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Hanyu Pinyin | Bēilín |
Wade–Giles | Pei-lin |
The Stele Forest or Beilin Museum is a museum for steles and stone sculptures in Beilin District in Xi'an,Northwest China. The museum,which is housed in a former Confucian Temple,has housed a growing collection of Steles since 1087. By 1944 it was the principal museum for Shaanxi province. Due to the large number of steles,it was officially renamed the Forest of Stone Steles in 1992. Altogether,there are 3,000 steles in the museum,which is divided into seven exhibitions halls that display works of Chinese calligraphy,painting and historical records. [1]
The Stele Forest began with the Kaicheng Shi Jing Steles (开成石经碑) and Shitai Xiao Jing Steles (石台孝经碑),two groups of steles both carved in the Tang dynasty and displayed in the temple to Confucius and the Imperial College in Chang'an,capital of the empire. In 904,a rebel army sacked Chang'an,and the steles were evacuated to the inner city. In 962,they were returned to the rebuilt temple. In the Song dynasty,a special hall with attached facilities was built to house and display the two stele groups. It was damaged in the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake during the Ming dynasty. In 1936,famous Chinese calligrapher Yu Youren donated his entire collection of more than three hundred rubbings from steles to the Xian Forest of Stele Museum. [2] It became a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level in 1961 and thus survived the Cultural Revolution.
It houses nearly 3,000 steles and it is the biggest collection of steles in China. Most of its exhibits are steles of the Tang dynasty. Ink rubbings of the steles are available for sale.
Among the unusual examples is an 18th-century stele depicting a Yangtze River flood control project. Another appears to be a bamboo forest,but on examination the leaves and branches form a poem.
The famous Xi'an Stele was moved to the Stele Forest in 1907,after the local authorities learned that the Danish adventurer Frits Holm was in town,trying to "obtain" the ancient monument and take it out of the country. [3]
The collections of the Beilin Museum are far more extensive than suggested by this inadequate thumbnail stub. To give but one example,artifacts produced by the ancient buddhasasansangha of part of China are well represented:Buddhist Sculpture from China:Selections from the Xi'an Beilin Museum Fifth through Ninth Centuries (China Institute Gallery,New York,2007).
Xi'an is the capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain,the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu,as well as the most populous city in Northwestern China. Its total population was 12.95 million as of the 2020 census,including an urban population of 9.28 million.
The Daqin Pagoda is a Buddhist pagoda in Zhouzhi County of Xi'an,Shaanxi Province,China,located about two kilometres to the west of Louguantai temple. The pagoda has been claimed as a Church of the East from the Tang dynasty.
The Xi'an Stele or the Jingjiao Stele,sometimes translated as the "Nestorian Stele," is a Tang Chinese stele erected in 781 that documents 150 years of early Christianity in China. It is a limestone block 279 centimetres high with text in both Chinese and Syriac describing the existence of Christian communities in several cities in northern China. It reveals that the initial Church of the East had met recognition by the Tang Emperor Taizong,due to efforts of the Christian missionary Alopen in 635. According to the stele,Alopen and his fellow Syriac missionaries came to China from Daqin in the ninth year of Emperor Taizong (635),bringing sacred books and images. The Church of the East monk Adam composed the text on the stele. Buried in 845,probably during the Huichang persecution of Buddhism,the stele was not rediscovered until 1625. It is now in the Stele Forest in Xi'an.
Zhao Mausoleum is the mausoleum of Emperor Taizong of Tang (599–649).
The Six Steeds of Zhao Mausoleum are six Tang (618–907) Chinese stone reliefs of horses which were located in the Zhao Mausoleum,Shaanxi,China. Zhao Mausoleum is the mausoleum of Emperor Taizong of Tang.
Yan Zhenqing was a Chinese calligrapher,military general,and politician. He was a leading Chinese calligrapher and a loyal governor of the Tang dynasty. His artistic accomplishment in Chinese calligraphy is equal to that of the greatest master calligraphers of history,and his regular script style,Yan,has often been imitated.
Liu Gongquan,courtesy name Chengxuan (誠懸) (778—865),was a Chinese calligrapher,essayist,and politician who lived during the late Tang dynasty. Liu Gongquan was especially famous for regular script (楷書) and was one of the 4 calligraphic masters of regular script in China. The other three were Yan Zhenqing,Ouyang Xun and Zhao Mengfu.
