Ming Tuo Tang Qibi Ming Stele

[Ming Tuo Tang Qibi Ming Stele]

The full name of the “Qibi Ming Stele” is “The inscription of the Great General of the Old Town of the Zhou Dynasty, the Great General of the Left Eagle Yang Wei, and the Great General of the State of Liang of Shangzhu, the Governor of Lanzhou”. It was established on December 16, 712, the first year of the Tang Dynasty, and is now in Xianyang Museum, Shaanxi Province. The monument is 370 cm high and 135 cm wide. This is a rubbing of the Ming Dynasty in the Forbidden City, 317 cm in length and 140 cm in width. The book has 36 lines and 77 words. The inscription has 15 characters in seal script. Written by Lou Shide, written by Yin Xuanzuo, Song Li, the second son of Qibi Ming. The words “cloud” and “nai” in the third line, “neng” in the fourth line, “spring” in the sixth line, and “si” and “fu” in the thirty-fifth line are not damaged
Calligraphers of all dynasties have given high comments on this tablet calligraphy. Zhao Gui of the Ming Dynasty commented that “Yin Xuanzuo’s calligraphy is also very thin and vigorous.” This kind of vigorous and thin strokes has a certain impact on the style of later generations of Huang Tingjian and Song Huizong
Qibi Ming is the son of the famous Tibetan general Qibi He Li in the Tang Dynasty. The discovery of his tombstone supplements the deficiencies of the records of Qibi He Li and Qibi Aristocratic Family in the two Tang books, corrects some errors, and becomes an important historical material for the study of ethnic relations in the Tang Dynasty. The inscription on the tablet is included in Volume 187 of The Complete Tang Dynasty
This tablet is recorded in the “Treasure Carving Series” by Chen Si of the Song Dynasty, the “Graphite Engraved in China” by Zhao Gui of the Ming Dynasty, and the “Notes on the Characters of Gold and Stone” by Gu Yanwu of the Qing Dynasty.