Qinglonggang Stone Carvings

Qinglonggang Stone Carvings

The Qinglonggang Stone Carvings are a Suzhou Municipal Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Qinglonggang Stone Carvings include the Wuxianggang Stone Carvings and the Longmen Stone Carvings, located on the mountainside southeast of the Small Stone Cave in Yushan, on the north side of Yushan Middle Road.

The Wuxianggang Stone Carvings face south and are situated on a massive boulder resembling a dragon’s head, which stands 2 meters high and 6 meters wide. The three large seal script characters “Wuxianggang” are engraved using the double-outline technique, with each character about 1.8 meters tall and 1.5 meters wide. Wu Xian was a virtuous minister during the reign of King Taiwu of the early Shang Dynasty (1638–1563 BCE). The Han dynasty text *Yuèjuéshū* records: “Yushan is the birthplace of Wu Xian.” The Tang dynasty scholar Zhang Shoujie, in his commentary on *Records of the Grand Historian*, noted: “Wu Xian was a worthy official of the Yin Dynasty… The tombs of Wu Xian and his son, also a worthy man, are both located on Haizi Mountain to the west of Changshu County, Suzhou.” The Ming dynasty *Changshu County Annals* by Deng? state: “The tomb of Wu Xian is on Yushan, and his son Wu Xian is also buried nearby.” During the Song dynasty, Wang?~ served as county magistrate and once restored his tomb. The county magistrate Sun Yingshi wrote an epitaph stating: “The tomb is at the mouth of Qinglong Mountain in the county.” The small mountain village at the northern end of present-day Yushan is also called Shangxiang Village, believed to be the ancestral home of Wu Xian and his son.

The Longmen Stone Carvings also face south and are located on a huge boulder resembling a dragon’s head, which is 3.6 meters high and 9 meters wide. The two clerical script characters “Longmen” (Dragon Gate) are carved in intaglio. The character “龙” (dragon) is 2 meters high and 2.7 meters wide, while the character “门” (gate) is 1.55 meters high and 2.6 meters wide. These characters echo the “Wuxianggang” inscription below. With its exceptionally large characters, this stone carving is the largest among all discovered carvings on Yushan and holds certain artistic value.

Both stone carvings are grand in scale and were likely not the work of ordinary individuals in ancient times. They are believed to have been carved after the discovery of an ancient stele inscribed with “Tomb of the Shang Dynasty Minister Wu Xian” by Sun Yingshi, the magistrate of Changshu County, during the Qingyuan era of the Southern Song Dynasty. They were designated as a municipal-level cultural relics protection unit in May 2017.