The Great Mosque of Xi'an is one of the largest premodern mosques in China. Although the mosque was first built in the year 742 AD during the Tang dynasty,its current form was largely constructed in 1384 AD during Emperor Hongwu's reign of the Ming dynasty,as recorded by the Records of Xi'an Municipality (西安府志).
The clerical script,sometimes also chancery script,is a style of Chinese writing that evolved from the late Warring States period to the Qin dynasty. It matured and became dominant in the Han dynasty,and remained in active use through the Six Dynasties period. In its development,it departed significantly from the earlier scripts in terms of graphic structures,and was characterized by its rectilinearity,a trait shared with the later regular script.
Yu Youren;was a Chinese educator,scholar,calligrapher,and politician.
The Kaicheng Stone Classics (開成石經) or Tang Stone Classics are a group of twelve early Chinese classic works carved on the orders of Emperor Wenzong of the Tang dynasty in 833–837 as a reference document for scholars. The works recorded are:
Wolong Temple is located on Baishulin St.,Beilin District,Xi'an,Shaanxi Province of China. It is the earliest Buddhist temple in Shaanxi. And one of the national key monasteries of Buddhism in the Han region.
Yunju Temple is a Buddhist temple located in Fangshan District,70 kilometers (43 mi) southwest of Beijing and contains the world's largest collection of stone Buddhist sutra steles. Yunju Temple also contains one of only two extant woodblocks for the Chinese Buddhist Tripitaka in the world as well as rare copies of printed and manuscript Chinese Buddhist Tripitakas. It also has many historic pagodas dating from the Tang and Liao dynasty.
The Bell Tower of Xi'an,built in 1384 during the early Ming Dynasty,is a symbol of the city of Xi'an and one of the grandest of its kind in China. The Bell Tower also contains several large bronze-cast bells from the Tang Dynasty. The tower base is square and it covers an area of 1,377 m2 (14,820 sq ft). The tower is a brick and timber structure and close to 40 m (130 ft) high. It is located in the center of Xi'an,at the intersection of the four streets of the east,west,south and north. It is the largest and most preserved one amongst the many bell towers left over from the history of China.
Beilin District is one of 11 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Xi'an,the capital of Shaanxi Province,Northwest China. It is named after the well-known Xi'an Stele Forest,and Small Wild Goose Pagoda is also located in the district. The smallest,but most densely populated,of Xi'an's county-level divisions,it borders the districts of Xincheng to the northeast,Yanta to the south,and Lianhu to the northwest.
Weiyang District is one of 11 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Xi'an,the capital of Shaanxi Province,Northwest China. It is located at northwest Xi'an,functioning as the new administrative centre of the city. The district borders Baqiao District to the east,the city of Xianyang to the west,Xincheng District and Lianhu District to the north,as well as Yanta District and Changan District to the southwest. The geographical coordinates are 34°14'50''N ~ 34°26'22''N,108°47'08''E ~ 109°02'21''E,and the total area is 264.41 square kilometers. By November 11,2020,the total population of permanent residents in the district is 733,403,taking up around 5.66% of the city's population.
Beilin may refer to:
Bixi,or Bi Xi,is a figure from Chinese mythology. One of the nine sons of the Dragon King,he is depicted as a dragon with the shell of a turtle. Stone sculptures of Bixi have been used in Chinese culture for centuries as a decorative plinth for commemorative steles and tablets,particularly in the funerary complexes of its later emperors and to commemorate important events,such as an imperial visit or the anniversary of a World War II victory. They are also used at the bases of bridges and archways. Sculptures of Bixi are traditionally rubbed for good luck,which can cause conservation issues. They can be found throughout East Asia and the Russian Far East.
Xi'an Museum is a museum on Youyi West Road,Beilin District,Xi'an,Shaanxi Province,China. Xi'an Museum had its official opening on 18 May 2007,"National Museum Day",with a total investment of 220 million RMB and a total area of 160,000 square meters. The complex includes three parts:the museum proper,the Tang-era Small Wild Goose Pagoda and Jianfu Temple historic area,and the museum gardens.
The Cross Temple is a former place of worship in Fangshan,Beijing. The temple was used during different periods by Buddhists and early Chinese Christians. Though it was originally built as a Buddhist temple,some scholars hypothesise that it saw Christian use during the Tang dynasty (618–907). The temple was used by Buddhists during the Liao dynasty (916–1125) and by Christians during the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). It returned to Buddhist use during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644),before being sold in 1911. It was first recorded in modern scholarship in 1919,damaged during the Cultural Revolution,and re-established as a national-level protected site in 2006. Some scholars consider it to be the only place of worship of the Church of the East discovered in China.
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