Stele of Emperor Xiaowen of Wei Mourning Bigan

Stele of Emperor Xiaowen of Wei Mourning Bigan

The Stele of Emperor Xiaowen of Wei Mourning Bigan is a cultural relic protection unit of Henan Province.

The Stele of Emperor Xiaowen of Wei Mourning Bigan is located at the Temple and Tomb of Bigan, 7.5 kilometers north of Weihui City. It was originally erected in November of the 18th year of the Taihe era (494 AD) during the Northern Wei Dynasty. The original stele no longer exists, and a recarving was made in September of the 5th year of Yuanyou (1090 AD) during the Song Dynasty. The stele stands 2.56 meters tall and is 1.36 meters wide, with the seal script title “The Emperor’s Mourning Text for Bigan of the Yin Dynasty” in seven characters. The text was composed by Emperor Xiaowen Yuan Hong, with no record of the calligrapher’s name; it is traditionally attributed to Cui Hao.

Written in regular script, the stele has 28 lines with 46 characters per line. The reverse side contains four columns of text: the first three list the names of 82 mourning officials, and the last column features an “Inscription on the Stele” composed by Wu of the Song Dynasty and inscribed in regular script by Lin She. The inscription states that the original Northern Wei-era “Stele Mourning Bigan” had “long been destroyed by local villagers, but fortunately some remnants survived among the people,” and that “thanks to imperial favor, it was re-engraved.” It also provides a scholarly interpretation of the date when Emperor Xiaowen visited Bigan’s tomb to offer mourning.

According to the “Biography of Emperor Gaozu” in the Book of Wei, Emperor Xiaowen mourned at the Temple of Bigan in November of the 18th year of the Taihe era, when the imperial carriage traveled to Ye. On the 14th day, passing by Bigan’s tomb, the emperor personally composed a mourning text, which was then engraved on a stele. The stele’s script is square and neat, with strokes that are thin, hard, and angular, thick and blunt at both ends, resembling hard bones. Yang Shoujing remarked in his Academic Discourses: “Its leanness is unique, its sharpness forbidding—truly a masterpiece among Northern Dynasties stelae.” Hence, it is highly valued by calligraphers. It is recorded in works such as the Record of Metal and Stone and the Collected Inscriptions on Metal and Stone.

Further Reading:

· First Batch of Cultural Relic Protection Units of Henan Province