What does the stone book mean?

Stone books are the original books in ancient China. That is, carving words on stones.

Stone books originated in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the largest stone book came from the Tang Dynasty. The earliest existing stone carvings in China are 10 inscriptions on stone drums in the Spring and Autumn Period discovered in Chencang (now Baoji, Shaanxi) in the early Tang Dynasty.

In the Tang Dynasty, printing was not very developed. In order to prevent people from making mistakes in copying Confucian classics, Tang Wenzong ordered twelve Confucian classics, such as The Book of Songs and The Analects of Confucius, to be carved into stone scriptures and set up in Guo Zi School in Wubenfang, Chang 'an for students to copy and read. At that time, the 1 14 stone tablet engraved with 650252 words in * * had neat strokes and the handwriting was still clear and complete. This project lasted for seven years and was completed in Tang Wenzong in 837, so it was called "Kaicheng Shijing".

During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, a copy of Mencius was engraved with nine stone tablets, which were put together with the "Opening the Stone into the Classic", so it was also called the "Thirteen Classics Stone Carving".

Extended data

Thirteen Classics, a stone carving, is now in the Confucius Temple in Beijing, also known as the Qianlong Stone Classics. Thirteen Classics are 13 Confucian classics, all with 630,000 words. Namely Zhouyi, Shangshu, Book of Songs, Rites of Zhou, Book of Rites, Zuo Zhuan, Yang Gongzhuan, Gu Liangzhuan, The Analects of Confucius, Er Ya, Xiao Jing and Mencius.

This book was written by Jiang Heng in 12 years. Emperor Qianlong appointed Xiao Shenyang as the general manager and Liu Yong as the deputy manager, arranged textual research on Jiang Heng's works and set about carving stones. This thirteen-classic stone carving was made during the Qianlong period, so it is also called "Qianlong Stone Classic".

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