Cuan Baozi Stele
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Overview
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Overview
The Cuan Baozi Stele is an inscribed stone stele housed in the Cuan Culture Museum of Qujing No. 1 Middle School, on Beiyuan Road in Qilin District, Qujing, Yunnan, China. Its full title is Jin gu Zhenwei jiangjun Jianning taishou Cuan fujun zhi mu, a memorial to the tomb of Cuan Baozi.
In 1961 it was listed among the first group of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level. Its script stands at a transitional stage between clerical and regular script, which gives it an important place in the history of Chinese calligraphy.
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Article
Cuan Baozi Stele
The text is the epitaph of Cuan Baozi, in 13 lines of between 7 and 30 characters each, and at the foot there are 13 lines of official titles of 4 characters each.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Chinese): 爨宝子碑CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Chinese): 爨宝子碑CC BY-SA 4.0
The stele is made of bluish sandstone and is rectangular, with a semicircular head. It is 1.83 metres high, 0.68 metres wide and 0.21 metres thick. The title on the head consists of 15 characters. The text is the epitaph of Cuan Baozi, in 13 lines of between 7 and 30 characters each, and at the foot there are 13 lines of official titles of 4 characters each. In all there are 403 characters, and the writing is clearly legible. At the lower left there is also an inscription by Deng Erheng, prefect of Qujing, dated to 1852, which records the discovery and the moving of the stele.
DatingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Chinese): 爨宝子碑CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Chinese): 爨宝子碑CC BY-SA 4.0
The stele was erected in the first year of the Yixi era of the Eastern Jin, 405, although the text continues to use the Daheng era name and is dated to the fourth year of Daheng.
InterpretationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Chinese): 爨宝子碑CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Chinese): 爨宝子碑CC BY-SA 4.0
The inscription also preserves information on the politics, official posts and culture of Yunnan in the Eastern Jin period. The stele is paired with the Cuan Longyan Stele under the name of the Two Cuan (Er Cuan), and because of its smaller size it is also known as the Small Cuan Stele.
Later historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (Chinese): 爨宝子碑CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Chinese): 爨宝子碑CC BY-SA 4.0
The stele was unearthed in 1778, in the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, at a place south of the city of Qujing. In 1852 Deng Erheng, prefect of Nanning, moved it into the Wuhou shrine in the city, and it was later moved to Kuige. In 1937 a Cuan Stele Pavilion was built on the present site, and the stele was moved into it together with the covenant stele of the Duan clan and the thirty-seven tribes, so that the two are kept together.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Chinese): 爨宝子碑CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Chinese): 爨宝子碑CC BY-SA 4.0
A stele is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected as a monument. Its surface often carries text, ornament, or both, inscribed, carved in relief or painted. In East Asia the inscribed stele was a major medium for recording history and law, and the Atlas records those that have survived as monuments in Korea, China and Taiwan.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
East Asian steles and standing stones
A stele is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected as a monument. Its surface often carries text, ornament, or both, inscribed, carved in relief or painted, and steles were made for many reasons: as grave markers, as government notices and boundary markers, and as memorials to battles. In East Asia the inscribed stele was a major medium for recording history and law, and the Atlas records those that have survived as monuments in Korea, China and Taiwan.
The Gwanggaeto Stele in Ji'an, Jilin Province, China, is the best known. It is a memorial for the tomb of Gwanggaeto the Great of Goguryeo, erected in 414 by his son Jangsu, and is the largest engraved stele in the world. It is carved out of a single mass of granite, stands about 6.39 metres tall with a girth of nearly four metres, and has an inscription written exclusively in Classical Chinese. It is one of the major primary sources for the history of Goguryeo. The stele stands near the tomb on the Yalu River, in what was then the capital of the kingdom.
A stele with an inscription that names a reign is among the best-dated monuments in the Atlas. Uninscribed standing stones in Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia, which the Atlas also lists under this heading, cannot be dated closely.
When visiting, look at the inscription if there is one, and at the base that holds the stone.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Stele, Wikipedia: Gwanggaeto Stele, Wikipedia: Kofun period · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photographs
6 photographs, each with its author and licence
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Where it stands
People's Republic of China
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 25°29′32″ N, 103°47′55″ EFor a GPS or map app: 25.49229, 103.79868
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
1 source behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q1142813wikidata.org
Image files
- 爨寶子碑.jpgAnonymous Unknown authorPublic domain
- 爨碑亭 - 2023-06-18 01.jpg瑞丽江的河水CC BY-SA 4.0
- 爨宝子碑 - 碑阳 - 2023-06-18 01.jpg瑞丽江的河水CC BY-SA 4.0
- 爨宝子碑 - 碑阳 - 2023-06-18 02.jpg瑞丽江的河水CC BY-SA 4.0
- 爨碑亭 - 2023-06-18 02.jpg瑞丽江的河水CC BY-SA 4.0
- 爨宝子碑 - 碑阴 - 2023-06-18.jpg瑞丽江的河水CC BY-SA 4.0
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Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "爨宝子碑" (Chinese), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (Chinese): 爨宝子碑CC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q1142813CC0