Stele of Guoshan

Stele of Guoshan

The Stele of Guoshan is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Stele of Guoshan

Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Unit, First and Second Batches, adjusted and announced in March 1982 Stele of Guoshan Three Kingdoms? Wu Kingdom Zhuling Town, Yixing County Announced as part of the Fifth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units in 2001

The Stele of Guoshan is located atop Guoshan Mountain in Shanjuan Town, Yixing City, Jiangsu Province, and was erected in the first year of the Tianxi era (276 AD) during the Eastern Wu period of the Three Kingdoms.

Guoshan Mountain, originally named Limo Mountain, is said to have been where the immortal Zhonglimo attained enlightenment, hence the name. The Stele of Guoshan was created in the first year of the Tianxi era (276 AD) during the Wu Kingdom of the Three Kingdoms period. A stone cave — now known as the Shanjuan Cave — was discovered on Limo Mountain. Upon learning of this, local officials and courtiers regarded it as a great auspicious omen and submitted flattering reports to the emperor. Emperor Sun Hao immediately dispatched Minister over the Masses Dong Chao and others to conduct a Fengshan (mountain worship) ceremony there. They renamed Limo Mountain “Guoshan” (meaning “Mountain of the State”) and erected the Guoshan Stele, also referred to as the Fengguo (Fengshan and State) Stele.

The stele is drum-shaped and resembles the Chinese character “国” (nation) in form. It stands 2.35 meters tall and has a circumference of 3.30 meters. Its sides are covered with continuous inscribed text, consisting of 43 lines with 25 characters per line, totaling approximately 1,000 characters. The inscription is in seal script, written by Su Jian, a renowned calligrapher and the then Director of the Imperial Historiographers and Gentleman of the Central Commandant’s Office of the Wu Kingdom. The calligraphy of the Guoshan Stele features square, sturdy structures and simple yet forceful brushwork, echoing the styles of the Zhou and Qin dynasties, and is of high artistic value. The content of the stele promotes the manifestation of auspicious signs, explaining the reasons for erecting the monument. The text was composed by Dong Chao.

The Stele of Guoshan is one of the earliest surviving Fengshan stelae in China and holds significant artistic value in calligraphy. The stele documents an earthquake that occurred in Yangxian (present-day Yixing City) in 276 AD, representing one of the earliest seismic records in the Jiangnan region and thus possessing certain scientific value.

Due to its long-term exposure on the mountaintop, by the Song Dynasty many characters on the stele had become eroded and illegible. Zhou Bida of the Southern Song Dynasty wrote in his work “Boating?” that “the inscriptions on the southern, northern, and western sides are still legible, but those on the eastern side are all cracked and blurred.” Currently, only the lower part of the northwest face of the stele remains partially readable, while the rest has faded. To protect the stele, Tang Zhongmian, the magistrate of Jingxi (now Yixing), built a protective pavilion over it in the 19th year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty (1764). During the Republican era, Mr. Chu Nanqiang expanded it into a hexagonal stone pavilion. In 1990, the stele pavilion was rebuilt, and the Stele of Guoshan Courtyard was established to further protect it.

In 2001, the Stele of Guoshan was included in the Fifth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units by the State Council.

Further Reading:

· First and Second Batches of Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Fifth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units