The epitaph of Su Ci in the early Qing Dynasty

[Tomb of Su Ci in the Early Qing Dynasty]

The “Tomb of Su Ci” is printed in ink on a whole paper and mounted on a vertical axis. This picture is 84cm long and 83.5cm horizontal
Su Ci is a native of Fufeng, Shaanxi, who lived in the Western Wei, Northern Zhou, and Sui dynasties. Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty died in Jiaozhou (now north-central Vietnam) in the first year of Renshou (601), and was buried in Tongzhou (now Dali County, Shaanxi) on March 7th in the third year of Renshou (603). This record should be engraved in the year. The original title was “Epitaph of the envoy of the Sui Dynasty, the military officer, the military officer, the second general, the minister of the military, the minister, the prince of the Si Nong Taifu, the left and right guards, and the right commoner’s son, Hong Jijiang Qianrao, the military chief of Hongzhou, Yuan Fuqi Prefecture, An Ping’an, the former envoy of the Su Dynasty”. There are 37 lines and 37 characters in regular script. The books and carvings are extremely exquisite. The strokes are graceful and vigorous, with a flat and solid structure and a unique combination of risks. It is indeed the first regular script in the early Tang Dynasty. Kang Youwei’s “Guang Yi Zhou Shuang Ji” said, “Su Ci Stele… first entered the world, often gaining a high reputation. With its neat and beautiful appearance, it is a source of wealth and wealth, while its strokes are intact, making it easier to learn than the frequently turned European stele. Therefore, those who write in calligraphy with white folds and those who write in large scrolls with their sons’ names buy a copy of it, hoping for the moon, and the paper is expensive in Luoyang. If you believe it, it is enough to take it!”
This epitaph was unearthed in Pucheng, Shaanxi Province, in the 14th year of Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty (1888), without any damage to a word. In the summer of the same year, Zhang Rongsheng, the Supervisor of the County, carved two lines of postscript in the space below the 31st line of the Zhiwen, “Wenyue”, and was later chiseled away. When the inscription was not engraved, there were three sesame sized pits arranged horizontally under the word “Yue” in the original stone, which were shown as three small white dots on the rubbings. When chiseling, this small hole was chiseled away together. Therefore, the rubbings without postscript under “Yue” and with three points are the initial development after excavation
Looking at this book, it is refined and refined in light ink, with its sharp edges as new as ever. The following three points of “Yue” are clearly visible, which is undoubtedly the initial development
The main bibliographies of this chronicle include: Mao Fengzhi of the Qing Dynasty’s “A Study of the Existence of the Jinshi Characters in Guanzhong”, Xu Shujun’s “Preface to the Baoyazhai Inscription” in modern times, Luo Zhenyu’s “Preface to the Jinshi Characters in Xuetang”, Wu Dingchang’s “Continuation to the Records of Mu Ji Xuan’s Histories”, Fang Ruo’s “Essays on School Steles”, Zhao Wanli’s “Collection and Interpretation of the Epitaphs of the Han, Wei, and Southern Dynasties”, and Zhang Yansheng’s “Collection of Rare Steles”.