Wuxi Stone Inscription Exhibition Hall

Wuxi Stone Inscription Exhibition Hall

The Wuxi Stone Inscription Exhibition Hall is located at No. 3 Muqinfang Lane, Xueqian Street, in the downtown area of Wuxi, covering an area of 850 square meters with a construction area of 550 square meters. It was originally the site of the old Wuxi County School, also known as the Prefectural School, or referred to as the Confucian School or Temple School. Established in the third year of the Jiayou era during the Northern Song Dynasty (1058), it continued until the end of the Qing Dynasty. Nearly 100 ancient stone inscriptions are preserved on site, including imperial calligraphy, official documents, local historical records, temple decrees, and master calligraphers' works—truly a "stone library" of significant historical, scientific, and artistic research value. The museum was established in 1990 by repurposing the historic Minglun Hall and Lecture Hall of the Wuxi County School. It serves as a specialized cultural institution dedicated to collecting, preserving, protecting, exhibiting, and researching local stone inscriptions and rubbings.

The inscriptions in the hall can be roughly divided into three categories: those related to the history of the Wuxi County School, those involving local Wuxi documentation, and those representing the calligraphic and painting styles of the time as artistic stelae. Within the old county school site, over thirty steles are displayed, including three from the Song Dynasty, four from the Yuan Dynasty, twelve from the Ming Dynasty, and four from the Qing Dynasty. Interestingly, one Yuan Dynasty stele was engraved on the back of a Song Dynasty stele—making full use of a single stone across two dynasties. Among them, the Song Dynasty steles such as “Record of the Continued Addition of Cultivated Land for Supporting Scholars at Wuxi County School in Chunyou Year of Gui Mao” and “Record of the Construction of the Nine Gentlemen Shrine at Wuxi County School,” the Yuan Dynasty stele “Record of the Reconstruction of the Five Gentlemen Shrine at Xixue,” and imperial edict steles, as well as the Ming Dynasty Hongwu-era “Imperial Ministry Notice for Students” and “Record of the Sages’ Shrine at Xishan Confucian School” are particularly precious. Additionally, collected scattered local historical stelae, such as the Northern Song “Imperial Decree Stele of Mingyang Guan,” the Southern Song “Record of Mingyang Guan at Can Mountain,” “Imperial Decree Stele of Fuzhe Temple,” “Map of the Temple Foundation Boundaries of Beichan Guangfu Chan Temple,” as well as the artistic rubbings like the “Qianlong Imperial Calligraphy Poem-Painting ‘Jieru Peak’ Stele” hold considerable historical research and artistic appreciation value.

Among these three major categories of stone inscriptions in the collection, those related to Wuxi’s local documentation are the most valued by the exhibition hall. The “Wuxi County Li She” stele is a fine example of this category. Originally privately owned, the “Wuxi County Li She” stele measures 1.68 meters in length and 0.55 meters in width. When it was first acquired by the Stone Inscription Exhibition Hall, the stele was covered in mud. However, after cleaning, it was found to be completely intact, with beautifully preserved and clearly legible inscriptions.