as imitation Tang cuisine, Dumpling Banquet, muttonsteamed bun and famous local snacks.
Today, Xi'an is still an open international metropolis. After summing upthe rise and fall of history and understanding the perfect future, the people ofXi'an have deeply realized that opening the door to the world and letting Xi'ango to the world is the only way for the development and prosperity of today'sancient city.
History has treated Xi'an well in the past, and Xi'an will live up tohistory!
Hello, tourists!
When you see this Tang Dynasty building in front of you, you must be bothsurprised and curious. First of all, why is this tower named after geese
According to Indian Buddhist legend, there were two schools of Buddhism,Mahayana and Hinayana, and Hinayana Buddhism did not avoid meat and fishiness.One day, it was Bodhisattva giving day, but a monk in a Hinayana Temple couldn'tbuy meat for dinner. At this time, a group of geese flew by in the sky. A monklooked at the geese and said to himself, "today there is no meat in the house.The merciful Bodhisattva must not forget what day it is." Before the voice fell,the leading goose folded its wings and fell to the ground. So the monks in thetemple were shocked and thought that it must be the manifestation ofBodhisattva. They built a stone pagoda at the site where the wild geese fell.They gave up meat and turned to Mahayana Buddhism. Therefore, the pagoda is alsoknown as the big wild goose pagoda.
The Dayan Pagoda is 60 meters high, 5 stories, brick surface, earth coreand CD ladder. In the center of the rear tower, there are lots of plants andtrees growing in the cracks of bricks, which are gradually decadent. Afterseveral renovations during the reign of Empress Wu Zetian in Chang'an, EmperorXuanzong in Tang Dynasty and Emperor Changxing in later Tang Dynasty, the bigwild goose pagoda was 4.5 meters higher than the original one and added twofloors. Each side of the ground floor is 25 meters long, the base is square, theside length is 45 meters to 48 meters, there are ticket doors on all sides ofeach floor, and there are stairs in the tower. On the lintel of the bottom floorof the pagoda, there are exquisite line carved Buddha statues, especially thepicture of Sakyamuni Buddha on the lintel of the west gate. The photo of theabandoned hall at that time is engraved on it. It is said that it was written byYan Liben, a great painter of the Tang Dynasty. It is a precious material forstudying the Buddhist culture and architectural art of future generations. Thebrick niches on the East and west sides of the South Gate of the pagoda areinlaid with the steles of preface to the three sacred religions of the TangDynasty written by Emperor Taizong Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty and preface tothe three sacred religions of the Tang Dynasty written by Emperor Gaozong Li Zhiof the Tang Dynasty. The two steles were written by Chu suiliang, a famouscalligrapher in the Tang Dynasty. They are the best of the steles in the TangDynasty. They are precious original calligraphic inscriptions protected by thestate. They are important material for the study of ancient calligraphy. It canbe said that the square brick Pagoda with wooden structure is a masterpiece ofBuddhist architecture in China, with its simple shape, majestic momentum,remarkable national characteristics and the style of the times.
OK, let's have a free tour and pay attention to safety.
Little wild goose pagoda
The small wild goose pagoda is located in Jianfu temple on the south sideof Youyi Road in Xi'an City, facing the big wild goose pagoda from east to west,which has become two important symbols of Chang'an, the ancient capital of TangDynasty. Because the scale is smaller than the big wild goose pagoda and theconstruction time is later, it is called the small wild goose pagoda.
Jianfu temple was originally built in Kaihua square of Chang'an City inTang Dynasty. It was the old residence of Xiangcheng princess, the daughter ofEmperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty. In the first year of Ruizong Li Li (684), theroyal family's relatives built a temple for Gao Zong. The first year of Tianshu(690) was changed into Jianfu temple, which is a famous temple in Chang'an cityof Tang Dynasty. Yizheng, a famous monk of Tang Dynasty, translated 56scriptures in Jianfu temple and wrote biography of eminent monks seeking Dharmain western regions of Tang Dynasty, which is of great value to the study ofcultural exchanges between China and India.
There is a small wild goose pagoda in the temple. It is a square brickstructure with dense eaves. It has 15 floors at the beginning and is about 46meters high. Each layer of the pagoda has its eaves. It is famous for opening adoor in the north and south. The body of the tower decreases from the bottom tothe bottom layer by layer, and the more it rises, the more it accelerates. It isbeautiful and exquisite, and has a unique style. The door frame is made ofbluestone. The inside of the tower is an empty tube structure with wooden floorsand wooden ladders circling up. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, due to repeatedearthquakes, the tower cracked in the middle, and the top of the tower wasdestroyed, leaving only 13 floors. Today, there is still a large iron bell inthe temple, which weighs more than 10000 kg and was cast in the third year ofMing Chang (1192) of Jin Dynasty. The bell sounds loud and is known as "themorning bell of the wild goose pagoda", one of the eight scenic spots inGuanzhong.
Founded in 1087, Xi'an stele forest is an art treasure house with theearliest and largest number of ancient steles in China. There are more than 1000steles and epitaphs from the Han Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. There is a forestof Steles, so it is called the forest of steles. The forest of Steles in Xi'anis rich in materials. It is not only a treasure house of ancient Chinesecalligraphy, but also a collection of ancient literature and stone patterns. Itdescribes some achievements of China's cultural development and reflects thehistorical facts of cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, soit is famous at home and abroad.
The forest of Steles in Xi'an was developed on the basis of preserving thestone scriptures of Tang Dynasty. The Shijing in Tang Dynasty includes ShitaiXiaojing written by Li Longji in 745 AD and Kaicheng Shijing carved in 837ad.
In front of the first exhibition room of the forest of Steles is a pavilionspecially built for displaying Shitai Xiaojing. Shitai Xiaojing is the largeststele in the forest of steles. It was written by Li Longji, Emperor Xuanzong ofTang Dynasty, in 745 ad. The book of filial piety was compiled by Confucius'students, who specially emphasized filial piety. The first part is Li Longji'spreface to filial piety. The purpose of Xuanzong's preface to filial piety is toshow that he wants to govern the world with filial piety. The following is theoriginal text of filial piety, and the small words are the annotation of EmperorXuanzong for filial piety. The base is composed of a three-layer stone platform,with vivid lines carved on it, such as vines, lion flowers, etc. it is arepresentative of the Mid Tang Dynasty, with relief cirrus above. The stele iscomposed of four stones with a stone platform under it, so it is called "stoneplatform filial piety".
The first exhibition room of the forest of Steles mainly displays theKaicheng Shijing. The materials include Zhouyi, Shangshu, Shijing, Zhouli, Yili,Liji, Chunqiu Zuoshi biography, Chunqiu Gongyang biography, Chunqiu Guliangbiography, Analects of Confucius, Xiaojing, Erya and other 12 scriptures, with650252 words, 114 square stones and inscriptions on both sides. More than 30000characters on 17 sides of Mencius, which was made up in the Qing Dynasty, arealso displayed here, collectively known as the thirteen classics. Twelveclassics are the necessary books for intellectuals in feudal society. Becausethe printing technology was not very developed at that time, in order to avoidthe mistakes made by the literati in copying scriptures, and to preserve thempermanently, the 12 scriptures were engraved on stone tablets as models, whichwere set up in the Imperial Academy of Chang'an City for people to proofread.Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, China has carved scriptures seven times. KaichengShijing is the only complete set of stone scriptures.
