Tang Stone Statue of Laojun, Xi'an Beilin西安碑林唐老君石雕坐像
- Type
- Steles and Inscriptions
- Location
- China · Shaanxi · Beilin District, Xi'an · No. 15 Sanxue Street, Xi'an Beilin Museum; originally at the Laojun Temple on Mount Li, Lintong
- Coordinates
- 34.255, 108.9483 Map ↗
- First built
- Kaiyuan–Tianbao era, Tang · Moved here from the Laojun Temple on Mount Li, Lintong, Shaanxi; tradition attributes the carving to Yuan Jia'er, a sculptor from the Western Regions, but this is legendary
Overview
The Tang stone seated statue of Laojun held at the Xi'an Beilin Museum originally stood at the Laojun Temple on Mount Li in Lintong, Shaanxi, before being moved into the Beilin (Forest of Steles), and is the museum's confirmed representative Daoist artifact. The statue stands 193 centimeters tall; Laojun is shown wearing an open-fronted Daoist robe with a silk sash, seated cross-legged in the lotus position on a three-tiered stone platform. The upper tier of the platform is decorated with a scrolling-lotus motif, the middle tier with a lotus-flower motif, and the lower tier with a stylized peony motif, and both the layering of the decoration and the carving are of High Tang quality. Records state it was carved during the Kaiyuan–Tianbao era of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, precisely the period when the Tang imperial house honored Laozi as its founding ancestor and the veneration of Daoism reached its height. According to tradition the sculptor was Yuan Jia'er, a carver from the Western Regions, but this claim is legendary and has not been confirmed. Three common points of confusion should be distinguished: the Stone Terrace Classic of Filial Piety (745, with a preface, commentary, and calligraphy by Emperor Xuanzong and a seal-script title by Li Heng) is a Confucian stele on the Classic of Filial Piety, not a Daoist artifact; the Nestorian Stele Commemorating the Propagation of the Luminous Religion in China belongs to Nestorian Christianity, not Daoism; and the Stele Record of the Zongsheng Guan of the Great Tang stands at Louguantai in Zhouzhi, not in the Beilin. Whether the Beilin also holds a stele-pillar inscribed with Emperor Xuanzong's commentary on the Daodejing is not clearly recorded.
Highlights
- High Tang seated stone statue of Laojun, 193 centimeters tall
- Three-tiered stone platform with scrolling-lotus, lotus, and peony motifs
- Originally at the Laojun Temple on Mount Li, Lintong
- To be distinguished from the Stone Terrace Classic of Filial Piety and the Nestorian Stele